Woman, 32, who couldn’t afford to buy a home in her native New York reveals how she was able to snap up FIVE properties in Europe for a lower price than a SINGLE house in the US

A woman has talked about buying five luxurious vacation properties across Europe instead of spending all her savings on a tiny apartment in New York City.

Amy Biehl, 32, is a digital consultant who insisted she loves her life in New York, and will be staying there 'for the foreseeable future,' as she declared in an essay. business Insider,

However, she quickly admitted that, barring an incredible stroke of luck, such as 'a lottery win or a huge financial windfall', the price range of purchasing housing in NYC was 'cost-prohibitive' for her, especially in the US during this time. Rising cost of living.

Right now, she's renting a one-bedroom, 650-square-foot apartment for $2,850 a month — which is “pretty great by New York standards,” she admitted.

Amy Biehl, 32, is a digital consultant who feels at home in New York City — but she can't actually afford homeownership in the metropolis.

Instead, Amy worked with a real-estate agency called August, which helped her become part owner of five homes in delightful European locations, including Mallorca, Spain (pictured)

Amy had always dreamed of living and working abroad. Pictured is his Majorca home

But buying anything of similar size in his neighborhood would set him back about $1 million.

In 2020 and 2021, while living in the middle of the pandemic, Jen was going 'crazy' and started searching for real estate in quaint cities across Europe, noticing that many of the listings were going for extremely cheap.

Amy recalls, 'There were hundreds of articles about one-euro houses in small villages in Italy, or France, or Spain – and all these people who took advantage of that opportunity and bought a house for $10,000 or something. Were capable of making.

'I said, 'Wow, maybe I can do that.'

It was through his online research that he discovered August, a 'vertically integrated real estate group' that connects those looking for holiday homes with a wide range of options in some of the most beautiful locations in Europe – in Spain From Majorca to the French Alps. For the English countryside.

In essence, AUG allows potential buyers to acquire a percentage of a 'portfolio' of five different properties in desirable locations – other buyers also own shares of each listing.

Each owner is given ample flexibility to choose which weeks of the year they wish to spend at a given property.

'The shorthand I use when explaining it to my friends and family is, “It's a non-scam timeshare, because you actually have an equity stake and you have access to the properties,” Amy explains. You wish.”

Amy added: 'The collection I chose is five houses in Tuscany, the south of France, the French Alps, the Cotswolds in England and Majorca.'

He further added that, although he is in the smallest of the three levels of house size, he still gets 'three to four bedrooms per house.'

For his share of all five homes, the purchase price was a 'flat lump sum fee' of €360,000 – which is just under $390,000. The additional cost of maintenance and taxes amounts to about $10,000 annually.

She now owns 1/21st of a 'portfolio' of five different holiday homes – including Majorca (pictured), Tuscany, the south of France, the French Alps and the Cotswolds in England.

When she first stepped into the Mallorca home (pictured), 'I was the only one smiling in this house,' she recalled

Amy detailed her motivations for purchasing the five homes she's 'always toyed with the idea of ​​living abroad.'

In college at Colgate University, she spent a semester abroad in Stockholm, and she loved the experience.

While she had peers who tried to visit as many places as possible while living abroad, she remembered that she 'liked the stable and familiar feeling' in Stockholm, so she mostly 'stayed there.'

He further added, 'I loved the place and the feeling of home that I felt after living there for just five months.'

Although she looked for job opportunities abroad after graduation, she never found the right opportunity.

But, during the pandemic, they began to reconsider what was actually within the realm of possibility for them personally — especially given how many companies began allowing remote work.

'During the pandemic, when the realities of work completely changed for many, the possibility opened up. Amy wrote, 'Maybe this is something I could do sooner than I thought.'

'I have been very fond of potentially traveling and living abroad, or at least spending a good portion of time away from my home base. It happened sooner than I expected, but it was something I had thought about since high school, too.'

Amy said she now owns about 1/21st of her portfolio of five homes, divided between her and 20 other families.

Amy estimates that her portfolio of five homes, which she partly owns, is worth close to €7 million (a little over $7.5 million). There is a house similar to the one in the picture in the south of France

For all five properties, Amy paid a lump sum fee of €360,000 (slightly less than $390,000), plus $10,000 annually for maintenance and taxes. There is a house just like the one in the picture in Tuscany

'What I got was way more than what I could have achieved on my own,' she said of the price tag. Pictured is a house similar to his in the French Alps

'You get that kind of familiarity and connection to place, but you don't have the hassle of hiring a property manager or having a leaky roof, but I'm 4,000 miles away,' he explains of the set-up.

When it comes to sharing space with multiple other households, August has a points system for dividing up time spent in any given household.

'Everyone gets the same points, so it's very egalitarian,' Amy said.

'You get 36 points a year, and each week's weighting is different. The peak summer months are worth five points, and then the shoulder-season weeks are worth two points. From there it keeps fluctuating.

'For me, this was also a really attractive point: I have the flexibility of being able to use low-point weeks because I don't have kids in school. Do I want to go for a month in October? I can do that because I don't have to worry about anyone else's schedule,' she highlights.

He estimated that the full value of the property portfolio was probably in the range of €7 million (a little over $7.5 million).

'I don't have 7 million euros to buy five properties across Europe. So what I gained was much bigger than what I could have achieved on my own,' she stressed on the benefits.

'These are established, in-demand locations that will always appeal to a certain demographic. So I also feel safe in that regard,' she said.

Most of all, she was confident that, while New York City was her home, she didn't really feel the need to become a homeowner in NYC, nor in the greater tri-state area, for that matter.

'Should I move to more suburban New Jersey so I can buy a house? No, I wouldn't count on moving – whether it's to another city, or another state, or a suburb – to buy a house. She said, 'This is my reality.'

At the same time, when she first stepped into the Majorca home, 'I was the only one smiling in this house,' she recalled.

'I was like, “This is so cool. I'm standing in this beautiful house that's mine. How cool is that? I'm here on an island. Who knows if I would have ever found my way here otherwise?” “

'It made me very happy and very proud. It made me feel proud of this accomplishment and purchasing it.