The spotlight will soon turn on to the property analysts across the country to give their 2011 predictions for the market. But with the unpredictability that saturated the industry in 2010, many will be apprehensive about giving concrete opinions regarding how the market will evolve over the next 12 months.
Voit Real Estate Services, a commercial real estate firm with 38 years of expertise in commercial brokerage, asset and property management, construction and development, is expanding its operations based on client demand with the opening of a commercial real estate office in Southern California’s Inland Empire, according to Kurt Strasmann, Managing Director of Voit’s Orange County region.
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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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London townhouse sold for huge discount; the UK, Hong Kong, Dubai and Calgary markets have bottomed out; Luxury resort in the Bahamas goes broke; Irish property prices have fallen 52 percent and a British Member of Parliament forgets he paid his mortgage off.
Volatility still rules the property markets – although when the term “volatility,” started to mean “dropping prices,” remains a mystery. A few interesting reports from the property investing world make disturbing reading for some markets – particularly some of the emerging markets.
Those of us who watch these things have noticed a disturbing trend over the last month or two – The national and international newspapers talking up the housing market quite aggressively. Much to the ire of their readers who are rightfully questioning the information being given. These are a few examples.
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Prices for investment properties in Bulgaria continue falling, with no end in sight at the moment. Particularly hard hit are the summer resorts of Sveti Vlas and Slunchev Briag (Sunny Beach), the largest summer resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea. In those luxury resorts, prices have fallen to such an extent that currently there are brand new three-bedroom “luxury” flats on offer for 70 000 euros. A similar fate has befallen the Alpine ski resort of Bansko, where new, completed modern apartments in ‘key locations’ are being offered for 70 000 euros.
Numis Securities, a City investment bank, expects amateur buy-to-let landlords to begin “panic selling,” their investment properties as house values continue to decline in the UK, causing the average home value to fall below £100,000. Their recent report stated:
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An economics professor at the University of Chicago, Casey Mulligan, has just predicted that it is unlikley there will be a commercial property crisis, based on the fact that there was very little over-building in commercial real estate during the boom years.
The Abu Dhabi Real Estate and Investment Show has been hit hard by the global downturn. Exhibitors showcasing their latest projects said yesterday that they are finding buyers hard to come by. The sales staff just about outnumbered the visitors at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center on the opening day.
However one chooses to look at the current financial situation, there are winners and losers. The current losers, to our minds, are developers with excess stock to move in a slow market. The winners are well-funded buyers in a good bargaining position. Prices are being reduced on property around the world, and any developer worth his salt knows that it is far better to take a drop in price and move the stock rather than sit on it until the market picks up.
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