In London, first-time buyers complain about bonus-spending bankers and free-spending foreigners pushing up the value of homes. In Hong Kong, the middle classes blame an influx of mainland Chinese buyers for pricing them out of the market. In Nairobi, Kenyans say Somali pirates are inflating the city's house prices.
Kidnapping and holding for ransom yachtsmen and merchant shipping crews is good business for Somalia's seafaring criminals who have made more than USD100 million from these activities in the last two years, London-based think tank Chatham House reports. And their income is rising sharply. Ransom payments doubled over the twelve months to January 2010, from an average of USD1 million per vessel to USD2million, the think tank says.
Kenya shares a long border with Somalia and has a large Somali community, so smuggling money into the country for laundering through its property market is relatively easy. Result, property prices have trebled in Nairobi over the past five years.
http://globalprpertynews.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment