Foreign Perspectives

Archive for the ‘Immigration’ Category

I’ve been going back and forth to Northern Ireland for quite a while now but in the past year it’s started to change quite dramatically.

For instance, the elve taking the money for the Santa photos was Polish and just about all the waiters/waitresses in the hotel were Polish. In fact, Polish workers are seen just about everywhere in Northern Ireland now.

The immigration to Northern Ireland is probably more striking than it is elsewhere in the UK in that there was virtually no immigration to Northern Ireland as recently as three or four years ago. So far, it’s not really changed much about the province but I’m sure that’ll change as the new immigrants settle into live there and start wondering about a few of the peculiar things that go on.

As usual when there’s a Spanish holiday, we were pretty much completely full over the last couple of days and yet nobody took a breakfast!

In some ways that suits us as it gives us a bit of a break from the need to get up very early to do the breakfasts.

But why don’t they take them though? They certainly take breakfasts in hotels in Spain so why don’t they take them in France? Although it’s hard to give a definitive answer I suspect that it has a lot to do with the absolutely pathetic excuse for a breakfast that you get in most French establishments although funnily enough the price is the same or even higher than for breakfasts in the Spanish equivalent and in Spain you get a very full breakfast for that money.

So, it’s probably down to the French not really “doing” breakfast as a proper meal.

Unless you’re a “house person” or an “apartment person” there are many factors that you need to take into account in making the apartment/house decision.

Is this going to be your home or are you buying it for an investment is perhaps the most important question. On the whole, investment properties are generally assumed to require apartments rather than houses in that they’re usually aimed at a transient population who don’t want the hassle of looking after a garden. This isn’t always the case though and in areas where there is rapid price inflation of property which isn’t accompanied by a similar rise in salaries then you could be better looking at houses as families often find themselves priced out of the market in such circumstances. This is good for property investors in that you get a more stable base of rental clients than is typical in most areas.

That paragraph provides the first part of the answer for you too. If your stay is likely to be of a short duration such as for a university course or for a short-term contract then clearly apartments are the way to go. That avoids all the hassle of looking after the surroundings of a house and yet you can still get lovely surroundings in some of the apartment developments.

Have you any children or planning to have them? If they’re fairly young, usually it’s best to be looking at a house in that they’re usually larger in comparable circumstances. Of course, that extra size means more initial expense. For example, in the estate which we bought our property the two bedroom houses are around 15% more expensive than the two bedroom apartments.

Rent or purchase? If your move is temporary then rental is the way to go and that will usually push you towards apartments as there are usually more apartments for rent than houses in most areas.

Purchasing implies a longer term stay but if you are moving into an area distant from where you currently live you can find yourself with a choice between a rental apartment in an ideal area or a house purchase into a less than perfect area. If this applies to you and you need to move relatively quickly the thing to do is to rent the apartment in the ideal area first and make your purchase when a suitable property appears on the market. Despite what people think, you don’t need to move directly from one permanent home to another.

City or country? Whilst you get both houses and apartments in cities, you usually only get houses in the country. Therefore if you hope to live in the country, whether it be miles from anywhere or in a small village, then you will almost certainly have to choose to live in a house.

That’s just a brief overview of some of the main deciders; I’m sure that you can add to that list!

For those interested in France and perhaps thinking of buying a house in France at some point there are really only two property exhibitions that are worth considering which are the French Property Show in September and the Vive la France exhibition (now called The France Show) in January.

Anyone at all serious about property purchase in France should know of both of these or else they’ve been hiding out of reach of any France related publication. I had thought they were both so well known that there wouldn’t be any need to explicit advertising for either of them other than the mentions that both get in the numerous France property magazines.

And yet, they DO advertise, seemingly quite extensively. Why?

Well, my guess is that the punters were a little thin on the ground at the last exhibition in January 2007 as they certainly were very thin on the ground in France: we had no housebuyers staying with us at all during 2006. So, the organisers have hit the panic button this time to avoid any repetition.

Ironically, the housebuyers seem to be reappearing of their own accord so it’s probably going to be one of the most packed France exhibitions seen for some time. Of course, this just goes to show that people treat the Vive la France advertising more as a note of somewhere to go if they’re serious about buying than as something which puts them into a buying frame of mind. For really serious purchases such as for houses, advertising doesn’t change opinions a whole lot.

When you look around in a new country you generally bring all your preconceptions as to what a bank is with you.

Typically, the assumption is that a financial organisation is a bank if it issues credit cards, debit cards and cheque books whereas it’s a building society if it largely confines itself to savings accounts and mortgages. Of course, in many countries such distinctions don’t exist 100% of the time and there’s usually something of a graduated scale between building society and bank in most countries these days.

In fact, a more realistic distinction these days is probably based on size (however that might be measured) and perhaps the extent of international activities. So, for example, although most people would call the likes of the Halifax in the UK a building society in fact in both legal and practical terms it has been a bank for many years. For example, it has been issuing cheque books since the 1970s if not before and has had international activities for a substantial time too.

On the other hand, the various Credit Agricoles in France are clearly in the building society camp. Yes, they issue cheque books but their debit cards aren’t run by themselves and their international activities are nil, at least as far as the regional Credit Agricoles go.

Spain by contrast has the fairly substantial La Caixa which is a savings bank in name only although with few international activities up to now.