In the latest report released by the IMF (International Monetary Fund) the document states, while the global financial market meltdown has had little effects on the Middle East region, it is still responsible for complicated policymaking caused by the depreciation of the U.S dollar.
While regional growth received a strong 5.8 percent in 2007, increases in oil productions have been limited in the oil producing countries. The strong expansion of credit to the private sector as well as increased spending by Middle Eastern governments is made possible right now with high oil prices.
This has resulted in a strong growth of the local economy, especially in countries like Egypt who reported a 7 percent increase over the year of 2007.
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Thursday, April 10th, 2008
Posted by OP-Mall in
Predictions
Forbes recently released a list of top emerging world real estate markets that is based on in depth studies. By looking at inflation rates, access to lending opportunities, economic expansion and strength of individual property rights they were able to filter out promising markets worldwide.
Despite the worldwide softening of certain markets, due to drying up of credit funds, Forbes has found some promising locations that are poised to explode within the next 5 years.
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Sometimes, it pays to look at other news sources when looking for property investing opportunities. This article for instance, from the Financial Times:
“Thomas Cook Group is buying back the Indian business it sold to the Dubai Financial group two years ago, the first stage in its strategy to expand the brand in emerging markets.
The travel operator is expected to announce on Friday it is bringing Thomas Cook India back into its stable, re-establishing its presence in a market it entered in 1881.”
The full article is here, but basically, Thomas cook, a well-established British travel agency have decided to buy back the Indian division that they sold some time ago. Why? Because they see emerging markets such as India, Russia, and China as potentially large markets.
What does this mean to the property investor?
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Thursday, January 10th, 2008
Posted by Overseas Property Mall in
Predictions
Realtor.com, an American online real estate service has just launched their iPhone only version, allowing potential clients to review properties online at the touch of a widget. Since the iPhone was launched recently in the U.K. it seems safe to assume this new real estate agent media will not go unexploited for long.
Joe DeTuno, senior vice president, product management, realtor.com had this to say, “We’re committed to enhancing the experience consumers have when they’re searching for real estate on REALTOR.com .Our new search capabilities for the iPhone are relevant enhancements that give consumers the full power of mobility and immediate access to REALTOR.com in a manner that fits naturally into their everyday lifestyle.”
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Predictions from Property Companies
Global Property
European Property
Asian Property
UK Property
US Property
Please send us links of more 2008 predictions in your comments…..Many Thanks!
According to The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), Indian real estate is poised for a 34-45% growth in 2008.
2007 saw a growth of between 35-38% in real estate values. Mr. Venugopal N. Dhoot, ASSOCHAM’s President said their view is that India had already emerged as the 5th world’s largest investment destination, globally in the retail sector; the market size is currently estimated at US$ 15 billion and has been growing between 35-38% in the last several years.
He also suggested that the real estate sector is likely to grow between 40-45% but that a slow down was likely in the major cities by 2010.
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Thursday, January 3rd, 2008
Posted by Overseas Property Mall in
Predictions2007 Review
2007 saw some major changes in the World’s property markets.
The U.S subprime crash bought about massive drops in property values and increases in foreclosures in certain markets and states – notably Florida, California and Nevada. Latest statistics show a national foreclosure rate of one foreclosure for every 555 households and Realty Trac, a U.S based online market place is claiming over a million listings as of November 29th. The crash does not seem to be affecting the high end condominium market which continues to flourish, particularly in Manhattan.
Western Europe saw a swift slowdown particularly in Ireland, the U.K and Spain, although, as with the U.S, the high end markets in major cities such as London are also flourishing with record prices being seen for both residential and commercial properties, and the U.K still managed a 9% increase in prices. London is still the most expensive office market in the World for 2007 thanks to the West End, followed by Mumbai, India.
The Baltic markets in general saw a slow down in price growth, with one major exception being Bulgaria, knocking previous success story Latvia well back in the rankings and Estonia falling behind also.
Top performers world wide for the year were Bulgaria, China and Singapore, with Bulgaria showing a stunning 30.59% increase in residential house prices.
Top performers for 2007 percentage increase (- decrease) in local currency
- Bulgaria 30.59
- China (Shanghai) 27.85
- Singapore 27.59
- Estonia (Tallinn) 23.38
- Lithuania 13.64
- Philippines 13.04
- Colombia 12.82
- South Africa 12.52
- Norway 11.56
- Hong Kong 11.25
- Australia 10.63
- Latvia 10.22
- Sweden 9.86
- UK 9.68
- South Korea 9.01
- Poland 8.38
- France (Paris) 8.27
- Japan (6 cities) 7.75
- New Zealand 6.67
- Canada 6.13
- Finland 5.88
- Italy 5.60
- Spain 5.31
- Indonesia 5.24
- Greece 4.18
- Denmark 3.95
- Netherlands 3.77
- Malaysia 3.20
- Switzerland 2.56
- Germany 2.04
- Portugal 0.49
- Israel -0.51
- Thailand -0.78
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Despite the many billionaires created by property investments in the US, the US domestic housing market is in a bad way right now – with more doom and gloom predicted, at least in the short term.
The latest Case-Schiller Index reports further drops in house prices, by as much as ten percent in some states. California and Florida are leading the price declines with prices in San Diego dropping by 8.3 % this year-to-date. House prices are at a six year low across the country and the average drop was 4.4%, with no end in sight.
“I think the housing market has got another year of very weak sales, falling construction and lower home prices. And all of that assumes that the economy holds together reasonably well and we don’t have a recession,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. The Joint Economic Committee estimates there will be 1.3 million foreclosures from mid-2007 through 2009 in subprime mortgages, loans provided to borrowers with weak credit histories, which will wipe out an estimated $71 billion in housing wealth directly and another $32 billion indirectly by lowering the values of neighboring homes, according to the report by the JEC’s Democratic staff.
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Every year, the World Bank produces a report on the ease of doing business in 178 countries, ranking them from 1 to 178. The World Bank uses several criteria to determine the rankings, but factors taken into consideration include the ease of hiring employees, the ease of starting a new venture to the ease of putting a company into bankruptcy.
Singapore tops the list as the number one place to start and run a business in the world, closely followed by New Zealand and the USA. The factors that helped Singapore to this slot are “Employing workers” and “Trading across borders.” Although, having recently discovered that the famous Raffles “Singapore Sling” cocktails are now automatically dispensed by a machine rather than hand made, I feel the position is unwarranted. What is the world coming to? Personally, I feel at least one of the criteria should be, “best cocktails.”
Perhaps more interesting to property investors is the top reformers report. Singapore has already been through a major property value upswing, whereas changes in the tax and property laws in places like Egypt and China will likely create a more investor-friendly environment.
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House prices in France have skyrocketed by about 210% since 1995, making homeowners including 180,000 second home owning Brits well pleased to see their investments soar. But in recent times, the French market appears to have slowed down, from double-digit gains to about 7.2% in 2006 and a sudden fall to the negative at 0.6% in January this year.
Experts and economists attribute this pandemic to the already cooling US property market & economy. Jean-Paul Six, chief Europe economist for Standard & Poor’, was quoted as saying: “I think we will see falling house prices in France during the coming months and that is going to cause headlines. It is the delayed effect of rising interest rates, which have already gone up seven times to 3.75pc, and continue further up.”
In Europe, the boom has not only been restricted to France alone, but Britain, Spain, Ireland, Scandinavia, Holland and Italy have all enjoyed a housing boom of sorts in the past decade. The exceptions to this have been Germany and Switzerland, where the property market has been flat since 1996.
Spain is where the bubble is really evident, with soaring house prices; homeowners have witnessed a rise of about 270% in the last ten years. And with Spanish banks preference for floating rate mortgages or fixed ones, 93% of Spanish mortgages have been issued on this basis. France compared to this, looks as solid as a fortress because French banks normally restrict lending to a maximum of 75% LTV. Another factor to look out for is household debt to disposable income ratio which in France is a mere 65%, whereas in Britain a stout 146%, and Spain a slimmer 115%.
What has emerged from this French property scare is the glut of housing in France, in part due to an overheated construction industry that could well impact negatively on The French property market. Anyone for Croatia? Read more on Telegraph.
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Tags: france+property, europe+property, property+boom, property+bubble, real+estate+crash
