Property Investment Peloponnese: Tripolis – One For The Future
For many years, Greece has been a prime destination for Northern Europeans and Americans wanting to live the dream and buy a holiday home in the sun. However, successive Greek governments have instilled measures to deter investors and prevent ‘flipping.’
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The property investing scene in Australia is a bit of mess – as usual the real estate agents would tell you, without a moments hesitation, that now is the time to invest! The stock market specialists, on the other hand, would say that property is still way over-valued.
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The Greek Fires – The Final Coffin Nail For Karamanlis
The Greek Fires – The Final Coffin Nail For Karamanlis
After the notorious fires of two years ago, which led to huge tracts of land laid waste, everybody assumed that the Greek government would have learned their lesson. With the ravaged lands just starting to regenerate, the fires struck again, destroying a huge area and reaching the outskirts of Athens itself. Sadly, the emergency response was disorganised and, once again, the Greek government stands accused of being directionless and rudderless. The perception of Karamanlis as incompetent plagues every political satire show and fills every newspaper op-ed.
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Property investors are continuing to take a bath in Dubai as rents fell once again in August. According to a survey by the Khajeel Times and property management firm Asteco. Some of the more upmarket developments are beginning to stabilize, but with the outflux of ex-pats during the summer, falling property prices and a serious over-supply in most markets, rental prices continued their decline, and in many instances, renters are simply choosing to walk away from a new lease. The requirements in Dubai are a little different in that Islamic law does not allow for credit and renters are often required to pay a full years rent in the form of 4 post-dated cheques. This is an excerpt from the report.
If you are considering buying investment property in the UK – be warned. The latest headlines from all the major newspapers and the BBC etc, are making a great deal of the fact that average house prices in the UK rose in July by 1.7%
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Another round of losses in the third quarter shows continuing weakness in the world’s real estate markets. Although property investment in Singapore ticked up slightly in the third quarter, more bad news from major developers and property investment vehicles show continuing declines in prices, sales volumes and profitability. US luxury home builder Toll Brothers posted a Q3 loss of $472.3 million, and GPT group in Sydney, Australia posted a US$995 million loss for the first half of the year.
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To listen to some of the headlines produced around the latest CB Richard Ellis report on Singapore’s property investment market, you could be forgiven for thinking the second coming had arrived.
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If you were starting to doubt the veracity of the press releases being issued by Dubai, the latest news should settle the matter once and for all. Back in March this year, the major developers in Dubai started canceling projects and refusing to repay deposits. Nakheel, which canceled the Trump Tower in Dubai offered – nay insisted – that investors accept a unit in other developments. This has been argued about since that time, but they are holding out against the suggestion that a unit in a different development is not the same thing – financially or otherwise. Apparently any protests have fallen on deaf ears, and Nakheel have been issuing credit notes on other canceled projects, rather than refund any money.
Dubai Properties, Sama Dubai and Tatweer have merged in an attempt to lessen the impact of the financial crisis. Dubai holding now consists of just 4 divisions instead of the previous 7 – investments, hospitality, property and business parks. there is also talk of merging Emaar properties into this new vehicle.
As per usual, getting any solid factual information about the state of the UAE’s property investment market is difficult, but a recent survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) points to another rise in commercial property defaults in the UAE for the second quarter.
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