Not so long ago, it seems, a foreign holiday was viewed by many people as something of a novelty.
Pretty soon, as far flung destinations and once-remote parts of the globe came within easy reach of the casual traveller, a fortnight's vacation wasn't quite enough to satisfy our demands for a taste of life overseas.
Instead, we actually wanted to own a corner of some foreign field. As Britons' confidence grew, buying property just across the Channel in France gave way to the acquisition of homes in Spain, Italy, the Greek islands, parts of Eastern Europe, the United States and even further away from the UK.
In good times, such properties can provide families with what is literally a home-from-home: the welcome feeling of being in familiar surroundings even while away from the environment in which we might spend the majority of the year.
However, when times - and relationships - are tough, they merely become another asset to be argued over. In fact, foreign home ownership has become so common that more than one-sixth of the divorces handled by myself and my colleagues at Pannone feature overseas property.
To some, walking away from a failed marriage with a home in a foreign sun trap might still not sound a totally unattractive proposition. In the last few years, though, there are many who would disagree.
Many of us will be all too familiar with the effect of the recession on house prices in the UK. Its negative impact on values here, however, is considerably less than in other countries. In the last few years, there has also been a steep drop in property prices in many parts of Europe, as tracked by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors European Housing Review (http://www.rics.org/us/knowledge/research/research-reports/european-housing-review-2012/).
The report detailed how, since 2007, homes in Spain are said to have fallen by 27 per cent and in Italy by 13 per cent. Portugal had also seen a five per cent drop in prices whilst the market in France was down by 7.6 per cent.
Those findings coincided with a study reporting that enquiries by Britons looking to sell their European homes had risen by 200 per cent since the credit crunch began to bite in 2008 (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/offshorefinance/9297024/Britons-rush-to-sell-European-properties.html).
As a result, what might have seemed like a decent divorce settlement when a couple split only a few years ago might now appear to be something of a millstone. Foreign properties which might have been viewed as a real asset in 2007 are not only worth less but might not be sellable.
Some divorcees have attempted to revise the terms of their settlements to take account of the drastic consequences which the downturn has had for Continental homes which they had taken as the principal part of their settlements.
On the face of it, their prospects are, frankly, rather bleak. Courts are unwilling to revise settlements for individuals who might have taken foreign property in much the same way that they have been reluctant to unpick the divorce settlements of those like investment tycoon Brian Myerson, who argued that his business interests had suffered during the recession.
In April 2009, the Court of Appeal rejected his attempt to revise the terms of his £9.5 million divorce on the basis that his businesses had been badly affected by the global downturn. It concluded that the "natural process of price fluctuation, however dramatic" did not warrant Mr Myerson being allowed to alter the terms of his settlement (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/01/divorce-settlement-credit-crunch).
The current situation may not, of course, blunt the desire of some couples to own a dream home abroad, even if an inability to secure a mortgage might delay those ambitions for a little while.
It might sound unromantic but considering what might happen to overseas assets in the event of a break-up and even formalising those plans in something like a post-nup agreement could forestall difficulties between partners - even if it can't ward off a global recession.
Given the bitter experience and complications of a foreign financial misadventure, it is little wonder that some individuals wish that they'd heeded the words of Dorothy in 'The Wizard of Oz': "There's no place like home".