Well-to-do individuals losing their jobs in Britain are investing redundancy payments in property, and there could be more of them. A survey of finance professionals shows one-third of them would invest their redundancy money in property if they lose their job.
There could be more investment in the rental sector from other quarters too. The Young Index shows a growing number of existing buy-to-let investors will pour money into property over the next year, while pension funds are planning to build entire blocks of build-to-let homes to cater for Britain's growing army of tenants.
That tenants are able to pick and choose between large numbers of empty rental properties at the moment and that rental returns continue to fall does not appear to faze investors, nor a warning from tenant referencing agency, HomeLet, that the number of tenants defaulting on their rent is likely to “soar”, because of Britain's growing unemployment problem. Jobless landlords chasing jobless tenants for unpaid rent could be a new phenomenon in 2010.
(All The World's a Home : Global Property News)
Thursday 30 July 2009
SPANISH DEVELOPERS GET TOUGH
Holiday home buyers who pull out of buying a Spanish property are being pursued in the courts by the developers. Even though sales contracts allow buyers to withdraw, Spanish developers are trying to use a Spanish law to make them complete the deal.
Some Spanish builders are threatening to pursue overseas buyers in their home countries too, but British lawyers, DWF, assures buyers they cannot do this until the Spanish legal process is completed. The firm says it could be four years before the Spanish courts pass judgement, by which time many struggling Spanish developers may go bust.
Holiday home buyers may have good reason to dip out of deals. Spain's Ministry of Housing says prices are 8.2 per cent below their spring 2008 peak, and consultancy, Capital Economics, forecasts further falls of up to 30 per cent, because of the country's huge oversupply of empty homes – one million at the last count.
In the holiday homes sector, prices are falling fastest for the pile 'em, sell 'em cheap tower block flats offered at less than Euro100,000 each. There is a bit of an upturn for homes valued above Euro500,000.
(All The World's a Home : Global Property News)
Some Spanish builders are threatening to pursue overseas buyers in their home countries too, but British lawyers, DWF, assures buyers they cannot do this until the Spanish legal process is completed. The firm says it could be four years before the Spanish courts pass judgement, by which time many struggling Spanish developers may go bust.
Holiday home buyers may have good reason to dip out of deals. Spain's Ministry of Housing says prices are 8.2 per cent below their spring 2008 peak, and consultancy, Capital Economics, forecasts further falls of up to 30 per cent, because of the country's huge oversupply of empty homes – one million at the last count.
In the holiday homes sector, prices are falling fastest for the pile 'em, sell 'em cheap tower block flats offered at less than Euro100,000 each. There is a bit of an upturn for homes valued above Euro500,000.
(All The World's a Home : Global Property News)
BUYER'S BARGAIN
Britain's buying agents AKA property finders are becoming cheaper. Unlike estate agents which represent the interests of sellers, buying agents help buyers. Buying agents are widely established in the United States and Australia.
In Britain, buying agents have been a luxury only the rich can afford, so, to widen their appeal, a new service called The Buyers Edge has been launched by the Association of Property Finders and Buyers Agents (APFBA).
Under this scheme the usual upfront fee, which can sometimes be as much as £700, is waived and a finders fee is paid only if the agent negotiates a lower sales price on a property - this fee would be 1 per cent of the home's value and a percentage of the saving made.
More information available from the the APFBA at http://www.apfba.org/
(All The World's a Home : Global Property News)
In Britain, buying agents have been a luxury only the rich can afford, so, to widen their appeal, a new service called The Buyers Edge has been launched by the Association of Property Finders and Buyers Agents (APFBA).
Under this scheme the usual upfront fee, which can sometimes be as much as £700, is waived and a finders fee is paid only if the agent negotiates a lower sales price on a property - this fee would be 1 per cent of the home's value and a percentage of the saving made.
More information available from the the APFBA at http://www.apfba.org/
(All The World's a Home : Global Property News)
HONG KONG'S "BUBBLE"
Property cycles in many parts of the world may be J-shaped, V-shaped or W-shaped, but in Hong Kong it defies all letter shapes. Here, the zig-zag lines that appear on an earthquake detector graph when a 6.7 is recorded are more apt, because its property market goes up and down so fast and to such extremes.
The 20 per cent rebound in property prices since the start of the year has wiped out the losses incurred in 2008. Some commentators are sanguine about this, but others fear a bubble may be forming. Mortgage brokers say demand is being fuelled by investors with unrealistic expectations of future gains and who have ignored the Hong Kong's deep recession and unemployment problems.
Its economy is forecast to contract by 9 per cent this year. Should that become 10 per cent then Hong Kong would officially be in an economic depression. Expect more zig-zagging.
(All The World's a Home : Global Property News)
The 20 per cent rebound in property prices since the start of the year has wiped out the losses incurred in 2008. Some commentators are sanguine about this, but others fear a bubble may be forming. Mortgage brokers say demand is being fuelled by investors with unrealistic expectations of future gains and who have ignored the Hong Kong's deep recession and unemployment problems.
Its economy is forecast to contract by 9 per cent this year. Should that become 10 per cent then Hong Kong would officially be in an economic depression. Expect more zig-zagging.
(All The World's a Home : Global Property News)
KOREAN PROPERTY BOOM
Korea's bust has turned to boom. Property values in Seoul have leapt by as much 55 per cent in the first half of 2009 as Koreans rush to buy homes again, after a collapse in prices last year.
The turnaround is all thanks to a USD52 billion Government stimulus package, lower capital gains tax and new rules to encourage reconstruction of older buildings, combined with record-low interest rates.
Speculators are targeting older, low-rise blocks that may be bought by a builder for redevelopment. This follows the government's decision in November 2008, to raise the floorspace-to-land ratio to 2.5 times from 1.9 times, allowing developers to replace old, low-rise buildings with more profitable high-rise blocks.
Boosting buyer confidence is news that the economy started growing again this year, albeit by only 0.1 per cent in the first quarter, after contracting sharply by a 5.1 per cent in the last quarter of 2008.
(All The World's a Home : Global Property News)
The turnaround is all thanks to a USD52 billion Government stimulus package, lower capital gains tax and new rules to encourage reconstruction of older buildings, combined with record-low interest rates.
Speculators are targeting older, low-rise blocks that may be bought by a builder for redevelopment. This follows the government's decision in November 2008, to raise the floorspace-to-land ratio to 2.5 times from 1.9 times, allowing developers to replace old, low-rise buildings with more profitable high-rise blocks.
Boosting buyer confidence is news that the economy started growing again this year, albeit by only 0.1 per cent in the first quarter, after contracting sharply by a 5.1 per cent in the last quarter of 2008.
(All The World's a Home : Global Property News)
AMERICAN LEGACY HOME
It's not all bad news in the United States. Construction projects may be on ice in many places and homes are being repossessed and sold for a pittance left, right and centre, but there are still some people around with money to burn.
In Chicago, British-based architects and project managers, Janine Stone, will build a Palladian-style mansion overlooking a golf course for a Bulgarian businessman who has made millions from the Nigerian oil trade. Costing in the teens of millions of dollars to build, the architects call this house as a “legacy home”, because it is intended to be passed down to future generations of the owner's family, a modern-day version of an ancestral home.
Sadly, other projects in Chicago have stalled. The “Chicago Spire”, which, if built, will become the world's tallest residential tower, at 610 meter high, remains a hole in the ground nearly two years after sales marketing started for its 1,193 apartments.
(All The World's a Home : Global Property News)
In Chicago, British-based architects and project managers, Janine Stone, will build a Palladian-style mansion overlooking a golf course for a Bulgarian businessman who has made millions from the Nigerian oil trade. Costing in the teens of millions of dollars to build, the architects call this house as a “legacy home”, because it is intended to be passed down to future generations of the owner's family, a modern-day version of an ancestral home.
Sadly, other projects in Chicago have stalled. The “Chicago Spire”, which, if built, will become the world's tallest residential tower, at 610 meter high, remains a hole in the ground nearly two years after sales marketing started for its 1,193 apartments.
(All The World's a Home : Global Property News)
Tuesday 28 July 2009
SWISS PROPERTY BOOM
The smart money is heading to Switzerland estate agents say. According to The Top Ten Most Expensive Streets in the World, a survey by Wealth Bulletin, Via Suvretta in the Swiss ski resort of St Moritz, was the only street on the list where prices rose for top properties over the past twelve months.Ranked sixth on the list, a home on this street costs at least USD45,000 per square metre, which is 18 per cent more than this time last year. Prices have been pushed up by strong demand from foreign tax exiles, especially from Britain where many non-domiciled, wealthy foreigners have lost their privileged low-tax status.
Many Britons are joining these non-doms since the British government started raising taxes for all wealthy individuals say estate agency, Chesterton Humberts, and London property consultant, Charles McDowell.
In addition to St Moritz, rising demand from foreign HNWIs is pushing up prices in the posher districts of Zurich and Geneva.
“It’s no surprise that Swiss property has held its value and is in some areas rising," says McDowell, "Swiss bankers report that they aren’t seeing a large influx of Brits moving in but a number of my clients have gone forward with the purchase of a second home in Switzerland. This gives them the option of changing their residency if the tax situation in the UK or anywhere else becomes untenable."
As for the world's most expensive street, that's in Monaco the Wealth Bulletin survey reveals. Here is the survey's top ten in full:
• Avenue Princesse Grace, Monaco, $120,000 per sq/m
• Chemin de Saint-Hospice, Cap Ferrat, South of France, $100,000 per sq/m
• Fifth Avenue, New York, $72,000 per sq/m
• Kensington Palace Gardens, London, $65,000 per sq/m
• Avenue Montaigne, Paris, $54,000 per sq/m
• Via Suvretta, St Moritz, Switzerland, $45,000 per sq/m
• Via Romazzino, Porto Cervo, Sardinia,$42,000 per sq/m
• Severn Road, The Peak, Hong Kong, $40,000 per sq/m
• Ostozhenka Street, Moscow, $35,000 per sq/m
• Wolseley Road, Point Piper, Australia, $28,000 per sq/m
(All The World's a Home : Global Property News)
Wednesday 22 July 2009
URUGUAY'S CELEBRITY UTOPIA
The rule of thumb is that good transport connections boost property markets. In Uruguay we can find the exception to this rule. Here, a seaside resort called Punta del Este has become the darling of international celebrities, despite, or because of, its inaccessibility to much of the rest of the world.
Punta is a sprawling resort community on Uruguay's eastern coast, dubbed by its fans “the St Tropez of South America”. During the peak season, from December to February – the South American summer – the town's population swells twelve-fold from 30,000 to 380,000, made up mostly of Brazilian and Argentine holidaymakers.
Punta's remoteness may put off many would-be second home buyers and investors from outside South America. The town's airport only serves nearby South American destinations, while the airport at Uruguay's capital, Montevideo, is two hours away by road. What's more, it receives few direct flights from outside Spain and the Americas.
However, celebrities love it. They won't find many paparazzi or stalkers down here, because it is too far for them to go. Michael Caine, Ralph Lauren, Naomi Campbell, French footballing legend, Zinedine Zidane, and Viscount Portman, owner of London's Portman Square, are famous names from the northern hemisphere who visit regularly. Martin Amos, Shakira and Eva Herzigova own holiday homes in Punta. Argentina's high society takes up residence during the summer when Punta becomes one of the world's top party destinations on New Years Eve.
“Huge numbers of people vacation there during their summer,” says John Hitchcox, chairman of designer developer YOO, “It is very chic, very elegant. In peak season it is wall-to-wall mercedes. Everyone who is anyone is there.”
The coastline has become a showcase for modernist architecture. Buyers buy plots of land and then hire architects to design holiday villas for them - these come in a breathtaking variety of shapes, sizes, and materials, that demonstrate the versatility of this architectural style. Sprinkled among them are nineteenth century thatched houses and the occasional flight of fancy, including a mansion designed to resemble a Moorish castle.
This has all meant that Punta has grown from a small community centred around a lighthouses at the tip of the point which sticks out to sea, to a resort community that stretches 20 miles up the coast. The town centre is dominated by apartment blocks.
Punta's popularity with big spending socialites and celebrities is attracting upmarket international estate agents like Christies and Sothebys, and developers of designer homes. New arrivals include Obsidian, a British developer which is building 13 detached modernist villas on its 90 hectare Villalagos estate close La Barra, a fashionable district of Punta. Michael Caine's daughter, Natasha Caine, is interior designing the homes which are targeted at the crème de la crème of Punta high society. Prices start at a little under $2 million.
In the heart of Punta, YOO and Miami-based developer, K-Group Holdings, are refurbishing a 22-storey apartment building. YOO's creative director, Philippe Starck, has given the interiors his trademark style - contemporary, glamorous, slightly Alice in Wonderland – chandeliers hang in communal parts, including the outdoor swimming pool area, and beds in its $300,000 apartments have giant, antique picture frames as faux-headboards.
Most buyers here and elsewhere in Punta are Brazillian, Argentine and Uruguayan. Aside from the occasional celebrity, buyers from other continents in Punta tend to be wealthy individuals who own pads in all the usual places like London, New York, the Alps, Phuket, French Riviera, and so want something new and exotic to add to their portfolio.
As Brendan Baury, Obsidian's development director at Villalagos, says “they are international businessmen who are looking for their fourth and fifth or more holiday home.” He believes Punta has great investment potential, adding that although mostly empty for much of the year, weekly rents of $100,000 are charged for some of the better homes in peak season he says.
Less expensive homes are available for purchase. Most modern two and three bedoom apartments tend to be around $160,000 and houses can be relatively inexpensive.
Punta is a sprawling resort community on Uruguay's eastern coast, dubbed by its fans “the St Tropez of South America”. During the peak season, from December to February – the South American summer – the town's population swells twelve-fold from 30,000 to 380,000, made up mostly of Brazilian and Argentine holidaymakers.
Punta's remoteness may put off many would-be second home buyers and investors from outside South America. The town's airport only serves nearby South American destinations, while the airport at Uruguay's capital, Montevideo, is two hours away by road. What's more, it receives few direct flights from outside Spain and the Americas.
However, celebrities love it. They won't find many paparazzi or stalkers down here, because it is too far for them to go. Michael Caine, Ralph Lauren, Naomi Campbell, French footballing legend, Zinedine Zidane, and Viscount Portman, owner of London's Portman Square, are famous names from the northern hemisphere who visit regularly. Martin Amos, Shakira and Eva Herzigova own holiday homes in Punta. Argentina's high society takes up residence during the summer when Punta becomes one of the world's top party destinations on New Years Eve.
“Huge numbers of people vacation there during their summer,” says John Hitchcox, chairman of designer developer YOO, “It is very chic, very elegant. In peak season it is wall-to-wall mercedes. Everyone who is anyone is there.”
The coastline has become a showcase for modernist architecture. Buyers buy plots of land and then hire architects to design holiday villas for them - these come in a breathtaking variety of shapes, sizes, and materials, that demonstrate the versatility of this architectural style. Sprinkled among them are nineteenth century thatched houses and the occasional flight of fancy, including a mansion designed to resemble a Moorish castle.
This has all meant that Punta has grown from a small community centred around a lighthouses at the tip of the point which sticks out to sea, to a resort community that stretches 20 miles up the coast. The town centre is dominated by apartment blocks.
Punta's popularity with big spending socialites and celebrities is attracting upmarket international estate agents like Christies and Sothebys, and developers of designer homes. New arrivals include Obsidian, a British developer which is building 13 detached modernist villas on its 90 hectare Villalagos estate close La Barra, a fashionable district of Punta. Michael Caine's daughter, Natasha Caine, is interior designing the homes which are targeted at the crème de la crème of Punta high society. Prices start at a little under $2 million.
In the heart of Punta, YOO and Miami-based developer, K-Group Holdings, are refurbishing a 22-storey apartment building. YOO's creative director, Philippe Starck, has given the interiors his trademark style - contemporary, glamorous, slightly Alice in Wonderland – chandeliers hang in communal parts, including the outdoor swimming pool area, and beds in its $300,000 apartments have giant, antique picture frames as faux-headboards.
Most buyers here and elsewhere in Punta are Brazillian, Argentine and Uruguayan. Aside from the occasional celebrity, buyers from other continents in Punta tend to be wealthy individuals who own pads in all the usual places like London, New York, the Alps, Phuket, French Riviera, and so want something new and exotic to add to their portfolio.
As Brendan Baury, Obsidian's development director at Villalagos, says “they are international businessmen who are looking for their fourth and fifth or more holiday home.” He believes Punta has great investment potential, adding that although mostly empty for much of the year, weekly rents of $100,000 are charged for some of the better homes in peak season he says.
Less expensive homes are available for purchase. Most modern two and three bedoom apartments tend to be around $160,000 and houses can be relatively inexpensive.
Punta may be a long way away, but as Michael Caine and company have shown it is a place that draws the rich and famous back year after year. Maybe, exactly because it is so far away.
(All The World's a Home : Global Property News)
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