With More Americans Buying Overseas, Here’s How Europeans Can Lure U.S. Buyers

Buoyed by a strong dollar and wealth creation during the pandemic, record numbers of Americans are buying homes in Europe. Last year, 92% of high-net-worth Americans actively looked at real estate overseas, according to a survey by Coldwell Banker.

For European sellers, that opens up a growing segment of potential buyers ready to pay top dollar for prime properties in some of the continent’s most coveted cities. 

Everything’s Bigger in the States

Americans traveling to Europe may be willing to put up with how much tinier everything is: smaller elevators, cars and coffees for starters. But there’s one thing they won’t put up with when they move here.

“Americans don’t like small apartments,” said Serkan Gocmen, who leads the international residential sales team at JLL in Berlin. 

Americans are used to having more space than their European peers, and by a long shot. The average size of properties sold in the U.S, as of 2016, was 2,637 square feet on average, compared to 1,011 in France and Germany, and 968 in England and Wales, according to a study by the U.K.’s Office of National Statistics.

“They buy more space than what they need,” Mr. Gocmen said. The minimum for the American buyers he works with in Germany? Two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a balcony.

“Of course not every place can provide this—sometimes they have to buy what they see because there’s a scarcity of apartments,” Mr. Gocmen said. Many Americans end up having to compromise, but added spaces or extra storage can help a European seller to appeal to these buyers.

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