If you are thinking of buying a property overseas, whether you are buying a villa or apartment for investment purposes or as a holiday home, check out some case studies about how other people fared, and see if you can pick up some tips to ensure your project goes smoothly.
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France
For the Bernsteins, a new life came about quite by chance when they were offered a week's holiday in the south-west France by a friend who needed somebody to feed his ducks and chickens.
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France - renovation case study
Phil and Beverly Gray didn't set out to renovate a property in France, but once they began looking for a house to buy, it became clear this was their main option.
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Brazil
For many, a holiday home abroad means looking at Spain, France, Portugal or Cyprus. But when Paul and Gail Hesten decided to find themselves a place in the sun they decided to look further afield – to Brazil, to be precise.
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Bulgaria
Nikki and Darren Weeks bought a house in Bulgaria without seeing it, in an area they'd never visited and sent the money out to an agent they'd never met. It sounds like a recipe for disaster...
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Italy
Adam Pollock never set out to buy a 20 bedroom former monastery in Italy but as a fashionable interior designer based in London in the swinging sixties he was better able than most to see the potential of a large living space.
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Italy - Umbria
When Sue Childs bought her apartment Il Mulino, near Pierantonio in Umbria, Italy, letting it out was initially not among her objectives. But two years on, she is booked up for most of the summer with paying guests, and is looking to market the property even more strongly, with its own website.
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Seychelles
Alan Ives knows property. As owner of an estate agency in the UK he has a nose for a good deal. When he and his wife saw an advertisement for property in Seychelles, an idyllic island paradise in the Indian Ocean, they jumped at the chance.
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Switzerland
If you want to buy a ski apartment in the Alps, the chances are you'll buy off-plan, as the shortage of new development opportunities means most properties are snapped up well before new buildings are completed.
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Spain
John and his partner bought their home in rural Andalusia around 10 years ago. The finca-style property still has no electricity and water is supplied via a pump from a well...
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Cyprus
Paul Gudgeon had first visited Cyprus while serving in the RAF in the 1950s. But it wasn't until 1992 that he and his wife Ros took the plunge and bought a property there.
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Dubai
In March 2005, Kit James received what was to be a life-changing offer for his family. The opportunity to head sales for IFA Hotel and Resorts was too good to refuse but it meant uprooting his entire family and moving to Dubai.
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Greek Islands - Corfu
Six years before his retirement from the Metropolitan Police, Bob Giles was already planning his escape to Corfu. On a holiday to the Greek island with wife Tricia, the couple fell in love with the scenery and made friends with a local taverna owner who invited them back for Easter.
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Greek Islands - Crete
In 2002, Helen Johnstone and her husband Sean wanted to buy a smallholding and live off the land in the style of the 1970s TV sitcom The Good Life.
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Portugal
Portugal is a clear favourite with Tony and Gail Greene from Burnham in Buckinghamshire. In 2000 they bought their first property there, a two-bedroom apartment in Dunas Dorados...
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South Africa
Two things led Jeff and Carola Babcock to create their dream house overlooking the Indian Ocean in South Africa: one was a two-week stay at a hotel in Europe and the other was chancing upon an idyllic location on the Cape's Garden Route.
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Turkey
The Street family first visited Turkey on a holiday in 2003. "We'd never been to Turkey. When we arrived, we were amazed at how beautiful it was. There was this incredible blue sea, the people were extremely friendly, and it was generally unspoilt."