The Real Estate Hunt Begins.

Is it just me or have the last few months of this year disappeared at breakneck speed?  Last time I looked I am sure it was around June & here we are chipping away at November!  Not that I am complaining because the sooner we get the 11th month out of the way the "Great Practical One" & I will be winging our way to Vanuatu in search of our "Great Escape".

There hasn't been a lot of progress since my last blog, just loads of research, planning & preparation, little did I know just how much documentation was required should we as foreigners wish to purchase property & live in another country...Birth & Marriage Certificates, documentation to prove we have no criminal convictions etc etc the list goes on, lots of little details & boxes to highlight before we are able to lay down roots in Vanuatu.

Aside from the documentation there has of course been so much research into the current real estate market, both here & Vanuatu, the plan being to sell our current home in Brisbane & purchase a small unit, one nice & close to the airport to make our coming & going as simple as possible....Do we return to our old haunt of Bulimba or move a little further afield to Ascot?  These are at this stage out first two choices both being close the the airport & suburbs where you can usually be situated within walking distance to most amenities...another consideration given we only intend to retain one car for our visits to Australia.  The final decision for this I guess will come when we are ready to make the purchase, that which offers the best value will of course be the eventual winner.

Brisbane will be an easy purchase, mostly because we have a fairly good knowledge of the market making it easy to make the final important decision when crunch time arrives. Vanuatu on the other hand is a whole new ball game, just deciphering the location aspect has been a minefield!  Though I think slowly slowly I have been able to ear mark a few desirable locations. There is of course no RP Data from which to track the history of the property market, so essentially we are flying a little blind when trying to uncover the true value of anything we are considering...Frustrating!! I have no doubt we will be relying very heavily on any information we are able to obtain from long term ex-pat locals, Fingers Crossed!

Of course the "Great Practical One" & I have very different wish lists, mine mostly being about location & aesthetic's, his being about practicality & safety.  I want simple clean lines, killer views with ease of access to the water, he wants cyclone & earthquake proofing, emergency power in addition to a satellite dish, hopefully we will be able to tick all of our individual boxes.

So far this house is my number one pick...it may be a little further away from the hustle & bustle (haha!) of the CBD, but it ticks all my other boxes...Killer view, big massive tick, simple clean lines, tick, & it has fabulous high vaulted ceilings, bonus! I'm thinking with a little bit of a colour make over this could be our perfect "Hippy Haven" time will tell.

Vanuatu is of course just like every other property market on the planet, it's all about timing, this one may be long gone by the time we are ready to make our move, and another 20 will surely come onto the market. I have been pleasantly surprised by the number and quality of options available,...then of course there is alway that "other" option to build, delivering exactly what we want without compromise, I'm not sure how "The Great Practical One" would cope though, he is after all not a big fan of the stress associate with the renovate/build scenario, that is after all what we are trying to "Escape"

Until next time.