China may not be top of everyone’s list as a property investment destination, and after seeing these two apartment buildings lean so far towards each other that they are now touching, I will certainly be a little more cautious as should anyone considering property investing in China.
More on Property investing in China – beware the leaning apartment buildings
Thinking of investing in property in the UAE? The latest news from the region does not bode well – at least in the short term. Emirates business did a survey of real estate agents in the United Arab Emirates and discovered the consensus was “losses running into high double-digits,” for most agents. I am not quite sure what “losses in high double digits,” actually means, but it does not sound very good to me. Lost 99 dirhams?
Voit Real Estate Services’ Asset Services division, the full-service distressed asset management arm of Voit, has negotiated the sale of senior debt positions between banks and investors collateralized by three properties in Southern California. The individual considerations for each of these transactions were for undisclosed amounts between $4 million and $8 million.
More on VOIT REAL ESTATE SERVICES DIRECTS THE SALE OF THREE DISTRESSED ASSETS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Real estate sales in Jordan plummet; Qatar house rents have fallen 35%; Dubai prices fall 17%; Hawaii’s luxury condo market hit by swine flu fears and recession; Hugh Hefner needs to sell a house as financial problems increase.
If anyone was thinking of believing the twisted statistics being pumped out by the governments and newspapers, this is a representative selection of headlines that might persuade you that perhaps, just perhaps, the problems are not all over in the housing markets.
According to the Telegraph, the house price correction in the UK is now over, so everyone can relax. They reference a report by the Centre for Economics and Business research which apparently states, house prices will actually “grow,” between the fourth quarter of 2009 and end-2010 and that, “there is a good chance that they will rise even more quickly, thanks to the unprecedented collapse in new homebuilding.”
With US real estate prices still on the way down, most would-be real estate investors are facing issues if they need to refinance a mortgage on a property they were renting out. The mortgage resets are not exclusive to residential buyers and a lot of investors are facing problems also. Refinancing a mortgage is the big issue currently, because, whatever mis-information might be being spread around by the banks and governments, credit markets remain tight.
Brighter news at last for the beleaguered Lanzarote property and tourism markets. As leading low cost flight operators such as Ryanair, Aer Lingus and easyJet have all recently unveiled a dramatic up weighting in services to the holiday island. Which so far this year has experienced an 18% drop in foreign tourist arrivals.
The Directorate of Real Estate in Lebanon has released a report which was published by Bank Audi Weekly Monitor this week. The report states that the total value of property sales in Lebanon in the first half of 2009 was at L£3.7033 trillion (Dh90.59 billion), down by 5.2% from the same period 2008.
Worldwide economic downturn brings with it the expectation of mergers and acquisitions, unpredictable pricing in the realms of the sales and rent markets and cautious lending, in a bid to reach a (supposedly) smooth road to market and economic recovery.
Where are the property investment bargains in France? Having just spent two weeks wandering around Northern and middle-France to take a look at the markets and see what is going on on the ground as it were, I would say they have not yet surfaced, and the stunning amount of property for sale in France means we have a lot further to fall before seeing genuine bargains. I visited Brittany and the Dordogne to see just what was going on.
