One thing that does provide a possible hedge is if you receive/hold Swiss francs, assuming the franc continues to hold its value. In Hungary, for example, prices in Forints have certainly gone up in recent years, but so has the Swiss franc vs. the Forint.
From what I’ve seen, that benefit is less pronounced in countries that use the euro.
I guess that’s typical for regions where owning is the norm. Rent prices are high compared to property prices because rents are mainly used short term for truism. However this rapport says the property prices are steadily rising so at some point people might start renting long term
That’s one of the things, world is dynamic, Europe in particular. At some point the regions giving the most opportunities saturate still being the most expensive but not giving good opportunities anymore so people slowly start moving to cheaper locations elevating the growth of these. Look at Portugal. Also investors became active once they see the realistic growth opportunity.
My wealth is at 1M, which increased rapidly in recent years thanks to my work in Zurich. I’m working hard for the bucks, but honestly not particularly harder than before. For the past 20 years I’ve been holding top paying IT jobs (of each region where I was), though the current one leaves 4-5 times more in my pocket each year than the previous.
Honestly I missed a lot investment opportunities, because I just didn’t have time for this. At current age I’m rather leaning to stay away from risk. I’m rather interested in retirement planing. I’m single so I don’t think of leaving anything for heirs. The what if scenario of this thread just came to my mind one morning: let’s see if I can already live off my wealth with very conservative scenario, half to setup my nest, half to finance the retirement. 500k gives 40 years at 1k ratio. Obviously it’ll last longer, with any minimum but safe investment, plus I’ll get “some” retirement. I should have earned something like 300/m AVS already, plus some peanuts from previous places (most of the time I was using self employment scheme).
I’m aware that my current work might not last long. Layoffs happened recently and I bet that’s not the end of it. On the other hand, I have no life besides work. The sweet spot is not about getting rich, but about careful planning. I’d like to retire and enjoy my life till I can get the most of it. However I don’t want to quit just because I could start living as investor. On retirement I’d like to stop bothering about money, it doesn’t have to be much, but should be off my mind. You get the idea.
It surprised me but I may be already on the sweet spot, the right timing. Obviously with every year at work the scenario gets only better as my wealth grows faster than the inflation of the cheaper zones.
Hey, I’ve been reading about Spain. Rural areas looks very affordable and nice on paper. It’s possible to buy a house for <500k EUR, so I bet there must be a catch otherwise the prices would have elevated.
I wonder how it is to live in ~50 degrees all summer. Have anyone, not from such hot desert regions lived in Spain for a longer term? Is it possible to adjust, or just the only thing you do all days long is planning to move to anywhere with better climate?
Depends on where in Spain. 70% is empty land with only 10% of population living there. Prices there cannot be very high.
Makes sense, prices are opportunity driven. People are willing to pay a lot if it’s in the center of life/business. Much like looking at commuting time to Zurich/Basel/Geneva for Swiss properties.
Hi Samarama,
As I Spaniards myself, if 1 day I come back to my home country, it will be likely to be on one of those red zones.
As you mentioned, population is concentrated based on business opportunities. Mainly Madrid, Barcelona, Basque Country and rest of Mediterranean coast (specially Valencia and Malaga in the last years), however there are many other places that could be even more interested for retired people.
I am thinking about regions in the north like Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia, weather is milder over there with beautiful landscape, amazing food and kind and friendly people.
Those regions had lost lot of population in the last decades due to lost of industry and are not the main focus of north Europe retired people, searching for sea and sun (like Costa del Sol and rest of the Mediterranean cost), therefore property prices are way lower.
Below a website of a company focus on rural houses in Galicia. (just an example)
What about healthcare access? Is there a concern in zone red areas?
What I am generally concerned in any Mediterranean countries is that 20 years from now access to healthcare will be more challenging than already today challenging access. In those remote aerea even worse.
I know some small towns in France where emergency dept is open part-time )only few days a week) and if you need urgent care you gotta drive 1 hour away to a large city with countless hours of waiting
Most of the smaller Greek islands only have a clinic with a couple of junior doctors at most, who have to work in the countryside for 2 years before they can apply to work where they want to, or train further. I think France has a similar system for junior doctors “doing the countryside service” as we call it. Emergencies need to be airlifted/taken by boat to big islands (Crete, Rhodes) which have proper facilities, or the mainland.
Many mainland villages have a visiting doctor who comes 1-2 times per week, otherwise they need to drive/be driven to a town which may be tens of kilometres of bad roads away.
It is indeed a serious problem (in GR) and I don’t see it getting better as the countryside is getting more and more deserted.
Agreed
I was in Sifnos once (greek island) & people told me that during COVID they had to use Helicopters for urgent cases to go to Hospital is another island. They had only one helicopter so they had to decide who to save and who not to save.
I think great tourist destinations are great for tourism but during old life, basic things matter most. So people should be very mindful of what public service infra looks like.
Public healthcare will worsen due to population aging and pensions expenses getting greater part of the budget (in Spain pensions are still link to the inflation, every year is increasing the mix% of total budget)
However if you live in a middle size city (between 30k to 250k inhabitants) access to services and cost of living is very balance.
Healthcare costs putting strain on budget and indirectly increasing the tax burden is the threat for the whole European continent for the coming decades. Nonetheless, taking Switzerland as example, the healthcare costs in private schemes tend to rise exponentially per decade. I bet the best investment is to live a healthy life, what else
But then you’ll die later and your FIRE money will end before that 
Most larger villages in Spain (several hundred inhabitants+) have a clinic that can deal with simpler stuff. Then there’s a regional hospital generally within max. 1 hour drive. Assuming they can keep that up in the future, you’re pretty ok for healthcare in the red zones.