Overseas property buyers warned to check rental markets

Irish people considering buying property abroad a have been warned to take full independent legal advice at all stages of the transaction.

Open legal seminars are being held in Dublin this weekend, outlining how to negotiate through legal and tax systems of other countries, often in a foreign language.

It's estimated that thousands of Irish people buy homes abroad each year.

Karl Morris of Simple Overseas Properties advised that people should not buy houses for rent unless they're fully sure of the local rental market.

"If it's something they're going to use as a lifestyle, in other words they're going to stay for two or three weeks a year, I would normally tell them they're better off going to rent it rather than buy it,” he said.

“They think they're going to get a massive rental market and this doesn't happen. There's a lot of properties around that people can't rent out and they've been told by sales agents that they'll get 26 weeks of the year. I would tell people if they more than six weeks they're doing very well.”