VOLCANO HALVES HOLIDAY HOME SALES

That pesky Icelandic volcano, the name of which nobody can pronounce and which spewed ash over Europe until yesterday, was not only bad for airlines, travel agents and their customers, but for estate agents selling European holiday homes and investment properties.

European estate agents estimate sales to overseas buyers were slashed by half, during the volcano's six week eruption. ProVenture Property, a company that sources German homes for investors had sales delayed when buyers could not fly over from Britain, because of the air-flight ban. The company's property viewings were down by one-third.

European train and ferry passenger numbers have boomed since the volcano crisis started, so homes close to ports and train stations may be popular with buyers now!

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US HOUSING MARKET RECOVERY

United States mortgagor, Fannie Mae, may want an additional USD8.4 billion government loan as its losses grow and home loans continue to go bad, but some powerful figures consider the worst is over for the housing market.

The Sage of Omaha, the world's most successful investor, Warren Buffett, says that “within a year or so, residential housing problems (in the US) should be largely behind us”. Others feel the same. John Paulson, the hedge fund manager, says property prices in battered California will begin to rise this year, setting the stage for a wider recovery.

Following Buffet's advice that investors ought to get greedy when others are fearful, the dearth of home buyers in the market means bargains are available for those who look hard enough. Property marketers, Experience International, says homes can be bought for up to 72 per cent below recent selling prices in Florida. Do you feel lucky?

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PHILIPPINES RETIREMENT HOMES

This month's elections in the Philippines may have been the most violent ever, but that did not put off investors from buying into its holiday resorts in growing numbers. Indeed, confidence that the new government will handle the economy well is strong, and that could encourage more investors to come to the archipelago.

Foreign demand for second homes in the Philippines is partly boosted by an influx of retirees. The Philippine Retirement Authority is expanding its marketing campaign to persuade more foreigners to live out their days in the country where they can enjoy “the good life at an affordable cost”.

Foreign retirees need a deposit of USD10,000 and a monthly pension of USD800 per month, or a USD50,000 deposit, to qualify for the scheme. You do not even need to be “old”, because it is open to anyone aged 35 years or above. The retirement programme has been running for 25 years, so is well established.

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SAFE HAVEN BRITAIN

So is Britain a safe haven or a banana republic? Britain's huge budget deficit is heading towards 12 per cent, just one percentage point short of the Greek total, and this scares Britain's bankers, currency traders and tabloid newspaper editors, but it has not fazed the Greeks.

The number of Greeks buying central London homes has doubled over the past 12 months estate agency, Knight Frank, says. Six per cent of buyers of London homes valued at £2million or more are Greeks trying to get their money out of their own imploding economy. Germans, Italians and others from the troubled Euro-zone are piling in behind them.

Wealthy Chinese families are making their presence felt at London estate agents office for the first time. They are buying homes, so their children can be educated in British schools and “enjoy a better way of life” they tell estate agents. Somebody should tell London's Sterling-bashing currency traders.

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GREEK PROPERTY CRASH?

In theory, Greek property prices ought to plummet thanks to the austerity measures brought in to erode the country's debt mountain – higher taxes, lower wages, smaller pensions and fewer jobs mean less money to spend on flats and houses. But this is Greece we are talking about, so it is not that simple. The Greek housing market may do relatively well over the next few years, because it may be saved by a white knight in the form of the country's "black economy".

The Greek government says the black economy accounts for one quarter of the nation's GDP. You can be sure persons employed in this sector pay little tax and rarely cut their own wages, so they may have the means to prop up Greek property values. Indeed, they may be the only Greeks able to afford a home over the next year or two.... or three.

So who are these people that beaver away so productively in the black economy? According to the government, which has included their output in official GDP figures since 2006 to make the nation's budget deficit seem smaller, they include prostitutes, money launderers and cigarette smugglers. Estate agents won't care one jot.

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