All property markets have their peaks and troughs, but how can you be sure that the value of the international property you buy will scale the peaks without tumbling into the troughs?
When choosing an international property, access, location, price and indeed climate will all be key considerations, writes Paul Beasley. But how do you make your international property stand out from the crowd?
One strategy would be to plump for a distinctive international property with a difference. Assuming the property has the build-quality to go with its wow factor, you could find that a well-chosen home with striking architectural features might well stand your investment in good stead on the high seas of the international property market.
But which way do you turn in your search for an international property - towards the future with a sleek, modern design, or back to the past with traditional materials and a real artisan's approach to construction?
Certainly, if your choose the former path, there is a massive choice of international property that surely Le Corbusier, the father of the sleek, angular architecture known as 'Modernism', would approve of.
Take, for example, the Punta Paloma property development near Sotogrande on Spain's Costa del Sol. As has made the headlines in recent weeks, Spain's property market is not without pockets of ebbing prices - due, in part, to an oversupply of samey, cookie-cutter homes. So could this new international property development by Noriega with its clean lines, generous balconies and mix of neutral and natural wooden tones prove that uniqueness really can pay?
Eugenio Sanchez-Ramade Garcia-Conde, Noriega's UK Managing Director, certainly thinks so. "This is a highly specified property development, which has the sophistication and contemporary architecture that we build inland on our modern developments. We have designed and built Punta Paloma as a different lifestyle and quality of apartment ever seen on the coast that will appeal to international property buyers from around the world. We know there is a demand for a new style of property for a new generation of international buyers and Punta Paloma matches those aspirations."
Inspired? Prices start from 250,200 euros (£170,000) for a one-bedroom apartment with terrace, and rise to 500,800 euros (£339,000) for the four-bedroom version.
Want a Spanish-speaking destination but would rather invest in an emerging international property market, hence pay a bit less? If so, you could try the Waterfalls at Malibu development, situated a pebble's throw from the border with the US on the western coast of Mexico. Here, built around a waterfall, are swish, architect-designed minimalist homes looking like black boxes raised on white supports; prices start from £120,000.
These international properties are available through Bustamente, and certainly got local realtor Miguel Nunez excited when he attended the launch of the development in March: "Overall, the ambiance was exquisite and sophisticated, but with that extra touch of Mexican flavour that makes your blood run faster than normal," Nunez told the Baja Times.
And last, but certainly not least, another unique international property development that's caught our attention recently are the golf villas at Belek, Turkey, currently marketed by Spot Blue.
The development of 26 contemporary semi-detached villas is situated opposite a Nick Faldo golf course, ten minutes walk from the beach at Kadriye and 25 minutes drive from Antalya Airport.
Besides a successful ocean-liner-inspired design, the white, balcony-hung villas have two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a jacuzzi and optional sauna, wireless internet, and solar-powered water-heating and external lighting; the villas are priced at 266,000 euros (£180,000).
Julian Walker of Spot Blue is clearly excited about the project, stating that "it really does have that wow factor."
If, as the years go by, such stylish international property developments retain this wow factor, then lasting value could well be achieved through investing in uniqueness.
