Carbon footprint issues of owning property abroad

The budget airline Easyjet is expected to announce its support for a green tax on air travel later today, a move welcomed by currency specialists HiFX for highlighting the environmental argument surrounding air travel. The currency broker, which helps many people purchase holiday homes each year, is urging consumers to consider ways of offsetting the environmental impact of making frequent trips abroad, as well as ensuring that the property they own is as energy efficient as possible, after discovering that British attitudes to the environment are less responsible when it comes to going away.

In a recent study HiFX revealed that travel alone to that ‘des res’ place in the sun typically increases the average owner’s total carbon emissions by 28 per cent a year and in some cases up to 40 per cent in the worst offending destinations.

HiFX surveyed the attitudes of owners and prospective buyers of property abroad towards ‘carbon footprints’ and calculated the carbon footprint created by journeying to popular overseas holiday home destinations. The study also shows that nearly two thirds (64%) of those surveyed said they would not take into consideration the environmental effect of travelling to and from their property when deciding where and if to buy abroad.

According to HiFX’s analysis, regular short haul flights to Cyprus put the island at the top the table in terms of creating the largest carbon footprint as people visit so often. Long haul destinations rack up the emissions; so just one visit a year to a place in South Africa lands Cape Town as the second most un-environmentally friendly destination amongst the ten most popular countries to own a holiday home.

A typical homeowner visiting southern Spain three times a year bumps the Iberic peninsula up the rankings; generating a carbon footprint of two and a half tonnes. Travelling to emerging overseas property hotspots such as Cape Verde can increase the average Brit’s carbon footprint by 40% - loading over four tonnes of carbon emissions onto the average Briton’s annual output of approximately ten tonnes.

Mark Bodega, Director at currency specialists HiFX, who help over 30,000 people a year buy property abroad comments “Owning a property abroad tends to lead people to make several short haul flights a year. Whilst it is great to enjoy these homes in the sun people should not forget the environmental impact of travelling there. Owners could consider using more environmentally friendly modes of transport than flying or make an effort to offset their carbon emissions. Today’s announcement by Easyjet will help highlight the environmental argument surrounding air travel”

Holiday home destinations ranked in order of amount of C02 generated by a typical owner visiting their property over one year:

1. Cyprus
2. South Africa
3. Cape Verde
4. Canada
5. USA
6. Spain
7. Portugal
8. Greece
9. UAE
10. Italy
11. France
12. Bulgaria