Buying Property Abroad: What Retirees Should Know Before They Commit

Published: June 10th, 2026

Buying Property Abroad: What Retirees Should Know Before They Commit

Published: June 11, 2026

There's a version of this story that starts on a terrace somewhere in southern Europe. Coffee in hand, cobblestones below, a pace of life that feels genuinely different. And at some point, the thought arrives: I could actually live here.

That moment is real. And for many of our travelers, it's exactly what brings them to The Good Life Abroad in the first place.

But between that feeling and actually owning a home abroad lies a lot of territory — legal, financial, and practical — that deserves careful attention before anyone signs anything.

Andrew Motiwalla, founder of The Good Life Abroad, has been a go-to voice for journalists covering international retirement living. He was recently featured in a Redfin expert roundup on buying property abroad, alongside real estate attorneys, expat advisors, and relocation consultants. And earlier this year, Kiplinger tapped him for their guide on what coastal retirement living really costs after 60 — a piece that digs into the hidden expenses that catch buyers off guard.

Here's what Andrew has shared across both features, and what we think every retiree considering a home abroad should hear first.

Live there before you buy there

The most consistent advice from experts — and from Andrew specifically — is the same: don't buy the vacation version of a place.

A home abroad isn't about how a city feels on a Tuesday afternoon in October when the light is perfect and the restaurants are full. It's about February. It's about what happens when the hot water stops working and you don't speak the language fluently. It's about how the neighborhood actually functions at 7am on a weekday.

The buyers who avoid regret are almost always the ones who spent meaningful time in a destination first — not as tourists, but as temporary residents who were running errands, navigating local systems, and learning what daily life really looked like.

This is the core premise behind everything The Good Life Abroad does. Our Month-Long Signature Programs and Two-Week Short Stays are designed exactly for this: giving retirees and empty nesters a chance to experience life in a European city before making any permanent decisions.

Buy for the life, not the investment

In the Redfin feature, Andrew made a point that cuts through a lot of the noise around overseas property:

"Foreign property markets are notoriously difficult to predict, and you won't have the local knowledge edge. The buyers who never regret it are the ones who bought because they genuinely wanted to live there — not because they were chasing appreciation. If the rental income and resale value disappeared tomorrow, would you still want it? If yes, buy. If not, just rent a home."

This matters because the temptation to treat an overseas home as an investment thesis is strong — especially when you're reading headlines about appreciating markets in Lisbon or the Algarve. But foreign real estate markets are hard to read from the outside, and buyers rarely have the local knowledge needed to predict how they behave. The people who regret their purchases are overwhelmingly the ones who bought with financial calculations in mind and didn't account for what the life actually felt like.

The costs you don't see in the listing price

The Kiplinger article goes deep on something that surprises many retirees: how much buying abroad actually costs beyond the purchase price.

Between acquisition taxes, legal fees, notary costs, and registration expenses, buyers in many European countries should budget an additional 10–13% on top of the listed price before they even move in. And for coastal properties specifically, the ongoing costs can be even higher — older oceanfront homes in particular tend to carry significant maintenance demands from corrosion, salt air, and aging infrastructure that buyers from landlocked regions simply don't anticipate.

Andrew flagged several other hidden costs in the Kiplinger piece that retirees need to factor in:

Healthcare access. That beautiful remote coastal village may not have the medical infrastructure you'll need in ten or fifteen years. Healthcare proximity deserves as much weight in the decision as rental rates or sunshine hours.

International tax complexity. Every country handles U.S. retirement income differently. Roth IRA treatment, pension taxation, and capital gains rules vary considerably — and often in ways that are genuinely surprising. Country-specific tax advice isn't optional here.

Currency risk. Dollar-denominated savings don't go as far when the dollar weakens against the euro. Over the span of a long retirement, this can meaningfully erode purchasing power in ways that are easy to underestimate at the outset.

Visa and residency requirements. Owning a home abroad doesn't automatically mean you can live there full-time. Residency permits, visa renewal timelines, and documentation requirements all shape what your life actually looks like once you own the property — and these things need to be understood before you buy, not after.

A smarter way to approach it

We're not anti-ownership. Many of our travelers eventually do buy homes in the cities they first discovered through our programs — in Rome, Lisbon, Barcelona, Valencia, and beyond. But the ones who end up happiest are the ones who arrived at that decision slowly, with real on-the-ground experience under their belt.

If you're serious about living abroad, the path that tends to work best looks something like this: spend a month or two actually living somewhere through a program like ours, get honest about what the daily reality feels like, understand the full financial picture, and then — only if it still makes sense — start looking at property.

For more on what experts say about the mechanics of buying abroad, Andrew's full perspective is available in Redfin's guide to buying property abroad. And for a closer look at what coastal retirement living really costs — including the specific European destinations our programs cover — read the Kiplinger feature here.