The 12 Most Expensive Mistakes Foreign Property Buyers Make (2026)

Published on: June 20, 2026

Most people buying property abroad are smart, careful and successful at home. That's exactly why they get caught out. The instincts that protect you in your own market, you know how contracts work, you know what's normal, you can read the fine print, you know when a price is fair, quietly stop working the moment you cross a border. The rules are different, the language is different, and almost everyone you talk to is paid only if the deal closes.

None of the mistakes below are exotic. They're ordinary, and they're expensive, and they repeat across countries and price points. Here they are, in roughly the order they tend to cost the most, with what to do instead.

1. Assuming "owning" means the same thing it does at home

In your country, buying a home usually means owning it outright, forever. Abroad, "ownership" can mean a 30-year leasehold (foreigners in Thailand), a bank trust (Mexico's fideicomiso in the restricted zone), a condo unit but never the land under it, or a structure that's outright illegal, like a local nominee "holding" the property for you in Indonesia or Thailand, where such arrangements are unenforceable and a classic way to lose everything.

What to do: Before you fall in love with a property, confirm in writing exactly what form of ownership a foreigner can legally hold there, and whether your money buys freehold, leasehold, a trust beneficiary's rights or shares in a company. Each is legitimate in the right context; the danger is not knowing which one you're getting. Our international glossary explains the main structures.

2. Treating the deposit contract as "just a formality"

This is the single most common surprise. In most of continental Europe and Latin America, the document that legally commits you is the preliminary contract, the Spanish arras, French compromis de vente, Italian compromesso, Portuguese CPCV, not the final deed. You typically put down around 10% at this stage, and if you walk away, you lose it. Buyers routinely sign these thinking they're a reservation and learn otherwise when they try to back out.

What to do: Treat the preliminary contract as the real commitment it is. Have your own lawyer review it before you sign, understand the deposit terms (which type of deposit, who forfeits what), and make completion conditional on the things that matter, finance, clean title, planning permissions, through proper conditions suspensives or their local equivalent.

3. Using the seller's or developer's lawyer

On an off-plan development or a "we'll handle everything" resort sale, the same lawyer or notary often acts for everyone. A notary is neutral by design, fine, but a lawyer recommended and effectively controlled by the seller is not on your side. When something goes wrong, you find out whose interests were really being protected.

What to do: Appoint your own independent lawyer, ideally one with no relationship to the seller, agent or developer, and confirm that they act solely for you. It is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy on a property purchase.

4. Mistaking the agent for your advocate

A warm, helpful, English-speaking agent who seems to be looking after you is still, in most markets, paid by the seller and only when the sale completes. That doesn't make them dishonest, it makes them not neutral. Information that would cool your enthusiasm or lower the price doesn't always travel in your direction.

What to do: Use the agent for what they're good at, access, local knowledge, viewings, and rely on your own lawyer and your own due diligence for anything that protects your money. Where buyer's agents exist (they're growing in Italy, Portugal and elsewhere), a dedicated buyer's agent realigns the incentives.

5. Not checking the agent or agency is actually licensed

In most serious markets, estate agents must be licensed or registered, and you can verify it in minutes: a RERA broker card in Dubai, an AMI number in Portugal, a carte professionnelle in France, a Chamber of Commerce (REA) registration in Italy. Unlicensed operators are exactly the ones who take a "deposit" into a personal account and vanish, and where the agent is unlicensed, your legal recourse if things go wrong is far weaker.

What to do: Before you transfer a cent or sign anything, verify the agent's licence on the official public register for that country. We walk through how to do it, country by country, in How to check a foreign real estate agent is licensed.

6. Budgeting the sticker price and forgetting everything else

The headline price is rarely what you pay. Transfer taxes, notary and registration fees, legal fees, agency commission where the buyer pays it, and, for foreign and second-home buyers, outright surcharges can add a substantial percentage on top. Closing costs vary enormously: low-single-digit percentages in some countries, well into double digits in others. On top of that sits currency risk: a swing in the exchange rate between signing and completion can move your real cost by thousands.

What to do: Ask for a written estimate of total acquisition cost, not the price. Build in the foreign-buyer surcharges that apply to you specifically, and decide consciously how to handle the currency exposure between deposit and completion rather than leaving it to chance.

7. Paying the "foreigner premium"

Foreign buyers don't just face higher official costs, they tend to pay more for the property itself. A peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, examining around 30,000 transactions across eight countries, found that foreign investors paid significantly more than domestic buyers for comparable properties, even after controlling for property characteristics, and that the gap shrank as buyers gained local experience. In other words, the premium is largely an information gap, and it's biggest on your first purchase in an unfamiliar market.

What to do: Close the information gap before you negotiate. Get independent comparable sales data, understand what locals actually pay, and don't anchor to the first number an agent quotes. Our full breakdown is in The "foreigner price": do overseas buyers actually pay more?

8. Wiring money on instructions you got by email

This is the fastest way to lose the largest amount of money, and it's rising. Criminals monitor or spoof the email of your lawyer, agent or the title/escrow company, then send you "updated" wire instructions at the last minute. The funds land in the fraudster's account and are gone. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center logged record fraud losses in recent years, with business-email-compromise schemes, the category that hits property closings, among the most damaging; real-estate cases of six and seven figures are routine.

What to do: Never trust payment instructions that arrive (or "change") by email. Independently confirm every banking detail by calling a phone number you already had on file, not one from the email, before sending a single transfer, and use regulated escrow or the notary's client account where possible. The full playbook is in How to pay for property abroad safely.

9. Signing contracts in a language you can't read

Plenty of buyers sign a deed in Spanish, Italian or Turkish on the strength of a verbal summary from the agent who's selling it to them. The translation you weren't given is where the surprises live: a different boundary, an undisclosed charge, a penalty clause.

What to do: Insist on a written translation by a sworn/certified translator, or an independent interpreter at signing, and have a bilingual lawyer confirm the foreign-language original (which is usually the legally binding version) matches what you think you're agreeing to. See Signing what you can't read.

10. Buying off-plan on trust

Off-plan can be a good deal, but you're paying for a promise. The classic failures: the developer runs out of money mid-build, the project is delayed for years, the finished unit differs from the renders, or there's no bank guarantee protecting your staged payments.

What to do: Investigate the developer's track record and finances, confirm your instalments are protected by a bank guarantee or held in escrow, get the specifications and delivery date in the contract with penalties for non-delivery, and check the developer actually owns the land and has the building permits in hand.

11. Skipping due diligence on title, debts and whether it was built legally

In many civil-law countries, debts and charges follow the property to the new owner. Buy a home with an unpaid mortgage, tax arrears or community debts and they can become yours. Worse are illegal or unpermitted builds, extensions or whole houses with no occupancy licence, and rural land sold as buildable that isn't. Hidden physical defects are the quieter cousin: no survey, no idea what you're inheriting.

What to do: Have your lawyer run the full searches, current land-registry extract, encumbrances, planning and occupancy status, and confirm what's on the ground matches the paperwork. Commission a survey for condition. On rural or recently built property, this step isn't optional; it's the whole game.

12. Buying for a Golden Visa or residency without checking the rules still apply

Residence-by-investment rules change constantly, and several European programmes have been narrowed, repriced or closed outright in recent years. Buyers commit to a purchase on the basis of a visa benefit that no longer exists by the time they complete, or that the property doesn't actually qualify for.

What to do: If the residency benefit is part of why you're buying, verify the current programme rules and the property's eligibility in writing, directly from current official sources or a qualified immigration adviser, before you commit, not from a brochure printed two years ago.

The thread running through all twelve

Every mistake on this list comes from the same root: at home you have context, and abroad you don't, while almost everyone advising you profits from the sale. The fix is always the same shape, slow down at the moment of commitment, put someone genuinely independent on your side, and verify the thing you're being told rather than trusting it. The buyers who lose money are rarely the ones who asked too many questions.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most expensive mistake foreign property buyers make?
Two compete for the title. The fastest large loss is wiring funds on fraudulent emailed instructions, where six- and seven-figure sums vanish in minutes. The most common costly mistake is treating the preliminary deposit contract as a formality and forfeiting a 10% deposit on a deal the buyer didn't realise was already binding.

Do I really need my own lawyer to buy property abroad?
In nearly all cases, yes, an independent lawyer who acts only for you, separate from the notary (who is neutral) and the agent (who works for the seller). It's a small fraction of the purchase price and the single highest-value protection you can buy.

Why do foreigners pay more for the same property?
Mostly an information gap. Research across multiple countries shows foreign buyers overpay relative to locals for comparable homes, and the gap shrinks with local experience. It's largest on a first purchase in an unfamiliar market, which is exactly when independent comparable data matters most.

A note from JanusHermes

JanusHermes covers cross-border property across 50+ countries with one rule: no hype, no half-truths. Browse our country guides, tax explainers and Golden Visa comparisons to go deeper on any market.

Disclaimer. This article is provided for general information only and does not constitute legal, tax, or financial advice, nor does it create any professional or advisory relationship. Rules, costs, and programme statuses change frequently and vary by country, so always confirm the current position with an independent lawyer who represents you, separate from the seller, agent or developer, before committing to any purchase. JanusHermes is a property information and listing platform and accepts no liability for any action taken in reliance on this content.