Hey ......

It's been 7 years since we were involved in the financial services industry in UK, and I am aware that many things have changed in that time - we only involve ourselves with keeping up to date with legislation on this side of the channel, which is time consuming enough ....

I do remember that there was a lot of talk of pension funds possibly being used for buying foreign property, but did it actually become possible ? (we haven't come across anyone who has bought a property this way).

In UK, I certainly never even contemplated advising anyone to use their pension fund to purchase their main home, let alone another property.
A pension fund is there to provide an income in retirement, not to speculate with.

Commercial properties are a totally different matter, and to repeat Goldberg, a SIPP can be a tax efficient vehicle for this purpose.

Buying in the private sector in the right location, will undoubtedly give you better returns than your annual income from a leaseback and its eventual sale price.

Carole Bayliss
mortgagefrance