If you do use a UK lender, it is usually best to use one with a local operation in the country where you are buying. Not only does this help with the practicalities of the valuation, transfer of title, legal formalities, and the language problems, banks with specialist local knowledge are usually more able to assist in helping you understand the vagaries of the purchase process in your destination country.

To give an idea of why you will probably need some expert help, here are just some of the differences that you may face:

The cost of buying abroad is often a lot higher than in the UK, particularly in Portugal, Spain, Italy and France, where you can end up paying 10 or 15 percent in estate agent fees, legal charges, mortgage registration fees and VAT. These higher purchase costs impact your total expenditure quite heavily and you need to lower you budget for the property accordingly.

Whilst negotiating is part and parcel of property transactions in this country, the way we do it is not a patch on certain parts of the continent. Vendors in the Mediterranean countries in particular, incorporate a large portion of bluff into the asking price and if you don't go in with a sufficiently low offer, you may end up paying over the asking price.

In France you have to make a potentially non-refundable 10 percent deposit at the point the sale is agreed, so expert legal advice is crucial to ensure that you insert the correct clauses into the agreement document to make sure you don't lose the deposit if the sale falls through.

Under Spanish and Portuguese law, any debts on the property you buy automatically pass to you when you complete the sale. This can include debts relating to any previous mortgage on the property, making it essential that the legal work is done thoroughly.

Tax considerations can play an important part in the way the transaction is approached. Many European countries operate a system based on Napoleonic law, which means that everything is different when compared to the UK - inheritance law, rights over property, court procedures and so on. When inherited property is passed on in many European countries, in the absence of a local will it is split pro rata between family members, rather than all passing to next of kin.

Tax avoidance is endemic in Italy, so getting accurate valuations can be tricky. The official valuation can be 50 percent of the purchase price in order that the taxes associated with the sale are reduced.

Using offshore companies is the only way of buying property with certain lenders in Portugal. The company owns the property and shares in the company are passed from the vendor to the buyer. Changing inheritance legacies is then a matter of reallocating ownership of the shares. However, while this is often the only way to do it in Portugal, it is an extremely costly way to do it in Spain or Italy. Meanwhile, France has the SCI - the Societe Civile Immobiliere, which replaces this form of tax efficient mechanism.

These are just a handful of the many differences - there are many more...