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)
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