Make it Small

Many Brits, when buying a property abroad, tend to go for a huge villa with an equally huge garden – after all you tend to get a lot more for your money in France or Italy and the last thing you think of when signing on the dotted line for your new house with the Sicily property company is how much work it will be to look after the garden.

We all have our dreams and many people do dream of owning a second home with lots of land. However, if they do not think this through properly then this is something that they often come to regret.

Holidays should be for relaxing and if you have to spend your vacations mowing and trimming then you will be glad to get back to work for a rest. Gardening can be fun but not when it is a constant round of hard work.

So when looking for your dream property abroad, make sure that the garden is of a manageable size – and if you do not like gardening at all then why not go the whole hog and go for an apartment rather than a house?

That way you can be sure that your holidays will be spent relaxing on the balcony with a cocktail in hand rather than slogging it out in the garden.