Im thinking of investing €38,000 for an apartment in India (SEZ) Special Ecomanic Zones. has anyone any advice as this is my first property investment and im really nervious.
Your first investment is in India? Doesn't make much sense to me.
What's the area like over there? Crime rate? Unemployment rate? Have you a solicitor you can trust over there? Who's going to manage the apartment for you? Have you done your research?
Personally if I was investing a big portion of my money anywhere abroad in an apartment I would be doing a massive amount of research first.
I would say tread VERY carefully. It is common in India to buy a flat on the XXth floor before it is built and the builder goes bust at floor X. Then you lose your money. Builder disappears and opens up another company and does the same again under a different name.
Also it is common for buildings to be build without planning permission, only to be knocked down 6 months after the building is completed. Builder disappears and opens up another company and does the same again under a different name.
I did a fair amount of research into buying indian property. However, I decided against the idea-partly for reasons mentioned in this thread, and many other reasons - one being that there are other ways of investing in the country's economic growth.
Have you considered funds that have a vested interest in India?
Do you have an exit plan for this investment? You may want to have a look at repatriating funds from India. They make that VERY difficult, to the extent that I believe they don't really allow it. Fine if you want to go and live there...
edit: linky - read half way down, the principal amount can be withdrawn, but any uplift is stuck in India - so a pretty silly investment, and not a condition that many robopaddy's know about I would suspect...
Eagle Star have a fund that tracks the Indian stock market.
It might be a better bet, and its also much more liquid, i.e you can get your money out easier than from property. I have a small amount invested in this fund and it is extremly volatile but upwardly mobile at the moment.
(Past performance is no guarantee of future performance, Terms and conditions apply ;-) )