Renting a house can make more sense when moving abroad Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, said: "The sharp decline in home-buying costs over the past few years, combined with a significant increase in rents, has greatly improved the financial attractiveness of buying a home. But despite this, home-buying levels remain well below those at the height of the market. Today, concerns over job security and raising a deposit are the main obstacles to people buying their own home. Of course, if you are renting out your house in the UK, you will probably not be able to afford to buy a house in the country you are moving to, in most cases. So you will also need to rent a property yourself in your new country of choice. This has distinct advantages, not least because you then have a chance to see whether you made the right decision to make that move in the first place. Renting helps you to discover the area you are moving to, and gives you the option of moving from one area to another to see which suits you best. But no matter which country you live in, you need to be aware of all the rules relating to rental properties, and what your obligations are. You can find properties on websites such as Rentalsolutionsoverseas.com, but it might also be worth contacting a local agent before you leave the UK. Get all the advice you can on how the market works, what sort of references you might need and so on. Importantly, you will need to have a bank account set up abroad, so you should take care of this before you leave the UK as well. It may sound obvious, but just as you would in the UK, you need to make sure that you are presentable when meeting with any property letting agents that you are dealing with, as first impressions count and remain, and it could make the difference between getting your dream property, or losing it.