With UK house prices showing no sign of falling, many potential first-time buyers are turning their attention to overseas market in order to get their feet on a property ladder.

According to the overseas property advice firm Investors Provident, many of these buyers are looking at a house in a foreign country more as an investment opportunity than as a place to live themselves in the medium-to-long term.

However, for the over-50s, buying an overseas property is often motivated by the desire to retire to the sun rather than as a money-making opportunity, the firm also concluded.

Commenting on the new generation of investors in foreign property, Hetal Shah, director of Investors Provident, said: "Most of these people have been priced out of the UK market and they do have a lot of equity in their existing investment in the UK, which, if they reinvested it in the UK, they would not see anywhere near the returns that they’re seeing abroad.

"So they are willing to take that risk; albeit a calculated risk."

The news comes as the currency firm HiFX recently reported that many Britons who have owned property overseas for some time are now looking to cash in on their assets and, either downsize, or move back to the UK.