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Welcome to my first Blog post!

 

I recently (last month) was in London (UK) and Paris for a milestone birthday. I went with my girlfriends. The kind of friends that love doing the same things I do...museums, castles, fabric stores and at the end of the day eating good food with really tasty (and cheap) red wine. I loved London. It is so clean, easy to navigate and welcoming. There is so much to do and see during the day and great night life and let's not forget the yummy food (we took photos of some of our dinners!).

   In London we stayed in the Kensington/ Chelsea area (recommendation from travelers we know). They were right, beautiful location and easy tube links. We utilized Air B and B and stayed at an incredible flat. It was a large updated flat, 1400 square feet, and had 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, livingroom, kitchen & diningroom. After the positive experience we had, I would stay at Air B and B places in other parts of the world.

   Of course being in Real Estate I dragged my companions to Estate Agencies to look at the prices of flats in our new desired location (Chelsea). We perused several agencies and finally settled on one flat that we would buy. It was a lovely 3 bedroom & 2 Bathroom flat, spacious at 1500 square feet, nicely updated and good floorplan all for 2.5 Million pounds! If I'm really honest, it was nothing too special, just nice and in a great location. As the saying goes: Location, Location, Location.

   We took the Chunnel to Paris and stayed in a little hotel in Arrondissment Nine. Paris was very walkable and our location was close to transit links but, we walked most of the time. The properties in Paris appeared more affordable. Here I would chose Arrondissment One (beside the Louvre) to live. Great location in the centre of Paris close to everything. Since we had spent our hypothetical 2.5 Million pounds in London that was my budget in Paris. You could purchase 2 gorgeous (lots of original details, views of the river and the Louvre) spacious (1200 & 1400 square feet) flats in Arrondissment One for the same price! I was quite surprised, I thought the flats in the district would be more expensive let alone be able to purchase 2 flats for the price of 1 in London.

   Once home, out of curiosity, I looked up what condo you could purchase in Vancouver for the price of 2.5 Million pounds. My target area would be downtown, close to the Hotel Vancouver (my favorite hotel in Vancouver). There I can purchase (with my hypothetical money) a 3,255 square foot, Ocean view condo with 4 bedrooms & 3 bathroom and 5 parking stalls on Howe Street.

   In the Parksville area you could  purchase 4 Ocean view & Ocean front condos. All 4 are spacious (1600 - 3200 square feet) one is a penthouse and all are beautifully finished. (or you could buy 12.5 acres of waterfront property with 6 pebble beaches, 2 older homes and sub dividable)

   Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying living in these locations is in anyway similar. It is just interesting to see how far your dollar goes in condo purchases in each of these locations.

   We had a wonderful holiday and next time I head oversees I will look outside of the cities to see how far the dollar goes on homes....or estates....

   

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