New Online Tool for Expat House Hunters

Expatriates who have located to a new country for the first time and are in the process of house hunting may benefit from Lloyds TSB’s new interactive property search tool.

The tool, which uses a similar design to their recently launched property search tool, provides information about property and rental prices for popular expatriate destinations throughout the world.

Finding somewhere suitable to live can be time-consuming and stressful and, according to a spokesman from the bank, the tool was developed with the intention of assisting expatriates during the crucial settling-in period of a move abroad: “Moving to a new home overseas can become an all-consuming experience for many people as they search for property and complete all the admin that comes with moving house,” said Nicholas Boys Smith, at Lloyds TSB International.

A recent survey that was conducted by the bank, revealed that one in four expatriates spend over six months trying to find somewhere suitable to live when they relocation, while as many as 5% spend 12 months. Of those surveyed as part of the launch of the new property tool, 33% revealed that they believed that finding somewhere suitable to live had delayed their settling in process and 32% claimed that they had suffered financially as a result of such delays.