Expats Lose Over 40 Million Pounds in Spain - How to Avoid Property Scams

As many of you know, when you are living in a foreign country you have to be extra aware, as countries vary in laws and culture, and there may also be a language barrier to overcome. Recently, there has been a string of housing scams in Spain that many expats have been victims of. Over the past few months, 400 expats were tricked into putting large down payments on properties in Costa del Sol that didn’t exist, and between all of them they lost an estimated 43 million pounds, which will most likely never be returned.


This type of scam has been going on for years, and since many of the laws have loopholes, it is generally very hard to ever get the money back or take any legal action. From 1999-2004, British expats in Spain continued to hand over money to developers that had no intentions of building anything, losing an estimated 60 million pounds. Scams like this are also known to be very common in many Latin

If you are an expat looking for a house abroad, please know that there are numerous ways to protect yourselves from these scams. For some great tips on how to safely purchase a house or property abroad, please refer to these websites and lists:

http://www.escapefromamerica.com/2009/05/real-estate-scams-in-latin-america/

http://www.expatdailynews.com/2010/11/tips-on-how-to-avoid-real-estate-scams.html

http://www.overseasdigest.com/20-tips-buying-abroad.htm

Have you or anyone you know experienced these types of scams? If you have any other tips, please let us know in the comments section!

By @StanaMark

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