Fancy a summer home in the French Riviera? Or perhaps a lakeside cottage in a quaint little Italian town? Maybe, just maybe, a winter lodge in the mountains of Germany. The real estate possibilities in Europe are more real now than before, as property-buying and international property investment has become much easier with cross-border property agencies.
For investors looking to diversify, Europe could be the perfect agglomeration of yet-untapped real estate potential. Though the major cities such as Paris and London have always been the darlings of real estate investors, smaller secondary cities are coming into their own as the outlook for European real estate becomes increasingly bullish.
Changing work patterns, urban renewal and improved transportation infrastructure have brought out the potential of investing in real estate markets in smaller cities such as Milan, Malmo, Hamburg, Leon and in the United Kingdom, Manchester and Leeds. Not all cities present residential property potential, for some, commercial properties offer more yields. In Germany and the Netherlands for example, office spaces are more profitable, as are retail real estate in France and Poland; while in Italy, especially up north, investors are also looking into residential properties. With the global economic situation in constant flux, particularly with Asian markets heating up, perhaps a little too quickly and too much, diversifying investment portfolios might be a good move.
