Do you remember the days when going abroad on holiday, much less actually owning an overseas property was a distant dream? It seemed only attainable to the wealthy few.

Now it seems wherever I turn there are more and more people buying property abroad.

Whether they are the super rich or the first time buyer more and more people see the equity that has been achieved in their UK property and seek to replicate that abroad.

Now this is not particularly new, investors have been purchasing in Spain, France and Portugal for many years, now other countries such as Eastern Europe and the Caribbean have come under the spotlight.

If recent statistics are to be believed and around 3.8 Million Irish and Brits already own overseas property, now take the combined population of both countries at 64 million and the statistics show that nearly 6% of these people have bought property abroad!

I am sure a fair few are individuals that would cite their property abroad as their first home as they seek to withdraw to sunnier climates; but there does seem to be a trend towards buying property abroad as an investment.

Many investors are seeking the best of both worlds, a property abroad that they can use but still paying its way by rental income.

Perhaps it’s not a massive surprise as a decent rental yield in this country starts with a 6, where buying property abroad you are more often than not in double figures!

For instance you can buy a 1 bedroom apartment in St Lucia, voted worlds 4th most beautiful island for just over £100,000. Now this does not get you a rundown shack on stilts! You can expect a fully furnished apartment in a 5* Resort with sea views, golf courses, casino’s and 30 days free use a year!

Couple this with great tax incentives and average 15% capital growth per annum and you can see where all the hype is coming from!

When you take a look at the investment market in this country, capital growth of around 5% per annum, yields of around 6%, high rates on buy to let mortgages and an increasingly hard re-sale market the outlook looks great for buying property abroad.

Perhaps the most important but least talked about part of this is the tax issues, many countries have no capital gains or inheritance tax. This makes a huge difference to your purchase, for the older investor to know that their investment is not going to be taxed an indecent percentage when they pass away can be a huge weight off of their shoulders.

Funding this purchase has never been easier, with mortgages available for most countries at 75-85% loan to value gone are the days of having to stump up the full cash purchase price! So if you have £20,000 sloshing around look into buying property abroad, you won’t be the only ones!