You could get buy a three-bedroom apartment in a CASTLE in France for the same price as the average property in Cheshire.

What with Christmas being over and going back to work, January can be a tough month in the UK at the best of times. Throw in one of the wettest winters ever and you’d be forgiven for wanting to trade in your life for one in the sun.

The average property in Cheshire sold for £180,000 in 2015, according to the Land Registry. Although cheap compared to the rest of the UK, this seems like a terrible deal when considering houses on sale for similar prices overseas.

For example, a detached four-bed villa in Portugal, complete with remote controlled gates and an indoor garden is on the market for a very reasonable EURO 170,000 (£127,000).

A detached four-bed villa in Portugal is on the market for a very reasonable EURO 170,000 (£127,000)
A detached four-bed villa in Portugal is on the market for a very reasonable EURO 170,000 (£127,000)

If swimming pools and solitude are more your thing then how about a four-bed country house in southern Spain? You could snap it up for just EURO 134,950 according to Rightmove’s overseas department.

Alternatively you could buy a three-bedroom apartment in a castle complex just outside Paris for just shy of £180,000.

And seeing as we’re indulging in this reckless escapism, why not think bigger and relocate your entire family abroad?

If you can club together £500,000 then you’d be able to afford an estate of three villas plus an apartment in southern Spain.

Or you could live like a mafioso and splash out on a six-bedroom house by the sea in Sicily.

Check out those properties here...

The detached four-bed villa in Portugal

The four-bed country house in Spain

The three-bed castle in France

The estate of villas plus an apartment in Spain

The six-bed house by the sea in Sicily