Your Overseas Home Virtual Property Event – get expert advice before buying abroad

Our free virtual property event brings overseas buyers together with estate agents, lawyers, currency specialists and other experts. Explore properties, attend seminars and ask questions about buying abroad – all online, without having to book a flight.

Buying a home overseas starts with the enjoyable questions – where would you like to live and what could you buy? Soon, however, you’ll need answers about lawyers, taxes, residency, currency and the buying process. Our Virtual Property Event brings those conversations together in one place.

What is the Your Overseas Home virtual property event?

The Your Overseas Home Virtual Property Event is a free online event designed to help you move your overseas property plans forward.

You can speak directly to estate agents and specialists, attend seminars about buying in your chosen country, explore properties and arrange one-to-one appointments about the issues that matter to you.

That makes it useful at almost every stage of a property search. You might only recently have decided that you want a home abroad. You could be comparing Spain with Portugal, working out whether retirement in France is affordable or preparing to fly to Greece for property viewings. Equally, you may already have found a property and need legal, financial or currency advice before making an offer.

Why attend an online property event?

Buying overseas involves considerably more than finding a home you like.

There is the legal process to understand, a realistic budget to establish and often a currency transfer to organise. If you intend to move permanently, there may also be questions about visas, residency, tax, healthcare and bringing your belongings with you.

Finding reliable answers can mean several appointments with different specialists. The Virtual Property Event brings many of those people together online, so you can make progress without arranging a separate meeting with each one.

It can also save you an unnecessary research trip. Before spending money on flights, hotels and a hire car, you can speak to estate agents about locations and budgets, look at available homes and work out which areas deserve a place on your viewing itinerary.

What can you do at the Virtual Property Event?

You can browse overseas properties and talk to estate agents about what your budget will buy in the areas you are considering.

There are also seminars covering practical buying topics and country-specific issues, giving you an opportunity to understand the process before you start making major financial commitments.

For more personal questions, you can arrange one-to-one appointments with relevant specialists. That might mean discussing the contract process with a lawyer, asking a currency specialist how exchange-rate movements could affect your budget or talking through residency requirements with a visa adviser.

You can also download buying information and useful resources to refer to after the event.

Meet the experts you may need when buying abroad

One of the most useful parts of attending is being able to start building your buying team.

At Your Overseas Home, we often talk about the “Golden Three” – your estate agent, independent property lawyer and currency specialist. Each has a different role in helping you buy safely and plan the purchase properly.

Your estate agent helps you understand the local market and find suitable properties. Your lawyer protects your legal interests and carries out the necessary checks. Your currency specialist can help you plan how and when to transfer your purchase funds, particularly when exchange-rate movements could change the sterling cost of the property.

Depending on your circumstances, you may also want to speak to tax advisers, financial advisers, mortgage specialists, insurance providers, relocation companies and visa or residency experts.

You can find specialists before or after the event through our overseas property experts directory.

Speak to an expert

Questions you can ask at the Virtual Property Event

You do not need to arrive with detailed knowledge of the buying process. In fact, working out what you do not yet know is one of the most useful parts of attending.

If you’re still looking for a property, you might ask an estate agent:

• What areas suit my budget?
• What will I realistically get for my money?
• How competitive is the local market?
• What should I arrange before a viewing trip?

Legal questions could include:

• When should I appoint a lawyer?
• What checks should be carried out before I sign?
• What happens after my offer is accepted?
• Which documents will I need as an overseas buyer?

Then there are the financial questions that are easy to overlook when your attention is firmly on the property.

Buying and owning a property abroad can involve purchase taxes, ongoing local taxes and potentially tax on rental income, inheritance or a future sale. Your obligations can also depend on your residency status and personal circumstances, so individual advice matters. Our guide to overseas property taxes explains some of the areas you may want to discuss with an adviser.

Other useful questions include:

• What additional buying costs should I include in my budget?
• Could currency movements change what I can afford?
• Can I secure an exchange rate before completion?
• What are the residency rules if I want to live there permanently?
• What happens if I want to rent my property out?

Write your questions down before the event. It is surprisingly easy to forget the one thing you really wanted to ask once you’re talking properties.

Who is the Virtual Property Event for?

You certainly do not need to be ready to buy next week.

Perhaps you’ve visited the Costa del Sol for years and have finally decided to investigate owning there. Maybe you’re weighing up retirement in France against Portugal and need a clearer idea of costs and residency requirements.

You might have a family move in mind and want to understand schools, visas and permanent relocation. Or perhaps the plan is a holiday home that you can enjoy several times a year and possibly rent out when you’re not there.

The event can also be useful if your search is already well advanced and you need to move from browsing properties to building the team that will help you complete the purchase.

Which countries are covered?

Our Virtual Property Event brings together experts and property professionals covering some of the most popular destinations for overseas buyers, including Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Cyprus.

If you’ve already chosen a country, you can concentrate on its property market, buying process and seminars. If you’re still deciding, use the event to compare locations while having the relevant experts in one place.

You can also begin exploring property for sale in Spain, France, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Cyprus before you attend.

How to prepare for the Virtual Property Event

Start by deciding what you want your overseas property to do for you. Will it be somewhere for holidays, your permanent home, a retirement base or a property you intend to rent out?

Next, establish an approximate budget. Remember that the advertised property price is only part of the cost, so leave room for taxes, legal fees and other buying expenses.

It is also worth narrowing down your location choices. You do not need to know the precise village, but “southern Spain within an hour of an airport” gives an estate agent far more to work with than “somewhere sunny”.

Finally, make a list of the questions preventing you from taking the next step. Those are the conversations to prioritise during the event.

If a viewing trip is likely to follow, our Viewing Trip Guide can help you prepare.

Download the Viewing Trip Guide

Frequently asked questions

Take the next step towards your overseas home

Buying abroad feels far more manageable once you replace unanswered questions with a clear plan. The Virtual Property Event gives you the opportunity to research homes, meet specialists and understand the practical steps involved before you commit to a purchase or viewing trip.