2008 News Archive - Holidays - Britain's wealthiest workers heading to the beach

16 01 2007

Some of Britain's top earners are planning to head overseas in the coming weeks as they splash out on a new home.

Research from Pure International has revealed that City bonuses will allow hundreds of wealthy individuals to purchase a holiday home abroad and it seems most will head to their favourite holiday resorts.

The new report indicates that 51 per cent of the top City bonus earners will invest in an overseas home and, given that the average bonus will be a little short of £300,000, those in this wealthy group will not be short of options.

Around four in ten of those surveyed said that they will look for a beach property, suggesting that many will use their second (or perhaps third) home as a holiday retreat in the summer.

While France is the favoured destination, presumably for travel purposes, 21 per cent of respondents said they would like to buy in Italy and 19 per cent named Spain as their number one choice.

Sean Collins, managing director of Pure International, said: "We sell two-thirds of property at values of over £500,000 between December and March, a clear indication it is funded by bonus money."

For those who are not expecting a bonus approaching £300,000 this month, holidays in the sun will reportedly be considerably more affordable than last year, with Co-op Travel and Travelcare finding that beach breaks in Spain will be 13 per cent cheaper.