Bobby you are in a minefield.
First, IF you decide to buy a House, make sure you have a 'Usufruct' which gives you the right to occupy that House as long as you need to.
IMO there are 2 ways to buy in your partners name, that give you some protection -
1. Start a Limited Company which will own the house. You need 3 Directors / Shareholders and you will probably own 39% of the shares.
The other two parties sign a blank share transfer form which you can fill in at any time. So, if there is a fall-out or some problem, you can submit those share transfers and own the Company 100%. But you are not allowed to do that, so you/ the Company, will then have 12 months to dispose of the House.
2. Putting your trust in someone, you need to create a Power of Attorney with that person, who also needs to have signed blank forms from the 'owner', probably your wife, ready to process at the Land Office, to transfer the Property to a new Owner.
Both these methods are expensive, cumbersome and onerous.
My advice would be, RENT a place long term. There are many lovely homes available.
You are then free to move on as you need to.
A final note, should you buy and everything then goes wrong, when the joint property is sold, you are entitled to and can gain at least 50% of the sale proceeds, if you can prove that the purchase funds came from you.
But it's a minefield - rental is a great idea. Just my opinions/experience and trying to help. E and OE
