However, on the 15th October some very exciting news was confirmed for the region of Murcia, the area of Alhama de Murcia to be precise. News of Paramount Studios building a large theme park has been in the press for some time now but these have only been rumours. Last week a preliminary contract was signed to secure the deal and only “minor negotiations” are needed now to cement the deal.

So what specific news is there relating to the site so far? As far as I can work out it is as follows:

• The build will take 3-5 years
• There will be employment of over 20,000 people in the area, obviously a major positive for the region
• They needed land of 1.5km to build all the hotels, theme parks and other attractions.
• The area selected, some may know it because of the Polaris World development, has 3.5million m2 of land available (with pre-existing water desalination plants and electrical power stations already built – a major attraction apparently)
• They are aiming for 3 million tourists to visit the site each year

Obviously this is all positive news for the area for a plethora of reasons but no doubt this will be incredibly positive for the property market. Anyone buying in this region will be doing well from both a capital perspective and rental perspective.

Looks like the good news is returning to Spain far quicker than anyone could imagine.

It is also interesting to see that Spain is by far the most popular country once again with over 90% of all leads gathered at the fair wanting Spain. It seems the ease of travel, the lower prices and the strengthening currencies are all contributing to the return of the Spanish markets.

Below are some of the photos of the latest exhibitions for your perusal. Please click on the “i” on the centre of the image if you want any more information about the picture

http://www.slideflickr.com/slide/wQG9wc6o

Fortunately because we had diversified over the last five years into the European market place and focused our systems to be European friendly we have flown through with flying colours as our European network has supported the UK markets; often seen as the breadwinners.

As the market returns we have seen the Scandinavian markets really explode as their economies enjoy a very healthy period. In particular the Swedish market is taking off thanks to a strong currency and this is also the case with Denmark. Norway, though slow to begin with is also starting to take shape. The one enigma both as a market and as a country is Finland. Being in the Euro obviously makes it attractive but also its insular market and language barriers make it a tough market to crack – often Scandinavian people can speak Norwegian, Danish and Swedish but very rarely can they all speak Finnish.

Atlas International were keen to push this market place having been strong there in the past and hence have teamed up with Habita, one of the largest real estate firms in the country. With 46 offices and over 250 personnel, it certainly appears an attractive proposition and partnership.

Adding further weight to our established position in Scandinavia, I am sure Habita will do very well in what is becoming a more attractive overseas market place every day. We are using the launch pad of the Helsinki Overseas Property Show , held on the 23rd and 24th of October as the launch pad for this relationship.

Here are some recent press articles in the last few days just to support the theories:

The Telegraph – Majorca VS Menorca

Turkey property market increases; Article one and Article two

Spain crawling out of the recession

Overseas property is providing a bargain for British investors

1. Income Tax
2. Inheritance Tax
3. Property Tax
4. Property Costs
5. Living Costs
6. Ease of gaining residencey
7. Healthcare
8. Climate
9. Culture

Let me just cover the three that we deal with quickly.

Cyprus.

Voted the top country to retire to with a score of 66 out of 90. Key points were the tax that pensioners paid. They have a choice to either pay a flat rate of 5% on global income (there is a personal allowance – PA – of €3,420) or they can elect for a higher PA of €19,500 but you then pay income tax on a growing scale to a maximum of 30% on income over €36,300 – basically the lower incomes are more favourable on this scheme.

There is also no wealth tax and also no inheritance tax if you can prove that you have no links with the UK. Because it is a member of the EU Healthcare and residency is also a relatively easy affair.

Belize

Formally British Honduras interest has grown markedly due to its “Retired Persons Incentive Programme” and scored 60 out of 90. Because it is the only country in Latin America to have English as the first language it is also an easy move. However the Retired programme means that individuals can live in Belize tax free as long as they can prove their household income is more than £1,329 (€1,595)

If you qualify you then also have a whole year to move all personal belongings and means of transportation into the country free of any import duties and tax.

Italy

Though not as favourable for tax purposes from a property standpoint it isn’t bad and still scored 52 out of 90. If you hold on to a property for more than five years it is free from inheritance and capital gains tax and also inhertance tax can be between 4 and 8% depending on the beneficiaries.

Italy however, won out on the issues of culture. Everywhere you look there is the most fantastic culture and something to keep you entertained for years. There was also the fantastic healthcare system that is voted second globally in the world.

So there you have it, three of the top five countries to retire to in the world are being sold by us at Atlas International. Let us know if you would like any more information about this as sadly I couldn’t upload information about the article as the Times now charges for access to the webiste.

The Big Property List Link

Hope everyone is well.

James

Lets look at interest primarily. We know two major markets in past years have been Spain and France with the latter being the top market recently due to the insecurity in Spain. However, just last week there have been figures released from both Primelocation and Rightmove stating that Spain has again moved back to the top of their searches. In fact, so strong are these two markets that 60% of all searches are attributed to them. An amazing fact.

So that is interest covered. Another good sign is the increase in buyers that we have seen, mainly in the Resale market. The College of Registrars out in Spain showed that sales improved by 16.28% over the first three months of the year compared to the last quarter of 2009. Comparing to the better indicator of the first three months of 2009 show an increase of 7.04% which, though a low base back in 2009, still shows a positive step forward.

Two things may have contributed to this on top of the qualitative thoughts of improved confidence in the market. Firstly there is due to be a VAT (IVA in Spain) increase of 1% on the 1st July which means we have seen a rush of buyers in the last quarter trying desperately to complete before this deadline – another reason resale properties have been attractive due to the speed of the transaction. The second obvious factor, for the British market has been the strengthening of Sterling against the Euro.

We have been predicting it would come for some time. Our FX team have been pulling their hair out knowing that it must happen at some point but getting frustrated that the world hadn’t yet opened their eyes to the problems in Europe. Finally the US started to take notice and stopped using the Euro as a reserve currency and started to pull out once the Greece situation worsened and when it looked likely to spread over to Portugal and others. This is not to mention the funny political meddling Germany had in the whole affair.

All in all this has helped the British recover their market once more and grow in further confidence. When I speak to clients I find it amazing and almost humbling. I had a lady on the phone last week actually break down in tears because she wanted to move to Spain so much. The Brits have a love affair with Spain and I doubt, based on speaking to clients, this will never disappear, it has been temporarily paused but the finger seems to be close to the play button once more

James

www.atlasinternational.com

So the big day has arrived. The moment that some had feared, some had fascinated about and some had meerly been curious. Google launched their property “portal” search function on the Google Map platform.

Having been fascinated by the progress they were making for some time now (it was an immediate give away when Street View launched) and having written about it back in July last year I felt I had to comment once more. If you want to try it click here as it is well worth it but to be honest it is what I would call a “Ronseal Ryanair” website in that it does exactly what it says it will with the little or no additional features.

I predicted back in July last year that the Property Portals would suffer and the Agents would have to be aware of this situation and work with Google to implement it all together. Those that didn’t would fall behind as ultimately it would be a really good service to clients. Interestingly, some portals have evidentally been working with Google (Zoopla in particular which perhaps has the additional features it needs to progress in some form of symbiotic relationship) but Rightmove has steered clear.

Anyway, Google have now succeeded in launching in the US, Australia and the UK but would they be able to do this elsewhere? Lets look at Spain as a great example. In principle there are two very predominant markets in Spain and the New Build has been the stronger market historically (obviously the recession has altered this slightly) and this, I believe would cause Google major problems.

In the UK one of the criticisms was the issue of multi agency dealing causing a lot of spam building up. Imagine a vendor has their property with three agencies. Google will therefore pick up three enteries for this property. I have to say, in the short time I played with it I didn’t see any evidence of this but still, logically it makes sense.

The developers in Spain are represented by hundreds of agents at a time not just two or three. This could be a major flaw in the Google model here and will be interesting to see how it is counteracted. The Resale market would actually benefit as I believe it would give clients that global appeal that often they feel they are lacking. Sometimes, if people pick the wrong agent in Spain (and believe me it is far easier to do this in Spain than the UK) it is often a long term wrong decision as rectifying it usually involves going over to Spain and picking a new agent.

Usually smaller agents market only locally rather than having the scope to advertise internationaly like some of the larger companies. Google would obvioulsy be able to help here and perhaps an indicator of their wishes is once again seen in the Street View progress. Already it has covered a vast area of Europe and so it wouldn’t take a lot to carry out the next step.

I have always been an advocate of working together with positive companies and I think this is a classic example of one that could benefit companies if they harness Googles powers. After all, look at the figures coming out of Australia. After initial scepticism (The REA Groups share price dropped nearly 7%) within 6 months the market was reacting positively and their share price was up 53% and traffic to their site had increased from 4.5m in June 09 to 5.4m in October 09.

You cannot say fairer than that but it will be interesting to see if and when they expand it further.

It is very easy to get wrapped up in figures and these are sometimes questioned anyway. For example in March sales figures were up 9% against last year though this is pale in comparison to the 18.7% increase we saw in February. One major caveat we have to be careful about here, as is being banded about when analysing UK market figures, are that these are working off incredibly low base levels during 2009. This is why I also like to look at qualitative feelings as well.

During 2009 Spain was not a nice place to be if you were involved in the property business. Developers were down and fighting for everything they could and you could see the stress etched on their faces. With their sales distribution channels falling all around them with International Agents going out of business it had the direct effect on their own business. They were not having a good time of it and prices were being slashed left, right and centre. This meant that certain agencies, including my own, were having a field day especially if you were dealing with sales operations involved in the single currency.

Fast forward to 2010 and it is a different story, developers are becoming more confident as they see the market returning. It is starting in the Resale market which is a natural occurence in our business as the clients have confidence in buying something that is already there but developers know that it is only a matter of time until the off plan market becomes more attractive.

So lets go back to the facts again to finish. With the Euro at a 4 year low against the dollar this can only be a good thing for Spain (and other markets for that matter) and also sterling is getting stronger, though not as quickly. One thing is for sure, developers in Spain should learn a few lessons from this latest property crash. Trust and transparency will be key in building and ultimately selling their developments in the future. If they get that right the next wave of clients coming to Spain over the coming few years will be more than happy to buy their products.

Anyway, the exhibition was a relative success especially considering no one was going there to buy a property in Spain. What it taught me though was the potential in the Eastern European countries, or some of them at least. Poland after all, was the only country in the EU to still have a positive growth last year – there is a lot to be said for that.

I should think Eastern Europe will be on my radar for some time to come especially considering the venues. I have to post this photo of the outside. There was a very lovely flower market going on at the same time and the statue outside the venue was a gigantic jet plane. How very bizarre but then I suppose I was in Poland!