How about a house in Greece?

NEW DELHI: All I want is a home elsewhere.... It could be an apartment in Toronto, Birmingham or Dubai. It could just as easily be a villa in Lisbon, a condominium in Barcelona or a cottage on an island in Greece. The first step towards the dream becoming a reality for Indians came with the finance minister''s announcement last week. Now Indian
corporates with branches and offices overseas will be allowed to acquire property for business or staff residences.
While waiting for the RBI''s detailed guidelines, check out the rates for buying a company guest house abroad. You could be in for a pleasant surprise. A two-bedroom apartment in Greater Toronto could cost as much, or as little, as a small house in outer Shimla — all of Canadian $55,000 (approximately Rs 16 lakh).
Alternately, a small two-room flat in Lisbon could come for a little less and a villa in the Spanish countryside for all of US $100,000 (approximately Rs 48 lakh). And if you check out office space in international markets you would see there''s little difference between rates in Mumbai, Frankfurt and Madrid.
International property dealers say Indians are seriously interested in buying property abroad. "As yet," says Anshuman Magazine, managing director CB Raichand Ellis, "Indians are keener on London, Dubai or Hong Kong, places where they are comfortable with the language and culture. But as the economy opens further and Indians are allowed to buy personal property abroad, a villa in Spain will no longer be a distant dream."
Others like Chesterton & Meghraj and Cushman & Wakefield agree that London remains the hot spot for Indians who want to buy property abroad, even though the prices of real estate are extremely high. Indonesia, Malaysia and Dubai are considered more affordable. But Magazine admits that Indians are already looking further to Australia and New Zealand. There are people who like to spend six months in New Zealand and six months in India and have houses in both places. There are others who have a beach house in Barcelona and go there for vacations.
Then there are businessmen like Arvind who is exploring the possibility of buying a flat in London, where he has his branch office. Says Arvind, "I''m thinking in terms of a four-room apartment in a university area. The apartment should cost something like a hundred thousand pounds (approximately Rs 72 lakh). If I rent it out to four students I would get a return of around 4,000 pounds a month. It should take me three years to get back the investment sum. Then I could move in myself with my family."