NEED THE GEAR BUT NO IDEA? C
Cathy Hawker provides some useful pointers for furnishing your holiday home abroad
ongratulations. After viewing endless properties, liaising with lawyers and arranging money transfers you are the
proud owner of a new home overseas. That’s the good news. However there is still work to be done. How you furnish a holiday home can
make all the difference to the success of your project. If you plan to rent out your property, how it looks and functions plays an important part in attracting repeat clients. Even if it is more of a personal bolthole, it will be far more enjoyable with a certain level of style and comfort. “Most people are short on time
and struggle to know where to source furnishings abroad,” says Mike Frayling of Furnish Your Abode, (
www.furnishyourabode.com), a company based in Portugal and the UK that provides crockery through to complete furniture packages. “The current economic climate means we are seeing more people who need to rent their property out very
quickly once they have purchased it to help cover costs. “They don’t want to take fi ve days
out of their holiday to make up an inventory, trek around the shops, wait in for delivery and then assemble the furniture.” But if you do rent, it is essential that
you spend extra on quality/durable items or it’s a false economy, counsels Jo Soylev, who sells £5,000-12,000 furniture packages in Bodrum in south-west Turkey (www.
bodrumfurniture.com). “I see very bad examples of cheap furniture packs here that don’t last the season in rental properties,” she says. “Spend more for rentals, but top-
quality packages cost a lot less than you’d pay elsewhere.” If you buy a resale property abroad and it may be possible to negotiate the purchase of some or all of the furniture from the old owners. Mercers (
www.spanishproperty.co. uk) who sell homes in Spain’s Costa Calida, say 90 per cent of their resale
homes are sold furnished. Meanwhile some estate agents
offer an after-sales service. In Malta agency Frank Salt
(
www.franksalt.com.mt) charges €550 (£459) to accompany their clients to recommended suppliers, secure discounts on furniture and to follow up and monitor delivery and assembly, a cost normally recouped through the discounts. Ask agents about the sort of after- sales services they offer at the outset. Newly built properties, however,
require everything from teaspoons to tables, while in parts of Europe - like Malta and Italy - they often come without fi tted kitchens or bathrooms as standard. So what are the options for furnishing your home in the sun?
Main
Nonsuch Bay Resort, Antigua: Furniture packages start from $55,800 (£35k) including white goods on a new property at Nonsuch Bay - see page 36.
aplaceinthesun.com 35
FURNITURE OPTIONS
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