How To Buy Property In Iceland
Vacation Homes in Iceland
As more and more Americans become internationally savvy investors, we love bringing you experts and tips on how to safely buy abroad. Iceland is a gorgeous country and it’s growing quite fast – which means opportunity knocks!
Iceland’s capital is Reykjavík, so we scoped out a quality agent who has been selling there for more than 5 years – Pall Palsson. When you are considering a purchase as a newbie to a country, you do not want to work with a newbie agent! It’s a really good idea to ask your main Realtor if they are an International Specialist (CIPS) and if so, they can help pair you with a good fit in the country you plan to purchase.
RESEARCH is key, and that’s best done with a team. Iceland currently has a stable government, currency, and job market. Iceland is one of the fastest growing real estate markets in the world. Iceland has an even market right now which makes it easier for both buyers and sellers to obtain their goals. It also means their are enough houses on the market if you’re looking for your next big move!
Here’s an interview with Pall that goes more in depth about the current real estate market in Iceland:
Other factors to consider are education, cost of living, and climate.
As far as climate, Iceland tends to have very short summers that are still chilly and usually pretty cloudy. If you’re from California, it would be quite the opposite of the sunny beautiful weather we are used too! Their winters are very long and wet, but if the snow is something you love – it’d be perfect for you! The temperature in Iceland hardly ever drops below 17 degrees which if you’ve ever been to the Midwest where it drops down to a brutal -20 with wind chill often during the winter months then that might not seem so bad. You won’t usually see the temperature rise much higher than 62 degrees in Iceland. The absolute beautiful of this country may sway you to deal with the cold anyways – we’ve truly never seen such beauty.
The cost of living in Iceland is close to comparable to Southern California right now – expensive. You can get a 2 bedroom 1 bath town home around $350,000 – $400,000. If you’re able to afford that and even spend half of your time in a place with such outstanding sights to see you’d be living your best life.
