Buying a Home Abroad as an Expat: A Step-by-Step Guide (2026)

1. Research, eligibility, and your local number

It starts with research: locations, markets, costs, budget. While you're at it, get the dull groundwork out of the way, because that's what saves you later.

Check that you can actually buy. In a lot of countries foreigners buy with no trouble, but some restrict it or add extra taxes for non-residents, and the rules shift from year to year. Look up where your target country stands right now.

Then sort your local number. Most countries want a tax or ID number before you can buy or borrow, the BSN in the Netherlands, the NIE in Spain, the codice fiscale in Italy. Apply early, because almost nothing happens without it.

2. Decide how you want to buy: with an agent, or direct

Here's a fork a lot of expats don't realize they have. You don't actually need a buyer's agent to buy a home. On Anyone you can message sellers and listing agents, book viewings, and make and track offers yourself, all from one place.

And in countries where you'd normally hire and pay your own buyer's agent, skipping that fee is real money. In the Netherlands, an buyer agent usually runs about €2,500 to €5,000, and more like €5,000 to €8,000 in Amsterdam, or roughly 1 to 1.5% of the purchase price. Go direct and that stays in your pocket. (In markets where the seller covers both agents, there's no separate buyer's fee to save, but going direct can still give you more room to negotiate.)

Just go in knowing one thing: the agent on a listing works for the seller, not for you. Their job is to get the seller the best deal. So if you want someone purely on your side, that's a separate person, a buyer's agent, or an "aankoopmakelaar" if you're in the Netherlands. When you're working in a second language in a market you don't know yet, that backup can be worth the fee.

If you do want one, experience alone won't cut it. Look for someone who knows the area, speaks your language comfortably, has handled international buyers before, and is properly licensed where you're buying. Finding that person cold is hard when you've just arrived and can't ask friends or family for a name, which is where a matching service helps, since it points you toward agents who fit instead of leaving you to guess.

And you're not locked in. You can start on your own and bring in an agent later, or the other way around.

3. Find the right home

Now the fun bit. You're scrolling listings, comparing neighborhoods, picturing the life. Whether you're searching solo or an agent is lining up options for you, the mess usually comes from spreading it all across different sites, listings here, messages there, viewings somewhere else.

If you're still abroad, viewing remotely is completely normal now. Nearly half of recent buyers have made an offer without setting foot inside first (LendingTree), and people relocating lean on video tours and live walkthroughs the most. Do your area research from afar too, commute times, noise, what's nearby, before you spend money on a flight. And keep your shortlist short instead of chasing every place that catches your eye.

4. Make an offer

Once you find the one, things speed up, and offer rules vary more than you'd expect. Some markets haggle out in the open. Others, including parts of the Netherlands, run sealed bids, where everyone puts forward their best number at once, often over asking.

Find out how it works locally before you bid, and know which conditions you can attach, like subject to financing or subject to a survey, so you're covered if something falls through. Whether you put the offer in yourself or an agent does it for you, a mortgage agreed in principle really pays off here. It makes your offer credible, and in plenty of markets a seller won't take you seriously without one.

5. Financing and final checks

With an offer accepted, the focus moves to financing, paperwork, and checks. Expect a valuation, maybe a structural survey, and a steady trickle of documents from your lender.

Two things tend to catch expats out. Lenders often ask non-residents and recent arrivals for a bigger deposit than locals, and they look hard at your income and contract, so freelance or foreign income usually means more paperwork. And if you earn in one currency and buy in another, the exchange rate can move your budget around between the offer and the day you pay, so plan how you'll handle that early.

Whether you're managing this stretch yourself or an agent is, the job is the same: stay on top of the requirements and deadlines, because delays here can sink a deal.

6. Closing and moving

After weeks or months of looking, the end finally shows up. Contracts get signed, often in front of a notary or closing agent, the last details are settled, and you get the keys. If you've got an agent, they'll steer the final paperwork; going direct, you handle it, with the documents and the notary step kept in one place. If you can, walk through the property one more time before you sign, and line up any cross-currency transfers well ahead of time. Then the thing that felt impossible a few months ago is just home.