For Northern Europeans seeking a holiday home in the sun, Greece has long been a favoured destination, offering the chance to mix beauty and solitude with a pulsating nightlife. Despite this attraction, the country has remained relatively untapped as far as Greek holiday homes are concerned, especially when compared to the traditional hotspots in Spain, Portugal and France.
The new Prime Minister of Greece, Georges Papandreou, made a powerful statement of intent when he announced that the Greek government would be seeking to push through its first green property development in Greece. Whilst visiting the Ilia prefecture, home of the site of Ancient Olympia and a region devastated by fires two years ago, the PM announced a scheme to completely redevelop the area and make it into a showpiece for sustainable development.
More on Green Property Development in Greece – Is a Sustainable Economy Viable?
As the new government attempts to make sense of the mess left by the outgoing administration, a belligerent Georges Papandreou laid down his vision for the future. As Greeks listened, waiting for a sign of optimism and hope, the new Prime Minister shared his vision for tackling the real economic problems faced by this small country.
More on Government, Taxes and Illegal Homes – Concerns for Greek Luxury Property Investors
Moscow real estate prices continued a seemingly inexorable decline in July, breaking through the psychologically important level of $4,000 per square meter last week and continuing to sink lower, according to data compiled by a leading analytical company.
Investment in property construction in Europe collapsed in the first quarter of 2009, declining 74% from the same period last year.. Construction investment came to 11.4 billion euros compared with 43.3 billion euros in the same quarter of last year, said a report issued by Cushman and Wakefield.
As per usual, the best one can say about the “news” as to whether now is a good time to invest in real estate is at best confusing, at worst deliberately so. But there are some indicators giving an idea as to when and at what price is a good time to consider re-investing in property. Ignoring the obviously “spun” headlines from the government press release farms such as The Times, these are a few recent, factual articles that might be of interest as it would appear that the commercial real estate bubble is now starting to burst – and as predicted will have an impact on the credit availability in the residential sector.
A lot of changes are happening in the investment property world at the moment. The most alarming thing seems to be the introduction of yet more rules and regulations that will ultimately be applied only to the smaller investor and the increasingly apparent need of the governments to raise enough money to pay for bailing out the various industries and corporations deemed “too big to fail.”
With investment companies buying up distressed properties in places such as Bulgaria, to hold on to for long term capital gain and eventual profit, maybe smaller investors should be looking to follow the same path.
British holiday home owners have come into focus as a potential source of revenue for the UK government Inc. After April 2010, British owners of second homes in the EU will no longer be able to write off trading losses from second homes in the EU.
More on Tax Changes in UK Budget Will Affect Thousands of Second Home Owners in Europe
In a falling property market, can you still break even or maybe make a profit? With property prices right across Europe and further a field lower than they were a couple of years ago, does this mean that anyone needing to sell has to do so at a loss, or could you still break even or maybe manage a small profit from a sale, if you sell in today’s market. Much depends on the currency you bought in and intend to sell in.
