Primelocation is sponsoring this year’s  International Property Awards in association with Bloomberg Television, the housing world’s answer to the Oscars with a red carpet event to be held on November 25th and 26th this year in central London. 

So could your next home end up with an international gong for its architecture, build quality or a range of other categories?

These awards may not offer the same glamour and stars as the yearly Oscars in Hollywood, but in many ways they are not far off with categories that include best golf development, international property, apartment and interior design.

The event began it began in 1994 and has developed into a global concern with regional heats held across the world during the build up to the final in London. This comes to a glamorous climax at an event attended by the leading lights of the property world and celebrities.

These in past years have included Rick Wakeman of 1970s supergroup Yes, BBC Royal Correspondent Jenny Bond, interiors expert Linda Barker and Location, Location, Location star Phil Spencer. And the awards have high profile sponsors too. As well as Primelocation.com these include newspaper The New York Times, Google, Bloomberg Television and Maserati.

But one thing that doesn’t change is the robust judging process. Every year the world’s industry experts gather to judge - including this time round Primelocation.com’s Nigel Lewis - whether the hundreds of entries from across the globe pass the quality test.

A wide range of residential and commercial properties are judged from grand villas in Dubai to office developments in Budapest, and previous winners have included UK agent Knight Frank, developer Berkeley Homes (for its Sugar House development in London) and the Dunas Douradas Beach Club on Portugal’s Algarve coast. But winners come from a wide range of countries including Panama, Brazil, India, Singapore, South Africa and Cape Verde.

Few of the adverts for overseas investment properties that lure you in with glossy pictures of slim models wallowing in pools next to whitewashed villas mention the less glamorous side of owning a buy-to-let property overseas.

There’s the local utility companies to deal with, the challenges of finding a reliable cleaner and gardener, footing unexpected repair bills and the often complicated local taxation regimes.

But one challenge that no one could predict is the mountain of weird or surprising items that holiday makers leave behind in rental properties overseas for landlords to clear up .

According to Owners Direct, one of the leading private holiday home rental websites, the items most often left behind are the ones you’d think holiday makers need to get home – money, passports, false teeth, vital medicines, travel documents and car and house keys.

But although leaving behind these essentials can have serious and  expensive consequences, other belongings left behind by holiday makers are obviously too embarrassing to take home or worth retrieving.

Items found by Owners Direct landlords in properties include a pair of Father Xmas trousers, a fake beard, a false leg, a bongo drum and a full sized rubber mask of George Bush.

And being a holiday home owner might appeal to those with a thirst for free alcohol – holiday makers regularly leave behind titanic caches of unconsumed booze rather than lug it all the way back home.

But perhaps the most surprising items left behind were the most generous. One owner said a customer of theirs replaced all the light bulbs in their property with low energy ones for free.