Help needed wih dissertation! All about holiday homes abroad

Hi Hanna,
Good luck with your dissertation.
1. 50-60
2. Yes, but over the last few years we have bought more than one. So I will try to answer your questions for each of these, as our circumstances & objectives were slightly different each time. We currently have:
a) an apartment in Turkey
b) some land in Turkey
c) a house in Morocco
d) 2 other houses in Morocco that will be subject to a major renovation progamme.

3. a) A mixture of family holiday and capital growth that we hoped would boost our pension fund (You haven't mentioned that one in your list but it's a biggie as UK buy to let has been less attractive in the last few years).
b) We are "land banking" this as again the capital growth has been as good as we expected & will continue - we are not sure whether we will sell it in future or build a retirement home - it depends how the resort develops in the next few years.
c) A mix of Rental income in the immediate term and solid capital growth in the medium term ( 5 years)
d) Capital growth - when renovated these homes will be worth almost 3 times their purchase price.

4. a) & b) Turkey c & d) Morocco

5. a) & b) For Turkey, we love the mix of mountains coming straight down to the sea, the food and the people. It was also obvious that it would be a good investment for the future as prices were very reasonable when we started to buy 6 years ago.
c) For Morocco, again we liked the area, we first went to & felt it would offer a good investment in the medium term. Also it's a pretty whacky place & we liked that!

6a) Prolonged exposure to place in the sun mixed with trawling through the internet to discover which place we might like.
b) Some turkish friends of ours were buying in the same area
c) Initial interest in moroccco definitley triggered by a TV programme - the one about property developing?
d) Triggered by a moroccan friend suggesting we take a look at this up & comin area

7.a) Oh yes many! It was a first time so we were nervous about getting ripped off! But actually the process was easy. Our main problem was a buyer originally promised to sell & withdrew at the last minute (I mean 20 minutes before were we going to sign) we were not sure we would get our money back as by Turkish law they should reimburse us the deposit twice over if they pull out. In reality, you rarely get more than your deposit back & to pursue it through a Turish court is costly due to everthing having to be translated. But the property we finally bought was off plan on a tiny development and the deal was actually done on a handshake.
b) 2 years after we bought our land there were changes in the law that said foreigners couldn't own land as private individuals (even though we had title deeds) so we had to set up a turkish company with a turkish friend holding 1% of the shares. If we sell the land we will sell the company with the land as an asset.
c) Because we were looking at a house in the old medina for renovation, this does not come with full title deeds as you would expect here, instead it is all done under the sharia (religious code) and you obtain a "mulkia". Only after you have that can you apply for a Titre foncierre. there is a risk that another member of the family will put a claim in on the house after you have bought it but this is extremely unusual - it doesn;t seem to bother French & Spanish but the Brits have a different view generally wanting things more tightly wrapped up.
d) The owners agreed a sale price which is legally binding in morocco & then tried to get our intermediary to secretly tear the contract up so they could ask more money for it. When we scrutinised the papers we found that neither owner has paid tax on their properties for 13 years (we would have been liable if we hadn't spotted it). Both owners insisted on being paid in CASH & it took us 3 hours to count it it in the bank. I mean I could go on but it would be dissertation in itself!!!

Well that's taken ages but i hope it helps!!!!
c)