Considering the property market is red hot lately, I was thinking of building a house behind my house as a battleaxe, selling the front property for 550k, the rear property for 500k and then buying a resort in another country and then managing the resort with my family..
What do you think?
I'm not native to the country. I was thinking to seek professional help in country to help smooth out the operation.
Make sure they are trustworthy. If they go bad you will be at a disadvantage pursuing legal redress.
There's a paperback out there called Sell Up Pack Up and Take Off which isn't a guide to buying overseas but an anecdotal account of various overseas retirement options. It mentions some of the tricky ways property transfers are done in other countries.
Also if you own property overseas, you need to make a will in that country if you want clarity about beneficiaries, etc.
Family and business, overseas? I'd rather die.
I've got a young family, 2 infants.
So you want to run a resort AND raise two infants?
Good luck to you good Sir.
I'll run a resort myself as a manager and my wife will take care of the infants, for me its more about family time. I can teach my kids much more when running a resort and how to live than any school can.
Why? Its a big world out there.
What country are you thinking of moving to?
Fiji
A bit of sovereign risk there!
Good Choice. That will be almost 2 mil there. However a lot of ex residents are doing the same thing. You would be best served opening up a seveneleven kind of operation with a slightly bigger supermarket somewhere along one of the coastal roads.
I've seen resorts starting from 500k
@eXtremist: yes but they are would be failed ones. Believe me - I am from there and I still have many friends. One of theme is the owner of the largest inbound tour operator.
I just you do some ground work with the fijian consulate in Sydney or the high commission in Canberra regarding rights etc. You came be a dual citizen of Fiji and elsewhere and it can assist greatly
You want to take your family, including two young children, from one of the safest countries, with endless opportunities to a developing country just to save money on real estate?
Personally, I value my family more than money. Perhaps your values differ from mine.
Safest with all these shit drivers? Are you crazy? Do you think the police are around to protect you? Do you know if the cops are in danger they will bail on you? Health care is cheap in these countries and I don't have to wait in a queue.
Mate, your kidding yourself. Australia is a much safer country to live in than any developing country.
You have the right to have your own opinion, but you can't have your own facts.
@eXtremist: Here, try this site and select two countries to compare: http://www.numbeo.com/crime/compare_countries.jsp
@greenpossum: It seems pretty much on par apart from being mugged in Fiji and Australia's Crime seems to be increasing which is a big concern according to that website lol
@eXtremist: Well it's a starting point for investigation. You'll have to research more for your situation. Obviously circumstances can affect a lot. If you are an expat, you might be very safe in an enclave (but what kind of life is that?), but then maybe you might be targeted for crime (especially if you own a business and are visibly wealthier than the average person).
Another issue is what kind of safety is one talking about. Property crime? Walking around safety? Homicides? Dangerous drivers? Corruption?
The general trend seem to be that Europe tends cluster near the top of the safety league. Australia is a little below, and the US below again. Then there are other countries ranging from very calm to very risky. And at the bottom are the lawless countries or war zones.
Anyway you form your own conclusions because there are many dimensions to this.
@greenpossum:
I agree. Safety is an important factor, but must be balanced.
Would you refuse to let you kids visit western Sydney or southwest Brisbane, or other parts of Australia where crime rates are higher? Most wouldn't extend this kind of ban.
Is it better to spend 60hours a week at work to pay for a house in a 'safer' Australian neighbourhood, or move to a 'dangerous' developing country where you can spend much more time with your kids?
People are very poor at measuring risk. They will post on the Internet I will never fly AirAsia, for example, but then happily drive up the coast for a holiday, getting the risks backward.
In any case, I think if you had $1m cash and no other commitments, I don't think I would sink all my money into a resort in Fiji. Put it in the bank/invest most of it, open a bar/restaurant or B&B to earn a bit of pocket money and live the good life.
Mind you, there are plenty of places in regional Australia where you could do exactly the same thing!
All I wonder about is the Fiji government itself stable (four coup's in the last 20 years and ongoing disagreements) enough? I don't know how the last coup d'état and civil crises affected the average person…
@Forfiet: I'd be worried about the level of corruption even without a coup. For all we know palms might need greasing or you get no licences, deals or tourist traffic. There's another site which tracks transparency.
indonesia? you can buy an island if you have the $
Apparently tourism is about to boom over there
You can buy your life for a few $ more there.
First thing to think about is visas for your family that allow you to work in the country of your choice.
While Aussies can virtually go everywhere for touristic purposes very easily, emigrating and working somewhere is a different issue. Keep in mind how difficult Australia makes it for foreigners to live and work here, and then employ foreign staff rather than domestic staff. Some countries now make it (rightfully) equally difficult for Australians (reciprocity of a sort).
We would love to purchase a holiday home in Grenada - but haven't explored it fully yet. Will probably take a reccie. there later in the year. Buying abroad is not a 5 min. decision with all legal considerations to be adhered to. Even the English have tremendous problems with their holiday homes in Spain - & they're all part of the E.E.C.
Stories I've heard about in Spain - the building industry is lightyears behind what we've come to expect here. They don't believe in things such as damp courses…so the house ends up sucking moisture up the walls and you need to demolish and rebuild rather than repaint. Most expats I know end up importing their own labour from Australia/England/Germany to do the work do to the unreliability and quality of local workers and materials.
There is a magazine pretty much about this called International Living. I subscribed for a year some time ago, and it certainly was inspiring to read about people starting new lives in central America, or Spain or Malaysia etc.
I let it lapse because it was pretty focussed on the USA so articles talked about things like accessing Social Security from your new home in Panama, or visa issues for Americans moving to Vietnam, interesting, but not useful to my situation.
I would suggest it isn't a bad place to start your research if you can put up with the American habit of them constantly selling to you (act now to get a special offer for readers on our Costa Rica seminar series etc.
I would urge you to look at somewhere with a pretty stable government, as the last thing you want is a military coup which nationalises all real estate owned by foreigners (as has happened often in the past).
Yeah I subscribed to their newsletter for a while out of curiosity. I unsubbed because they were always trying to upsell, a special report, a seminar, or something like that. But it did give me a good idea of places to give a miss if I want to avoid USAns. :) Anyway most of the destinations were in the other hemisphere. Only now and then you'd have a feature on an Asian country. It might be a place to start, but probably not the OP's situation as their main target group is retirees who just want places to put up their feet at lower cost.
There's now an Australia version of International Living - which uses article from International Living. Haven't read either myself, but the website is inspiring. Google Nick Hubble.
Been to Fiji a few times, lovely place, lovely people…most of them. But they have regular coups and the locals are dirt poor yet the tourists are charged western prices - seems to add up to a lot of potential resentment I think, I felt ill-at-ease when venturing outside the safety of the resort confines…most beaches are black sand, only Shangri-La (on Yanuca Island) imports their sand and remoter islands get the beautiful white sand. But if you do go…stay closer to Nadi than Suva…Nadi stays friendly during coups and doesn't let what goes on in Suva affect them too much.
Yeah I get the impression the tourist industry has been cornered by people with money and gonnections (as Meyer Wolfsheim of The Great Gatsby pronounced it) and very little of it trickles down to the poor.
Next to nothing trickles down to the poor.
I like the idea of it. Not sure about the practicalities. I would get a cheap flight and head over there and go to check out some of the resorts on sale, ask for their figures and start reviewing, find whatever type of lawyer specialises in international property and go for a preliminary appointment, etc to get more info on the whole thing.
Not sure about your career and experience but if you have never run a resort before I'm sure it's tricky. If you're serious about this you might consider a career change to hotel management, working for someone else first off to learn things and avoid making newbie mistakes at your own expense?
Also it might be worth considering buying a place in Australia instead. Not sure about the costs, I guess it would be more, but surely possible. I remember at Stanthorpe touring wineries, one beautiful place in particular was owned and run by a couple and they hired a winemaker as they weren't trained themselves. Lovely there.
Just my thoughts (I have no experience in any of the stuff).
As someone who has done a very similar thing (i.e sold our house and moved to live a more relaxed lifestyle overseas, where we can afford to spend much more time with our two young kids as they grow up) - I can thoroughly recommend it!
While Australia is a great place in many ways, the more you travel the more you realise that it is not the only great place in the world. Often what is accepted as normal here is crazily expensive and overvalued compared to most other countries (especially property, but also things like eating at restaurants), and quite often what is offered in Australia is not actually much better!
For example, depending where you choose to move (FYI my experience is with Asia, not Fiji), with $500k you could easily afford to buy a couple of villas, live in one, rent out the others, and still have some spare cash as a safety net. You will most likely be able to send your kids to an international school, where they will receive a quality Western-standard education (usually for less than the cost of private schooling in Australia), while you personally gain an instant community of like-minded expat families that make you feel welcome and help you get settled.
Over time you will get to know and befriend many local families, and your kids will gain experiences beyond the norm and that make them far more accepting and understanding of other cultures - for example, in my son's class there are children from 14 different countries, and there are only 20 kids in the class! Living abroad with your own business will also open up more opportunities to travel and explore more of the world, since you won't have the debt, bills, jobs and other commitments that often prevent you from being able to do this in Australia.
While the risks are certainly greater (and may not be for everyone), they are also not unmanageable - If you take your time to get educated before you make any large investments (ideally by also living there 6-12 months first), you will get to really understand the culture and the way property/business etc is done locally, and minimise your risk.
Ultimately, the expat lifestyle is not for everyone (and there are days you will long to be able to go to one shopping center and buy everything you need in one place!), but if you ever find yourself thinking that the standard Australian "dream" is somewhat depressing (e.g. mortgage yourself to the hilt for 30 years, paying endless bills and struggling to keep up with the Joneses, hoping for a payoff and a "world trip" when you hit 65), then you may find it is a good fit for you!
what country did you move to? how long is your visa time? did you have to marry someone there?
what country did you move to? how long is your visa time? did you have to marry someone there?
Be very careful with property laws in the other country. As a non-citizen (I assume) you are at a disadvantage negotiating the legalities without professional help. Not to mention the illegalities in some countries.