Just a thought with regard to buying in a country other than ones own......

A very dear friend and an even wiser businessman once suggested to me when we were seriously contemplating purchasing a condo on St. Maarten he was trying to sell, “Never invest money in the Island (or anywhere outside the country....) unless you can afford to lose every penny and not be overly concerned about the loss.” Things can and often do go wrong with international investments and you have to be prepared for the worse case scenario since laws and protections there aren’t the same as you’re accustomed to at home.

We thought long and hard about the wisdom of his words and ultimately passed on his condo ($150000.00 in 1986 or 87) and purchased our timeshare ($20000.00 plus) instead and to this day I hold no regrets. Oh, and btw, that same condo was ultimately destroyed in a hurricane called Luis while, had we bought it, we would have still had a hundred thousand dollar mortgage to pay off and a lawsuit in which we would have had to participate in to be able to recoup any of our monies.

I don’t know about French or Dutch real estate laws or policies but I’ve heard enough situations of buyers remorse from Island vacation home owners to know my friend was right, at least in our case. I bet there might be a few owners at OBC that might feel the same way.

Ps - Amended to add: sorry Elaine and Bill. I meant to direct this post as a follow-up comment to the post before me and I’m too lazy to delete it and repost the thought.