Overseas Property: Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

I just read an article on the Property Showrooms site that said France's "appeal as a holiday destination or overseas property location", "hasn't been diluted by the falling value of the pound", "it has been claimed".

The article named Anthony Peregrine as the claimer, quoting a recent article he wrote in the Telegraph stating that recent changes in the exchange rate should not put people off visiting France because many of the best things about the country cost nothing.

Peregrine said:

"The landscape - sea, mountains, rivers, forests and lakes - assembles the best of Europe in one country. That costs nothing. Nor does the politeness and general decorum."

Now I'm not disagreeing that France is a beautiful place, and that the falling value of the pound shouldn't put people off holidaying there to see that beauty, but other than holiday home buyers specifically focussed on France, its beauty really doesn't come into its appeal for overseas property buyers; it is not the only beautiful place in Europe.

France "assembles the best of Europe in one country." But you could say the same about many places; -- even Scotland at a push though it doesn't have the weather -- and to pick one place that has all the beauty of Europe in one country I personally would have to go with Montenegro.

If I was to go into why it would quickly become apparent why distinctions like this can't be made.

Montenegro's Bay of Kotor is surely one of the most beautiful places in the world, and the views are spectacular, but the view from the gorgeous Saranda Bay on Albania's coast is equally beautiful, the Alps are beautiful from the snow covered tips down to the green dew washed fields below, but no more beautiful than Montenegro's CRNO lake set against the backdrop of the Mountainous snow tipped Međed peak, see image.

Distinctions cannot be made when it comes to beauty, because beauty, as they say is in the eyes of the beholder. And the beauty of a country shouldn't be brought into overseas property purchases unless they are buying a holiday home, and even then they should focus on the beauty of the area surrounding the properties above the beauty of the country as a whole.

Every country has its share of beautiful places; overseas holiday home buyers should look around and find the place that they think is the most beautiful. Investors on the other hand, depending on what type of investment they are considering should have beauty a lot lower on the list of priorities.

Buy-to-let investors should make the area's tourism market their top priority when choosing where to buy, this usually means they will indirectly end up looking at beautiful places anyway, at which point if they plan to use the home when not letting it, then they must way rental income against here they would most like to holiday.

But for pure investors the beauty of the areas surrounding their investment property is purely irrelevant. Most people now are buying to hold; they are buying in locations where property values are depressed and/or where property values will see considerable growth when the international recovery begins. It is only if they plan to rent the property during the holding period that beauty may enter into it but not directly; only in the fact that places with high rental yields tend to have high tourism volume, which usually translates to the locations' beauty.