Buying property abroad is not a new phenomenon, but academic research into the complexities of international property mediation is underdeveloped. This paper adopts a wide perspective on lifestyle-driven mobilities, including the semi-permanent relocation of Swedes to warmer destinations in the Mediterranean and other regions, and explores the functions of international property mediation. On the basis of data gathered from interviews with property agents, the objectives are to describe the organization of the international property sector, to understand the mediating roles of property agents, and position property mediation as production of lifestyle mobility. Property agents are understood to play a crucial role as intermediaries, influencing the client’s decisions by combining instrumental, interactionary, communicative, and social functions of mediation. Because of their superior expertise on property transaction procedures and regulations, area characteristics and contact networks, agents may influence clients’ decisions; however this also depends on their skills in interpreting client expectations and experiences, and the ability of the client to manage the process themselves.

In the search for the good life,’ moving to warmer destinations is a growing trend among affluent individuals from the northern parts of Europe and North America. Induced by quality-of-life drivers, property acquisition is an integral part of this search. Property acquisition behavior has earlier been conceptualized in various models of consumer behavior; however, these models are not sophisticated enough to explain the multiple drivers and complexity of lifestyle- and leisure-led acquisitions, especially if they are international in scope. In this paper, the process of recreational property acquisition is explored, based on thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with Swedes in Malta. Acquisition is found to be influenced by both internal drivers and motives, and external factors that are highly contextualized. This study explains the importance of the contextual frameworks and external influences on decision-making, and conceptualizes the process of international recreational property acquisition.

In affluent societies, an active choice of lifestyle is increasingly becoming an option. With increased possibilities for mobility, opportunities to lead a good life can be accessed across global space. However, lifestyle management is largely directed and constrained by structural frameworks, and movers have to allocate resources and experience in order to manoeuvre structures and make optimal lifestyle choices. This paper explores how residential mobility may be used as a resource to gain access to opportunities. Based on thematic analysis of in-depth interviews, this is performed by exploring the experiences of Swedish lifestyle movers in Malta, in their tailoring of mobility practices that allow them to enjoy opportunities for the good life in both countries. The research questions that have guided this study are as follows: (a) What does the good life comprise? (b) How are structural frameworks surrounding opportunities for lifestyle management perceived by movers? and (c) In what ways do movers actively tailor their mobility practices to achieve the good life? The results show that movers are highly engaged in tailoring their access to opportunities through place fixity, such as permanent residency and social integration, and through routinised and timed mobility practices.

In recent decades, mobility researchers have paid increasing attention to the flows of relatively privileged individuals whose mobility practices are largely understood to be lifestyle-motivated, consumption-led and tourism-induced (e.g. Benson, M., & O’Reilly, K. (Eds.). (2009). Lifestyle migration: Expectations, aspirations and experiences. Surrey: Ashgate; King, R., Warnes, A. M., & Williams, A. M. (2000). Sunset lives: British retirement migration to the Mediterranean. Oxford: Berg). Situated within the context of lifestyle mobilities, this paper aims to analyse the significance of place and representations of place in the movers’ stories of mobility. The mobility experiences of Swedish retirees practicing routinised and seasonal mobility between Sweden and Malta have been analysed, and this paper explores how they actively give meaning to their choices and decisions. In their narratives, the movers express their representations of themselves in relation not only to their imaginings of places and to their belongings to and engagements with these places, but also to their mobility practices. The findings contribute to a discussion of how place imaginaries and self-identities are constructed through lifestyle mobility practices.