01 October 2015

by Verity Maskell

Top 3 Currency Tips for Buying or Selling a Property Abroad

Introduction

Buying, or selling, a property abroad can be both an exciting and an exhausting experience. With numerous lawyers, contracts and language barriers, it can be difficult juggling everything at once, while also ensuring you don’t lose any money.

Overlooking currency exchange is a common problem for many property buyers and sellers – just think how many times you've gone abroad and left it until the airport to exchange your money.

Losing about £50 on your travel money may not have much impact on your day-to-day life, but it's a very different story when you're changing larger sums of your hard-earned money and losing thousands of it to currency fluctuations.

1. Timing is vital

The best thing you can do when transferring thousands of your pounds abroad is plan ahead to time your transfer and secure the best exchange rate.

The moment you know you're going to be buying, or selling, your property and have confirmed your budget, you should begin planning your currency exchange by speaking with a reputable FX brokerage.

2. Understand currencyfluctuationsIt’s important to understand that currency is fluctuating every second of every day, which means you could be vulnerable to volatility if you haven’t planned ahead and put market orders in place.

A reputable FX Broker, like FC Exchange, will be able to guide you on the best currency solutions for your requirements and the right time to trade so you remain in control of currency volatility and your money.

3. Seek professional advice

A study by DeVere Group (2014) revealed that 27% of expats polled stated that one of the biggest mistakes they had made was believing they could manage their financial affairs without professional advice. Don't be one of them.

At FC Exchange, we constantly monitor and analyse the markets; provide daily and weekly reports for our customers; and have the latest technology to monitor exchange rates day and night.

An example of the savingsyou could makeIf you bought a property worth €250,000 in January 2015, it would have cost you £197,000.

However, if you had waited until February 2015, the same property would have cost you £9,000 less.

Again, if you had waited until March 2015, you could have saved £19,000 compared to the original price in January 2015!

That's a saving of more than £19,000 in just three months and it's because of currency volatility!

Impact of currency volatility on a €250,000 property

Get in touch

If you’re making international money transfers, get in touch with one of the FC Exchange team today on +44 (0)20 7989 0000 to discuss your currency requirements.

Alternatively, please visit www.fcexchange.com for more information.