The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
Despite the current political upheaval in Iraq, one area of the economy is already starting to recover – the Baghdad housing market. House prices fell through the floor last year as bombings and kidnappings increased. But as some stability begins to emerge from the rubble, the housing market has poked it’s head up from behind a parapet and said, “open for business.”
Many displaced Iraqis are returning home as the violence in the capital is beginning to decrease. But homes in safe areas are in short supply, forcing prices to rise dramatically. Unlike a typical London suburb where the house prices may be dependent on the closest decent school, which political faction controls the neighborhood has a lot to do with the price. People who sold at bargain prices and have now returned are finding that prices for the same housing are now out of their reach. Most Iraqis part cash for their properties and, as yet there is no organized mortgage system available.
One such unfortunate, Jassem, sold his five bedroom home in 2005 for $75,000 and is finding the same property priced at $165,000 now.
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Bangkok at night
Small and medium-scale property developers in Bangkok are being forced to sell their projects to larger developers as they start to face difficulties in obtaining financial support for construction. This is according to Visanu Suchatlumpong, vice-president of Asian Property Development Plc.
“Financial institutions did not approve project loans as they considered their (smaller developers) branding was not strong and their products might not be saleable,” he said.
But he also played down the role the global credit crunch was having, saying, “Some of them did not meet financial institutions’ conditions that required them to have sales of at least 40%.”
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Estate Agent vs Analyst
If anyone, either in the U.K or the U.S.A needed an incentive to look overseas for their next property investment, recent reports released in both counties should provide it.
Rightmove, an online U.K estate agent recently released a report that shows UK asking process have dropped for the third month in a row.
In the last month, the average asking price for a house in the UK dropped 0.8 per cent to £230,428, bringing the annual rate of increase down to 3.4 per cent – the lowest since December 2005.
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K H Sim is a property developer. Specifically, he is the Managing Director of The Malaysian arm of Sydney based, Bluestone Group and based in Kuala Lumpur.
Bluestone Malaysia are responsible for a number of recent developments – all extremely successful. One in particular, the Taragon Puteri YKS in Yalan Lap Kwan Sen, was 100% sold out before completion. Another in downtown Kuala Lumpur was released this month.
But K H Sim is developing a reputation in another area of property development. Rescuing distressed building projects that have been abandoned in Kuala Lumpur.
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Sandbanks, a dune off the coast of Poole in Dorset England has the fourth highest land value, by area, in the world
Every now and then, we come across something that makes us wonder as to the sanity of the property market and behaviour of some estate agents.
A small dune in Dorset recently hit the news as being the fourth most expensive place to buy a property in the World with average property prices at £850 per square foot. Correct, the world. More expensive than Tokyo or Paris. A dune. In Dorset.
Putting this in context of global property prices; Prime Central London properties currently average at about £1,300 per-square-foot; in Upper Manhattan, New York £950 per square foot; in Moscow about £900 per square foot, in Sandbanks, Dorset £850 per square foot, in Paris £800 per square foot & in Hong Kong £785 per square foot.
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If mortgage approvals are any bench mark, Hong Kong’s already fast paced economy is about to get another shot in the arm. Approvals last month reached their highest level in ten years. This November, saw a rise of 76% over last year’s new mortgages, lending over $3 billion US.
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Thursday, January 31st, 2008 
Posted by Overseas Property Mall in Iraq Property, Property Industry News
