Buying real estate in mountains can be a great investment, and it's a good thing the real estate world has a lot of options in ski resorts and other mountain areas. But you do need to know what you want; the same resort that is a hit with young adults who love the nightlife might not be great for a family with young children - and of course, there's that little matter of your budget to think about, too.

Simplifying your premium property search

Searching for a premium property is not an easy thing because of various criteria that differ from buyer to buyer.

You have dreamed of owning a home in Switzerland and month after month, you have conscientiously saved to buy real estate there.

This is, indeed, a turning point in the life of any buyer.

If you're considering becoming a property investor in Spain, the first decision you need to make is which type of rental you want to be involved in - long term rentals or short term holiday rentals.

Both options can be lucrative, but they require different strategies to succeed in the property market.

Portuguese luxury property has been the surprise stand-out sector of the pandemic. While the market has been flooded with small flats as the AirBNB business collapsed - there are some real bargains below EUR 1m right now in Lisbon and Cascais - bigger homes with more space, both indoors and outdoors, have seen a massive increase in demand.

You're thinking about buying a property. How can you make sure your purchase goes ahead without any problems or delays? Here are our top tips.

Today I'm excited to announce our latest feature to help you find your dream home: you can now draw on the map to define your search area.

The map of French property prices always looked like this: the city of Paris first, then greater Paris, then the other big cities - Lyon, Nice, Bordeaux - then the Ile de France, and then if you skipped the middle and went right down to the bottom, you'd find two big areas of cheapness, on the periphery in Brittany, and right in the middle of France where the whole of Limousin, Auvergne, and Berry were good value.

First of all we should note that prices in Switzerland have gone up since 2004. The Swiss Residential House Price Index has risen from below 120 to nearly 180 over the period. Of course, rental rates have gone up too - but they haven't quite kept pace over recent years.

If you're looking for a property in Spain, 2020 was a difficult year to find one. For many months the country was under lockdown, the economy suffered badly, and the property market basically stood still. However, towards the end of the year prices began to rise again with a small increase in November of just 0.7% year on year in the resale market.

Portugal has been one of the most successful of EU countries at suppressing the coronavirus pandemic; though it had a second wave in January, it now has new cases down to just a few hundred a day, and deaths in single figures. That's a remarkable performance. Italy, for instance, is still seeing over 10,000 new cases a day.

Brexit is now official, and yes, British citizens are now considered as non-residents, thus they will have updated requirements from work and life in European countries, however in regards to the real estate buying property in Europe is still possible. Many non-residents are buying property in France, Portugal and Spain and the process in most cases is not that difficult.

How to track new listings coming to the market? We have the answer – use My Home feature we’ve done for you! Go to Properstar portal and you will see new listings for your selected location right away. Every time you visit the site, you’ll get the update.

Bitcoin has its impact on multiple fields around the world, even Elon Musk confirmed that you can buy now a Tesla with Bitcoin. It simplifies the purchase process by avoiding the bank transfer procedures (especially in international deals), connecting buyer and seller in real-time and speeding up the process, even if you’re buying from another part of the world.