The US sub-prime crisis continues to take it’s toll amongst developers and recent announcements from a variety of sources don’t seem to see any let up on the horizon. Some recent announcements this month include:
Toll Brothers Inc.(sic) said that its fiscal first-quarter home-building revenue fell 22% from year-earlier levels to $842.7 million and it doesn’t see any end in sight to housing-market woes. The company said it is still finalizing its first-quarter impairment analysis, but expects pretax write-downs of between $150 million and $300 million. “The housing market remains very weak in most areas. Based on current traffic and deposits, we are not yet seeing much light at the end of the tunnel,” said Robert Toll, the firm’s chairman and CEO. Toll will report full first-quarter results on February 27th.
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The Global credit crunch is affecting even ski resorts now. Bansko, in Bulgaria, despite still being heavily marketed, is feeling the pinch also. Interest in the town dropped off severely in 2007, with prices for hotel rooms dropping, and occupancy down.
Also affected are property prices and with a lack of interest from UK buyers, Bansko is attempting to pull in investors from Russia, Spain and Greece instead. Presumably the Spanish like to head away from the horrible winter weather, much like the Brits.
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Is a combination of political, legal, cultural, economic, and geographic factors making Albania the next big thing in Overseas property investments?
A recent report drew an extremely favorable picture of the future of property investment in the country, which is currently Europe’s least developed and, despite positive developments, still suffers from a poor to non-existent infrastructure, including its road and electricity networks.
According to the report, Albania could be following in the steps of other destinations on the Balkans that experienced big property investment booms over the last decade. “Recently Albania has put itself firmly on the map, both as an increasingly popular tourism destination, and an emerging market on the international property investment scene”.
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England football legend, David Beckham will be opening the first “David Beckham World of Sport,” complex in Natal, Brazil, to coincide with their hosting of the 2014 World Cup. This will be part of a bigger resort, which will include a “Rubens Barrichello motor racing school,” but no plans for a “Spice Girls’ academy of dancing,” as far as we know just yet.
Beckham has already set up professional sports academies in both London and Los Angeles. Whilst in Brazil for the launch, he said, “I am honored to be associated with this incredible project which will build world-class sporting facilities in Brazil, hopefully having a major impact at a local level and internationally”. Beckham hopes to give opportunities to gifted but disadvantaged children, rather than teaching them how to play the game. Although perhaps Mr. Beckham could learn a thing or two from some of his young charges judging by his recent performances.
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Continued delays in the completion of residential property projects in Dubai this year will continue in 2008, while a price correction is most likely in 2009 when supply exceeds demand, according to a new market report. “We believe that the delay in property handovers seen in 2007 will likely continue over the next 12 to 18 months,” investment bank EFG Hermes said in its UAE outlook report for 2008.
EFG are forecasting prices to rise by between 5 and 10% next year but suggest they are likely to peak in the second half of the year when property supply rises. The gap in supply in 2007 was roughly 20,000 residential units worth Dh34 billion said housing finance firm Tamweel. They are also predicting about 50,000 units of supply, with a demand of 54,000 units in 2008, taking the aggregate shortage to 24,000 units.
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Despite exhortations from a variety of pundits pitching Kazakhstan as the next big boom market, the fact is that a growing number of analysts are looking at the market and seeing not boom times, but a potential bust.
The credit shortage is beginning to take it’s toll and there is an ever-growing number of properties doing nothing but sitting in an estate agent’s window gathering dust, as it were.
Kazakhstan, like much of the rest of the world is beginning to come to grips with the fact that a major boom is inevitably followed by a slow down or bust at some point. The country’s economic performance over the last decade has been spectacular – 10% GDP growth year on year until 2007, when it slowed to 8.7%, with predictions of a further slowdown to less than 6% in 2008.
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Ras Al Khaimah is one of the emirates of the United Arab Emirates in the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering Oman. It is ruled by Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammad al-Qassimi and has a population of about 250,000 inhabitants.
The city itself as at 2007 had a population of 191,753 and has two main sections, Old Ras Al Khaimah and Nakheel (no relation to the property developer), which lie on either side of the creek which flows through Ras Al Khaimah.
RAK may be small, but it has big plans and is pumping money into several ambitious property projects - 31 real estate developments are underway or at the planning stage.
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Shanghai’s real estate market is anticipated to slow down drastically in 2008, becoming more vulnerable to government policy shifts and attract less investment. This is according to several of the larger real estate analysts.
According to a Jones Lang LaSalle report released recently, after the government implemented the land appreciation tax and imposed additional restrictions on foreign investment in the sector, real estate investment saw a slowdown in the fourth quarter of 2007 and there was only one sizable sale completed in the city.
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Friday, February 15th, 2008 
Posted by Overseas Property Mall in 
