Incorporating a foreign-based real estate property into your self-directed IRA real estate portfolio is a transaction allowed by the Internal Revenue Service that is to say they don't disallow IRA investments in real estate as long as you are properly set up with a self directed IRA company. The reason not many people have done it is (a) they are not that interested in investing in other countries for lack of information about that country's economic and political climate, (b) a significant number of IRA advisers do not recommend it because of the visibility argument, (c) custodial rules do not compel IRA custodians to offer foreign real estate as an investment option.

The opportunity to optimize an IRA account for wealth accumulation may be jeopardized if IRA holder and would-be retirees do not look beyond their geographical borders to include a foreign property. A self-directed IRA real estate account can offer a wider-based global area for foreign real estate if properly set up. There are pockets and clusters of geographical entities worldwide Europe (both eastern and western), Asia, some Arab countries (Dubai is a shining example), and the Asia Pacific regions where real estate property investing is going at a feverish pace.

There is world of difference between a competent self directed IRA advisor from others who are too parochial in their thinking and carry around a small town mentality. Since a properly set up self-directed IRA real estate account does not prohibit the acquisition of foreign-based real estate, then why should clients be deprived of the possibility of building assets with lucrative options outside North America?

This is what the self-directed component means clients have carte blanche to look into alternative investment possibilities. Millions of Europeans have, for a long time, looked outside their own borders, scooping up ski resorts in places like Spain and Portugal, Bulgaria, and Costa Rica. These countries have become so popular among foreign investors that properties have increased in value tremendously. Real estate developers and promoters are now on a scavenger hunt in less well-known countries so they can offer projects to interested investors including investors with a self directed IRA accounts.