According to a January 6, 2009 article at Bloomberg.com entitled No Recovery for Real Estate as Speculators Dominate Sales, the recent rise in sales of homes in the United States is due almost entirely real estate speculators who scoop up the properties at tax and foreclosure sales. Because these speculators do not plan to hold the homes any longer than they have to, this increase in sales is expected to delay a true recovery.
More on Speculators Account for Bulk of U.S. Real Estate Sales
For those selling property in Spain, a recent report brings more doom and gloom to the Spanish markets. With the countryside littered with part-finished developments, and the Spanish government having been snubbed by most world governments recently regarding the recent summits to discuss the “financial crisis,” the news keeps getting worse and worse. What many do not seem to realize or accept is that the Spanish property crisis is almost entirely home grown. Massive over-building combined with extremely lax regulations on developers, estate agents and mortgage brokers caused this crisis, not the world credit crunch. With what appears to be half the local government officials in Spain either already in jail or on the way, it’s about time Spain woke up and smelled the horse manure. Sticking one’s head in the sand and blaming it all on the “credit crunch,” is not going to resolve anything.
London based property developer, MInerva, lost more than half it’s already reduced value on Friday after the Dubai government withdrew its takeover offer. The offer was made through a wholly-owned government subsidiary, Limitless. Limitless made an offer of 160p a share for the company before the summer, but talks broke down on Thursday night after an agreement could not be reached
Observatory Hill, Sydney, Australia
With the credit crunch continuing, and luxury real estate developments collapsing around the world, it is good to see a robust development continuing as planned. Observatory Hill on Sydney’s waterfront is one such example.
More on Property Investment Opportunity in Australia – Observatory Hill
Morgan Stanley, the investment bank, has issued a major alert on the health of Spanish banks, warning that a replay of the ERM crisis in the early 1990s could wipe out the capital base of weak lenders exposed to the property crash
Large discounts from property developers, dropping prices and a dwindling amount of transactions might be frightening away the individual investor, but seem to be attracting more groups of international investors in the Chinese property market
More on Real Estate investing in China – dropping prices attract an international crowd
The Gulf property market still has attractive opportunities for investors seeking to escape a global fall in property investment transactions according to a leading real estate consultancy
Robin Williamson, managing director of DTZ’s Middle East operations, said although the worst of the first phase of the sub-prime crisis appears to have passed, the credit crunch has further to go and will continue well into 2009, particularly across the European and US property markets.
More on Dubai is Still an Attractive Investment Market and News of Another Super-Tower in Dubai
British tourism up 16.7% during January/February 2008
