House Hunters Abroad Look
For the Comforts of Home

Buying a house is a tricky business at the best of times. Buying outside one's country can be even trickier, especially for those hoping to capture the flavor of home.

In multicultural London, one home certainly doesn't suit all. Different nationalities select homes based on different criteria, according to Robert Bailey, a partner at Buying Solution in London -- a unit of real-estate-advisory firm Knight Frank LLP in London -- which buys homes for private individuals.

According to Mr. Bailey, American expatriate buyers like to live in areas of London with a sense of community -- they like areas that have a village-like feel to them -- such as Notting Hill and Hampstead. Because American furniture is typically large, double-fronted houses -- typically symmetrical in design, with at least one window each side of the main entrance -- which offer more space, are popular.

"Americans want big homes because that's what we're used to," says Greg Scorziello, an American entrepreneur who lives in Surrey, just outside London. "We like big bathrooms, big bedrooms and gardens, because we like the feeling of space. My house here is 7,000 square feet, with a 1.5-acre garden, but you typically have to move out of London to get a garden that size."

Mr. Scorziello has also just acquired a Victorian-style flat in Knightsbridge, close to Harrods, the famous department store. He says he will either rent out the flat or keep it for personal use.

American buyers are also more concerned with the nitty-gritty and want to know about every potential pitfall -- from dampness to structural problems -- in advance, says Patrick Aschan, a real-estate agent at Cluttons LLP in London.

"They could be seen as aggressive -- they often have a very specific time frame in which they want the sale to go through -- but really they're just being straight," he says.

Nearly two-thirds of homes bought in Central London are purchased by U.K. buyers, with other European buyers accounting for 18% of purchases, North Americans, 5%, and Middle Eastern buyers, 8%, according to Cluttons. Property prices in Central London aren't for the faint-hearted -- they are typically in excess of £300,000, or about $525,000, and can rise to several million pounds.

When it comes to spending big bucks on a home, German buyers typically have the deepest pockets, according to Mr. Bailey. "There are some extraordinarily wealthy Germans. I have one client who has just upped her budget by several million" pounds, he says.

German buyers also have a preference for modern, minimalist homes, with high-quality fixtures and fittings, Mr. Bailey says.

French buyers are less concerned with space and are often happy to live in smaller spaces, Mr. Bailey says. They tend to prefer apartments over houses, in part because they are cheaper, and they don't mind having small kitchens. South Kensington is very popular with French buyers because it's close to the Lycée, a French-language high school.

Italians, meanwhile, prefer spacious kitchens for home entertaining and like green views, Mr. Bailey says. Italians with deep pockets therefore tend to choose areas such as Regent's Park and Primrose Hill. South Kensington is also popular with Italians because it is home to several good private schools with a wide range of European pupils, according to Mr. Aschan.

While it isn't necessarily intentional, clusters of certain nationalities in particular areas are common. "A lot of it is done by word-of-mouth," Mr. Aschan says. "One French banker's wife might say to another, 'When you go and live in London, you really must live in South Kensington because we loved it.' "

According to Mr. Aschan, the home-buying process for international buyers is much the same as for U.K. buyers. The one main difference is when it comes to buying leasehold properties, he says. To prove that a buyer can pay service charges, it's necessary to provide a bank reference and a personal reference.

"Obviously, a reference from a U.K. bank can carry more weight, so if an overseas buyer has a U.K. bank account, that makes the process much easier," he says.

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