What exactly did I require from my property?
Until this had been established, how could I possibly form an accurate opinion of which location was best for me?
To arrive at an unbiased conclusion of the pros and cons of UK versus ROI property, in terms of what I personally required, I devised a score board.
This consisted of listing all elements that I would be keeping in mind when considering a property from either location (UK / ROI).
- Average purchase price
- Distance from current home and family / friends
- Ferry / plane / fuel / bridge toll costs to visit home
- Potential to use as a photo studio
- Potential customers in the area for future entrepreneurial ideas
- Outbuildings
- Land for campsite and veg growing / beekeeping / ducks / chickens / pigs
- Nightlife / shops / civilisation etc.
- Scenery for walks and biking
- Council tax and Utilities cost
- Job opportunities
- Saleability
- Long term property appreciation
- Legal / paperwork hassles
I then assigned a value between 1 and 10 to each of these, according to its importance to me.
Comparing the two locations, required two columns to the right of the list. I added either a tick or cross to either column depending on whether that location won or lost.
For every tick, the respective value for that question was noted down and totalled up.
The column with the highest total would be deemed the successful location.
After carefully filling out my list, I added everything up, and the scores were………….drum roll please……….
60 versus 43.
Ireland wins!!!!!
In all honesty, I was quietly hoping that the UK would win out, purely because I felt it would be an “easier” option. But easier is not always better!
This in simple terms meant that the core requirements had been met and supposedly surpassed by Ireland.
If Ireland was to be the goal, how would I finance the property?
Englishman in Ireland 