The United States? The amount of bank owned property sloshing around is quite stunning. Not including the ongoing devaluation in the commercial sector, the US banks now own an estimated 22 million foreclosures and are likely to add another 7 million to that over the next 2 years. No one really talks about this and industry insiders refer to it as “shadow inventory,” because much of it is not actively for sale. Where do you think all that lovely federal reserve money went? What little that did not make it’s way to a numbered bank account in the Cayman’s went to prop up the banks deemed “too big to fail,” and allow them to keep these TWENTY TWO MILLION residential properties off the market. Much of this “shadow inventory,” is in Nevada, California, Florida and will not appeal to the overseas buyer unless it is within a few hours of an international airport – which much of it is not. The other question is – if it ever gets to the point where these properties are released onto the market – any one holding any stock is going to see that value plummet overnight. Caveat Emptor.

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The Dubai Land Department has just announced that it will be issuing public property auctioning licences to private companies in an attempt to dispose of the stunning amount of property for sale in Dubai at the moment. Mr. Mohammed Sultan Al Thani, Assistant Director-General of the DLD said, “We have started giving licenses for public property auctioning to private companies. However, they need to meet all the rules and regulations stipulated by the department in order to conduct an auction.”

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