Wet summer sends Brits abroad for property

The number of Britons keen to buy a property abroad has doubled in the previous twelve months, a study released today reveals.

And the survey, carried out by Barclays Buying Abroad, cites the wettest British summer ever recorded as a major cause for the trend.

According to the report, Britain's recent terrible weather is replacing more traditional causes, including rising crime, ballooning UK property prices and a skewed work-life balance, as the main reason for more Brits looking abroad for property.

"Brits are familiar with the idea that we only have two seasons: the winter and July," commented Richard Exton, director of Barclays Buying Abroad.

"It seems that this year, with the terrible weather we have experienced in July and throughout the summer many people are not prepared to sit through a year-long winter and are looking for a getaway to sunnier climates."

And Met Office figures do indeed demonstrate early summer was the wettest since records began, more than 240 years ago.

During June and July an average of 387.6mm of rain fell across the UK, more than double the 186mm which would normally be expected for the period.

Unprecedented rainfall also caused widespread flooding across England during June and July, including areas in the West Midlands, Devon and Cornwall.

When the figures are compared to 436mm of rainfall in Spain for the whole of 2006 and the 65mm that fell on Dubai over the same period, the attraction in buying property abroad becomes apparent.