Overseas Property Show
Anybody reading national media this week with an interest in property related matters will probably have noticed the presence of the Overseas Property Show at Belfast’s Kings Hall on Friday and Saturday November 20th & 21st and the RDS in Dublin on Sunday and Monday November 22nd & 23rd. See Irish dates for the Overseas Property Show below.
This Overseas Property Show came somewhat out of left field as it appears to have been organised in some haste to be annexed to an already running UK overseas property exhibition tour. News of its arrival didn’t hit the newspapers until the Thursday before the exhibition, which is very unusual.
It is also unusual in that it is the only overseas property show to run in Ireland in the past seven years, apart from the Darragh MacAnthony backed America Property Expo that had a single run earlier in 2015.
Who runs the Overseas Property Show?
The honest answer is ‘I haven’t a clue’. There seems to be some connection to Ideal Homes in Portugal (the video on the site is theirs), beyond that I don’t know. I have put in an email to find out who is behind the exhibition, but haven’t heard anything back yet. When I get further information you’ll be the first to know. (Update: I never heard anything back, they never replied). There is remarkably little information on the website – www.theoverseaspropertyshow.com – which is usually a worry.
I try to keep tabs on any companies running overseas property shows in Ireland (and the UK for that matter) so it is slightly surprising that I’ve never come across them before. According to the website the company is based in Vila Sol, a golf course in Quarteira, on Portugal’s Algarve.
From looking at the website this appears to be a single company selling property in a variety of countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Florida, the UK and the US). This does make a difference as it probably means the the seminars, see below, are just there for the sake of the company promoting the properties in question. This is, however, an assumption on which I could be incorrect. If I find out more I’ll let you know.
If you check out the video on the site you’ll quickly see that the property show operators are pretty anxious to get you on one of their ‘Property Inspection Trips’. This normally means you’ll be put under fairly severe pressure to purchase when you actually get to wherever it is you have chosen to visit. Personally I’m not a great fan of these. If you want to buy somewhere you should be prepared to spend your own money to get there, view properties in a range of locations and then purchase from whoever is giving you the property you want at the best price without the added pressure of a visit in which a sales company has organised everything based on getting you to buy.
Also, Inspection Visits almost always mean you’ll be guided toward more profitable (for the seller) ‘off plan’ property. In this day and age there is no good reason to purchase anything off plan. The risk of failure of the developer or development is just too high.
Dragon’s Den participant, Duncan Bannatyne (currently on ‘I’m a Celebrity’) features in their adverts from last year, but I’m not sure if this was just a paying gig for him or whether he’s financially involved. He seems to feature on Ideal Homes in Portugal’s advertising quite a bit as well.
