Bank Guarantees and the responsibility of the developer in the world of Overseas Property – Part Two, Cyprus

I have had a lot of positive response regarding the last blog I wrote about Bank Guarantees in Spain. It is a really contentious issue and one that is not often discussed. I felt the really interesting bit of information was that in the past it was in the interest of the client not to have a bank guarantee in the past – I thought this was a slight contradiction until I realised that the guarantee was on the money submitted and not on the paper value of the house – the developer was quite happy to hand back the money if the property was delayed as they could still sell the properties easily and this time get far more money for them! The markets have changed however and prices are not rising as quickly as before but the need for security has increased rapidly. Now it is Cyprus’ turn to be reviewed and this is a quite different market to that of Spain…….

Bank Guarantees and the responsibility of the developer in the world of Overseas Property – Part one, Spain

There has been a lot of insecurity over the last year about overseas property and I have seen a real shift in the property market to people buying either resale property or key ready property. This is not surprising since a lot of the media has been filled with developers not finishing their developments and I have to admit I have seen first hand, several smaller and some larger developers having serious problems.

Expansion continues in our Dutch market

Witte Woningen Broker Meeting 2009

I am sitting in Schipol airport as I write this piece as my flight has just been delayed which sadly is not the first time I have had this experience from here! Anyway, it does allow me to reflect on my experience today with the Real Estate Agent, Witte Wonigen Makleers http://www.wittewoningmakelaars.nl/

It was their annual conference and all the franchise offices around Holland came near the town of Almelo in the East of Holland (about 2 hours drive from Schipol) to discuss the market. It seems that the Dutch market has been having similar difficulties to most of its European neighbours in the last 18 months but, as with many countries, are confident about the future.

Overseas property purchases show signs of recovery

In these last few weeks there has been a lot of positive press regarding the word “recovery”. There have been fantastic indicators in the UK including the FTSE 100 reaching 5,000 for the first time since October 2008, the UK domestic Market showing promise with increases of 5.6% on the year and predictions that houses will actually be worth more at the end of the year than at the start. There are other, more economic indicators as well; GDP figures are up on forcasts, the costs for banks borrowing from each other is now cheaper than before the credit crunch and unemployment continuing to peak and given this is a lagging indicator, this is actually good news.

What does this mean for the overseas property sector however, are we seeing such bullish news from this sector; one which has been hit hard by the credit crunch?

Further signs of a recovery in the Housing market……

It has been interesting watching the news recently.

• We have now had four months of continual house prices rises regardless of which indices your are watching
• Economical figures from the UK, Europe and the US are looking more positive that expected
• The FTSE 100 has rallied to a 14 month high and these gains are also seen elsewhere

The future of the UK Property Market?

I have been debating for some time now about where the housing market is going to go to in the future however the thoughts have really picked up speed since the October 2007 and the start of the so called “property recession”

My main thought is the issue of Home Ownership (HO). Can our current rate of home ownership be sustained with rising house prices – or rather this was the case when I first started thinking about it! Now I question whether the amount of borrowing will have play a determining role rather than house prices. You could argue that it is both as first time buyers are still struggling with the multiples of income that they still need to afford house prices despite the falls – especially in the South of the country which is already seeing a slight recovery.

This article is going to cover my thoughts backed up by historical evidence and offers insights in to where I believe the future lies. The main issue here is that I believe we are on the cusp of a generational shift in the housing market and it is going to be interesting to watch it. The main issue here is that an Estate Agency would need to consider these thoughts to review its business model and change to reflect the market place. It will be really interesting to see what happens.

Weekly Paper Review – July 20th

Helly everyone,

A quite week this week with regard articles on Property. I have discussed a few articles however (you can listen to theAudio guide if you click on the left of the screen in the “Box.net application”).

Mainly there is talk about the mortgage market starting to thaw a little bit and buyer enquires up to a 10 year high – all fantastic news – and now all we need is the product. There are a lot of people calling for the “W” shape recovery and it is all pointing to this theory at the moment. It is certainly going to be an interesting time for the property market over coming months.

Have a good week.

James

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New Overseas Property Hotspot? Property in Calabria.

I am not sure that I should really say “new” here as there has been a lot of talk in the industry now about Calabria. I shall focus here for two reasons. Firstly, of all the areas in Italy, perhaps with the exception of Puglia (the heel), Calabria is seen as an undiscovered market and one with a fantastic amount of potential. Secondly, my company promotes property in this area and I have actually purchased myself down here.

Therefore I feel perfectly placed to comment on both the positive and perhaps negative aspects of this “hotspot”. Feel free before reading this post to have a look at some example of properties by clicking here

Is Google taking over the Real Estate World as well?

There has been all manner of talk over the last few days about Google making huge strides in the Real Estate World and trying to take over from Property Portals in promoting property for sale. I, for one, have to say that I can see why Property Portals would worry.