Hello there – how are things going with you?

Somehow spring is such an inspirational time – almost like the flowers, I feel like opening up and embracing the world. Perhaps it’s that glimmer of sunshine that goes to my head!

At the end of last month I moved into a new flat. My third move in three years – and I must confess that three lots of packing and then unpacking have really left me utterly exhausted. I have had to cull masses of precious things collected over years as the flats have become smaller and smaller – but finally I am settled and I have decided that they will have to carry me out of here in a box!

The flat is near the river, with enormous windows. I can see the seagulls wheeling in the sky and the sun sets over the water, just out of sight. I have never been so aware of the seasons, or the weather, before and I am simply loving it. Well, ‘nuff about me – this month I have for you Greece’s ranking on the world stage, pearls of wisdom from our currency Guru Charles Purdy, a lovely property on the ever popular island of Rhodes, and give you a bit more info about holiday lettings. Then I touch on mortgages and reclaiming VAT before bowing out for another month.

Any questions, queries or help you need please just call on 0207 898 0549 and I would be more than happy to help in any way I can.

Kind regards – and happy, happy summer!

Carol

Carol Dunning
Greece Buying Guide Advisor
The Overseas Guides Company Limited.
mailto:carol@OverseasGuidesCompany.com
Phone 0207 898 0549
1, Lyric Square,
LondonW6 0NB

We knew this all along….!

Greece has been ranked in poll position in Flight Centre's 'Top 10 Where To Go in 2009' list.

Based on data that shows which destinations have grown in popularity over the past year, Greece has been voted top, thanks to a number of factors. These include affordability of accommodation and transport, reasonably priced food, cheap sailing costs, great local wine, beautiful beaches, endless sunshine, quaint villages... and who of us doesn’t have our favourite island with its secret charms?

This recent ranking adds to the commendations that the country has received in recent months. Greece also did remarkably well in the World Travel Awards 2008, where it was rated for Europe's Leading Beach Resort; Europe's Leading Boutique Hotel; Europe's Leading Spa Resort and Europe's Leading Conference Resort.

With these top awards increasing the appeal of the country, it is clear to see why the latest World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) report has also been extremely favourable for Greece. Figures for Travel and Tourism Economy GDP growth have shown 3.7% for 2008, with a likely average 3.9% increase predicted annually for the next ten years. These figures show that Greece is a popular market, with an increasing tourist market.

Irini Tzortzoglou, Head of Retail Banking for Piraeus Bank UK, agrees:

"In the current economic climate it is encouraging to see such positive news announced from the travel and tourism sector” Irini adds. “Greece is a firm favourite, and it looks likely to stay that way. There are many synergies between the travel and property industries and even if current economic conditions cast some doubt as to the absolute number of visitors expected next year, the popularity of the country is growing both as a tourism and second home destination.”

Needless to say, this is all music to the ears of those of you who are thinking of buying a property, whether for personal use or as an investment. There can be no doubt that Greece has suffered less than many other European countries during the latest financial upheavals. Add to this the fact that tourism is still doing well means that rental properties are worth investing in. And if you should ever want to sell your property at some time in the future it’s good to know that you have people wanting to buy.

Please do let me know if you want any help in finding a property won’t you? I have sourced reliable property people throughout Greece who would love to help you. In fact, many other Greece Buying Guide readers have made use of their services to buy the home of their dreams. Just phone me on 0207 898 0549 or fill in the form at:

http://www.GreeceBuyingGuide.com/property.htm

and I will contact you to have a talk about your options.

Is sterling out of the woods yet?

by Smart Currency’s Charles Purdy.

Is sterling out of the woods yet? A fair question given what we have been through and the vast amounts that have been thrown by our government at the banks and the economy in a desperate attempt to stave off a depression.

My response tends to be conditional. I think most people would agree that sterling is too low against the euro and, even though we may never return to a rate of over €1.50/£1, most consider a rate of €1.20+/£1 feasible.

So what is stopping us getting to this rate? Uncertainty on two fronts. Firstly, we need to see a period of financial stability and a period in which we can see the world economies moving forward not backwards. This is a matter of time and is likely to be measured in months and perhaps even years. Also we need to be sure that the UK does not need to go to the IMF cap in hand for a bailout, given the huge debts and problems we have. Timescales for this scenario are shorter but if it happens then sterling will lose value very quickly and we may look at the current value of sterling as the halcyon days when £1 was worth more than €1.

That is why I always ask clients to have a clear and realistic exchange rate in mind when they are looking to buy currency. Because trying to guess what is going to happen tends to be a fools game with exchange rates doing the exact opposite of what you hope or expect. When this happens great uncertainty arises, leading to increased stress levels as you need to find further money or have less than you expected. Not a great outcome and something that could be avoided or at least minimised by have a partner such as ourselves working with you.

If you haven’t had a chance to discuss in detail what the alternatives are for your currency concerns then please give us a ring and we will be happy to talk about your possible options (0808 163 01020.To get a Better-than-Bank rate go to: http://www.smartCurrencyExchange.com/smartsquotation.htm

To read the latest on Serling and the Euro go to: http://www.GreeceBuyingGuide.com/Currency300409.htm

Stunning sea view villas in Afandou, Rhodes.

This is a perfect opportunity to own a sensational sea view villa, ideally located in the hugely sought after area of Afandou. It would make a perfect family home and an excellent investment.

Each villa has beautiful uninterrupted sea views on a graduated landscaped plot. Situated in a peaceful area surrounded by natural beauty, the village of Afandou - with all its amenities, cafes, bars, shops, tavernas and restaurants – is just a stone's throw away. It is one of the largest and oldest villages on the Island of Rhodes. Gardens are filled with citrus and olive trees, it is really lovely and, what’s more, during summer there is a small ‘land train’ (aren’t most trains – this is how the tourism board describes it!!) that connects the village to the beach – how adorable is that?!

Also just 2 km away lies one of Rhodes' most coveted blue flag beaches, over 3Km long, with crystal clear waters and nearby rock caves to explore.

On top of all this - fear not those golf addicts amongst you - Afandou golf course is a mere 2km away!

The villa features 88 sqm of total living space on an 820 sqm plot. The ground floor consists of a lounge, a fully fitted kitchen (including fridge-freezer, oven, hob and washing machine) and a toilet and on the first floor you will find 2 bedrooms with fully fitted with wardrobes and a bathroom. http://www.rhodesisland.co.uk/html/afandou.html

Additional benefits included in the price are installation of central heating and solar panel, aluminium windows with manual shutters and mosquito nets, 3 air conditioning units, parking space for one car with plus landscaped external areas. There is the option of a 4x8 swimming pool for an additional 25.000 euros.

Bedrooms: 2
Bathrooms: 1

Distance from the airport: 20km

Prices from 225,000 Euro

If you want a really good property buy on the ever popular island of Rhodes this is a rare opportunity. Please do let me know if you want someone from the island to get in touch with you. Just let me know: phone on 0207 898 0549 or fill in the form at:
http://www.GreeceBuyingGuide.com/property.htm

Holiday Lettings

I talked about holidaylettings.co.uk last month, suggesting that you access their website about properties abroad in Greece and that you ‘try before you buy’.

I had tremendous response, either from people who had rented properties through the website or from people who had properties abroad that they were advertising to let through them. Without exception they were all thrilled with the service they received – in fact, just a glance at their testimonials page will bear me out here.

It occurred to me that this really is the perfect site to advertise your property abroad if you have decided to rent it out. Suffice it to say that holidaylettings.co.uk was ranked in the top 10 of the most visited property websites throughout 2008, ahead of all other UK holiday home letting sites, by Hitwise, the leading online intelligence service.

I went into the website myself and I must say that I found the whole process very professional and easy to set up. Once you log in to place an advert and give your contact details, you are led through the whole process with questions such as property location, how to get there, transport links etc. You then go on to describe the property in your own words.

Once complete, this application then goes through to their Activation Team for payment. What I like is that they also check on whether the property meets the company’s criteria plus that the advert is both grammatically correct and that the content is sufficiently appealing. They do have certain minimum standards which ensure the best performance for not only your individual advert but also the site as a whole. If necessary they will revert to you with suggestions on how to make the advert even more attractive to prospective clients and will suggest anything that needs to be included in order to have the most appeal. Should you doubt your descriptive skills, a member of our Customer Service Team can even set up your advert for a £20 + VAT fee.

The home description is an important part of your advert and is designed to provide an introduction as well as inspire those reading it to pick your property. It should provide a broad and inviting overview of the kind of holiday potential guests could expect to have if they came to stay at your property, without going into too much detail about specific facilities - these can be mentioned later on.

Pictures are the most important aspect of your advert. They are often the first thing people look at and are therefore crucial to forming first impressions of your home. Enticing photos will encourage people to look further into the photo gallery and the rest of your advert; having good photos will help maximise the rental potential for your property and help boost the number of people that view your advert.

Their offering includes the Classic Advert and the more expensive but more comprehensive Premium Advert. There are also many additional extra services available, including Advert access 24/7, Lettings advice, Photo enhancements and Inputting service. Additional marketing services include Spotlights, Late deals, Early bargains and Additional adverts.

Once activated, booking enquiries sent via your advert go straight to you directly and holidaylettings.co.uk can even set up free SMS text messages to ensure you don't miss out on that all important booking – how brilliant is that?!

On holidaylettings.co.uk you really can show off your holiday rentals to their full potential, giving you exposure to more than 2 million holidaymakers visiting the website every month. How do they reach such a large audience? Well, they advertise in over 28 magazines and newspapers monthly, reaching more than 16 million readers. They are also proactive in their marketing and their latest New Year campaign reached millions of people travelling on the London Underground and in cabs around London. They achieve top search engine rankings and invest heavily in online marketing to ensure the highest levels of holidaymaker traffic to the site.

There are really just too many advantages to list here: for instance, to see if your property is appropriately priced you can take a look at other similar properties on the site to see that you are not overcharging. You can also refer to their pricing advice page. You can check on how your advert is performing by clicking on the view enquiries section of your home management page. From here you can see the number of hits (visits to your page) you have had over the past 30 days and the number of enquiries you have had over the course of a year. The advantages are endless. It really is a well thought out and intensely helpful website that should maximise the number of people looking to rent your property.

One of my associates has managed to get a very special deal for Guide Readers on the holidaylettings.co.uk website. If you enter the following promotional code you can get 15 months of advertising (of your property) for the price of 12 months – Code: 45749. Or, just go to: Holiday Lettings– the code will appear automatically.

Mortgages…

I had this email from David and Eileen, Greece Buying Guide readers, and I thought it was quite interesting as it deals with the vital aspect of mortgages, amongst other things. I have shortened it slightly:

“Hi Carol

We are going over to Kefalonia for Easter, hopefully to get our build back on track, but probably on a smaller scale. We have been in touch with our builders and it seems now that the banks in Greece, like everywhere else, are getting a lot stricter, (which is probably a good thing) and now a bank official goes out to the land and looks at the project and then decides how much they will lend and how much deposit is required.

We have done a lot of soul searching over the last few months and have even considered selling the land but, as you say in the last newsletter, we have sat back had a good drink and the warm glow does actually flow back in when you think of your last visit!! So…Kefalonia here we come - and hopefully this year could be the year!”

Following on from that, to continue on the tricky subject of mortgages, they were one of the very first things to be affected by the credit crunch world wide. At the moment there is a severe lack of available mortgage products from which to choose, unlike in the past where there was almost an embarrassment of choices to be had. There are still a few to be had by those with low loan-to-value ratios, as lenders sift through potential customers by tightening their lending criteria, but anyone else has to look hard to find what they need.

So, if you are looking for a mortgage how are you going to find it? This is where we can help. The possibility is that it will be easier to access one in the UK than in Greece…Anyway, we do have someone who can offer advice and help you search out this dying breed! Please phone me on 0207 898 0541 and I will put you in touch…my colleagues at the Guides Company can also help too so please give us a call.

Burning Question

One of the Greece Buying Guide readers asked the following question:

“How do we set about reclaiming IVA tax?”

Here goes:

Firstly, the VAT rates and minimum purchases required to qualify for refunds: VAT is generally charged at the rate of 19%. There is a reduced rate of 9% that applies, in the main, to food and medicines. The VAT rate for books and newspapers is 4.5%. In specific areas in Greece, there is a reduction on the above rate of VAT.

You need to follow these steps to reclaim VAT:

Get the documentation
When you make your purchase, have the merchant fill out the necessary refund voucher – it is called a "cheque." You'll need to present your passport at the shop. Make sure this paperwork is done before you leave the shop. If they leave any blanks for you to fill in, be sure you understand what is needed. Attach your receipt to the form and keep it safely tucked away.

What if the store ships your purchase to your home? You can still collect a refund, but you will need to ask at the shop where you make your purchase to assist with this.

Know where to get your refund
If you buy merchandise in a European Union country and you're bringing the goods home with you, process your documents at your last stop in the EU, regardless of where you made your purchases. Be aware that if the currencies are different in the country where you made your purchase and where you process your refund — say, pounds and euros — you may have to pay an extra conversion fee.

Bring your goods — unused — to the airport or border crossing
You're not supposed to use your purchased goods before you present them at customs. If you show up at customs wearing your coat or shoes officials may or may not grant your refund.

Arrive early
This is Greece remember. You'll have to wait in a special line at customs and then, if you're collecting your refund right away, at the refund office. It can sometimes be difficult finding the right customs agent. If you run out of time and have to leave without the right custom’s stamp, you're probably out of luck. You may be able to recover the refund through the embassy back in the UK, but frankly, I wouldn’t bank on it – and do you really want to go through that?

Payout time – hopefully!
Once you get your form stamped by customs, you'll need to return it to the retailer or their representative at the airport, port, or border crossing – you need to find out about this at point of purchase. Many merchants work with a service such as Global Refund or Premier Tax Free and they have offices at the airport where you can present your stamped document before you depart. They'll take about 4 percent for their services, but it can be worth it — often they'll give you your refund in your currency of choice immediately. Otherwise they'll credit the refund to your credit card.

If the retailer handles VAT refunds directly, it's up to you to contact the merchant for your refund. You can post your now stamped documents from home, or quicker, from your point of departure (using a stamped, addressed envelope you've prepared or one that's been provided by the merchant) — and then wait. It could take months. If the refund cheque comes in a foreign currency, you may have to pay to get your bank to cash it – you need to decide if it is worth all this trouble. I suppose it all depends on how much you stand to gain.

Readers have reported that, even when following all of the instructions carefully, they just never get the VAT refund. For example, they have all the paperwork ready when they get to the airport but simply can’t find the customs official to process it. Your best chance I think is probably to buy from a merchant who knows how to deal with the red tape for you as you buy the goods.

I would be so interested to know if you go through this whole rigmarole…do call in for a chat and let me know if you do! Carol at 0207 898 0549…and good luck!

The Greece Property Buying Guide

Today, when times are tough financially, it’s even more important to be on your guard and to really research what you are doing, how you are doing it, and who you are using along your overseas property journey to help you to achieve your dreams.

There are many people out there who will bend over backwards to help you and to ensure that things go well for you. However, human nature being what it is, there are also those who will be looking after their own interests with little or no regards for yours, so I would urge you to take care.

The Greece Buying Guide outlines the whole property purchase process simply and clearly, pointing out all the do’s and don’ts and all the pitfalls that can await the unwary. It is so easy, in the heat of the moment, to let your heart rule your head – but forewarned is forearmed and, with the Guide by your side, you will have all the information you need to ensure a successful purchase.

What I have found is that normally sensible, lucid people take risks abroad that they would not dream of taking if buying property in the UK. Not retaining their own lawyer but using the vendor’s is a classic example, and the one that I hear the most harrowing and tragic tales about.

Let me say no more: I leave it to the Guide’s readers to do the talking! To order a copy, go to:
http://www.GreeceBuyingGuide.com/Guide.htm

This is what Gill and Reg Harris had to say about the guide:

Hello Carol,

Your guide is proving to be our bible in our property search, there is so much useful information in it, we couldn’t manage without it.

Thank you for all of your help and recommendations so far. We are going out to Crete at the end of May to look at properties.

Kind regards

Gill and Reg Harris.

Goodbye for now

I am so looking forward to hearing some Greek Easter stories – I hope you had a really wonderful time. I know that each part of Greece celebrates in their own special way - let me know about how yours was spent won’t you?

Recently you may remember that I asked you to contact me and tell me a little about yourselves and how the whole property buying process had gone. As I mentioned, I have been asked to write some case studies and just wanted to know how you found the Greece Buying Guide...

What I had not anticipated was that by the end of writing a few of these case studies I felt I had made new friends. Shelley and Curt, Sarah and Ken and many more now seem like real people to me and I was fascinated to hear their stories. So please, please let me hear from you – its all about sharing information to help one another. Have a great month until we ‘touch base’ again!

Warm regards,

Carol

Carol Dunning
Greece Buying Guide Advisor
The Overseas Guides Company Limited.
mailto:carol@OverseasGuidesCompany.com
Phone 0207 898 0549
1, Lyric Square,
LondonW6 0NB