A Place in the Sun's Ben Hillman reveals the best place to invest in a holiday home abroad

Make a break for sunnier shores this summer

A Place in the Sun's Ben Hillman has shared his advice on the best place to buy a holiday home abroad. If this weeks downpour has you dreaming of living under the Spanish sun or sipping rose in Provence, listen up. 

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Speaking to Ideal Home the Channel 4 presenter dipped into his six years of experience hunting for homes abroad to reveal his favourite spots in Europe. Like with any house hunt, when searching abroad you want to look for somewhere where the location is beautiful and your money will go far, luckily Ben Hillman has just the place.

Ben Hillman's best place to buy a holiday home

'I am always a big fan of the Balearic Islands,' says Ben. 'I think you're money is always going to do well. It is always really buoyant - it is a little entity, so it is good for money but it is not cheap.'

sea side houses surrounded by trees

(Image credit: Getty / Jorg Greuel)

The Balearic Islands are made up of four main islands - Ibiza, Formentera, Mallorca and Menorca. Each promises golden sandy beach and famously lively nightlife in parts of the islands. However, as Ben points out while your money will do well these are not cheap places to invest, especially not Ibiza. A four-bedroomed detached house with a pool on the famous island will typically cost upwards of €1.2 million.

While Ben recommends the Balearics as a great place to invest abroad, he personally prefers the Dorada coast. 'Just south of Sitges in Spain, along the Dorada coast is a really lovely low key traditional Spanish resort - it's about 30 to 40 minutes from Barcelona. So it's amazingly situated it's got a beautiful coastline.'

beach view with cliff house and sunset

(Image credit: Getty / José Ramón Martínez Alemán / EyeEm)

'The coastline is very much like Majorca or something like that, so it's got all the lovely pine trees and the coves. So that is somewhere I would look to invest money in a holiday home.'

Despite the pandemic and Brexit throwing up many issues with house hunting abroad, Ben reveals that it hasn't damped people's interest. In fact, alongside many of us jumping on new DIY ideas in the last year, interest in buying holiday homes appears to have grown.

'In terms of people looking and people interests in moving abroad, or having a place abroad enquiries to our show have skyrocketed,' he explains. 'So there is a huge appetite for it at the moment absolutely, our viewing figures are just off the charts, I think people just really wish they were abroad.'

Related: A Place in the Sun's Ben Hillman reveals the easiest way to add value to your home

If you need us we'll be on Rightmove overseas searching for our new Spanish pad.

Rebecca Knight
Deputy Editor, Digital

Rebecca Knight has been the Deputy Editor on the Ideal Home Website since 2022. She graduated with a Masters degree in magazine journalism from City, University of London in 2018, before starting her journalism career as a staff writer on women's weekly magazines. She fell into the world of homes and interiors after joining the Ideal Home website team in 2019 as a Digital Writer. In 2020 she moved into position of Homes News Editor working across Homes & Gardens, LivingEtc, Real Homes, Gardeningetc and Ideal Home covering everything from the latest viral cleaning hack to the next big interior trend.