Continuing our quest for interesting properties for sale around the world, we came across this game ranch in Kalahari, South Africa. The ranch is 643 hectares in size and surrounded by a three meter tall “Game proof fence.” We take that to mean “Elephant proof,” so we’re not so sure that’s a viable claim, but it makes for interesting reading.

Included in the sale is a four bedroom house, along with four, thatched roof chalets. Also included is a Land Rover, 25 Eland, 45 Kudu, 22 Zebras, and assorted other animals – but disappointingly, no Elephants.

The company that owns the ranch, Phrima safaris, offer big game rifle and bow hunting safaris and an opportunity to “live Africa like you never thought possible.” The name Phrima translates from the local language as “place where the sun sets,” so if you are looking for a getaway at the ends of the earth, this would seem to be it. Amongst their hunting advice is the maxim, “use enough gun,” which sounds like good advice to us.

Their website is here, although if you are not fond of photographs of dead trophy animals, we suggest keeping away. If, on the other hand, you are, they have an interesting selection for your viewing pleasure. In the meantime, here are some spectacular photos of live animals in the Kalahari, shot by hvhe1.

Viviun is listing the property at a mere $320,000, which is negotiable.

The designers of the purpose-built Moroccan resort, Mediterrania Saidia, are pleasantly surprised to discover that the marina needs extending even before they’ve finished building it. The marina was over-subscribed from the day it was officially announced and the existing 840 berths will now be expanded to over a thousand.

Each of the additional berths at Mediterrania Saidia will be more than forty foot long and also create space for more commercial areas, a sports club and extra parking spaces. The marina is the hub of the seven million square meter resort which includes restaurants with sunny pavement terraces, bars, a traditional souk, designer boutiques, high street fashion stores, a medical centre and discotheque.

In July 2002, Morocco called a tender to select local and foreign partners to develop five seaside tourist resorts for a budget of $4.2 billion in a drive to attract 10 million foreign tourists by the year 2010.

Read the rest of this entry »

A Million Dollars. It certainly sounds like a lot of money. Just say it out loud: “A Million Dollars,” now say it slowly, “A Million Dollars.” It still sounds like a lot of money, but what will a million dollars buy in London, Europe or Africa or South America? As I began researching this article, the phrase, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison,” came to mind. Obviously, some countries vary widely from area to area, but here are some interesting properties for sale from around the world that all have the same price tag – A Million Bucks.

London. In London, one million bucks will secure a 3 bedroom flat in W6, a short walk from Hammersmith Broadway. This particular flat is offered by Foxtons and comprises one reception room, kitchen, three beds and one bath over 87 m sq. Leasehold with a share of the freehold.

Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

A number of Gulf developers have been discussing property developments in Senegal during the visit of President Abdoulaye Wade to Dubai in April.President Wade has been looking for partners for the development of a new administrative city to house the Senegalese government. The exact plans for the new development remain undetermined as yet but a number of companies from Dubai have lined up to develop property in the new free zone, close to the country’s new airport and about 40 km from Dakar, the present Senegalese capital. Grants of development land in the Senegal economic Zone (SEZ) are being negotiated for Jafza International, and its subsidiaries Dubai World, Limitless and Economic Zones World, Nakheel, and Istithmar.

Among the Emirates business people meeting with President Wade was Dr Abdulla Shaaban, CEO of the Abu Dhabi branch of Tameer of Bahrain. Tameer, also known as Al Khaleej Development Company has assets and projects under management of $3bn. Up until now the company’s interests have been concentrated on Bahrain and to a small extent in neighbouring gulf states.

Read the rest of this entry »

A Saudi prince has already snapped up the tower’s penthouse.

Whatever next for the Arabian city that has an artificial ski slope covered in snow even when the temperature hits 50C? Not to mention the world’s tallest building, some 700 metres (2,300 ft) high, rising above palm-shaped artificial archipelagos in the warm waters of the Persian Gulf. Oh, and a growth rate of 16% and a population where foreigners in need of “luxury” homes outnumber locals.

Well, what about the world’s first rotating skyscraper?

Commissioned by the Dubai Property Ring, a firm of UK-based developers, the 30-storey apartment block will use solar energy to power 20 electric motors that will rotate the tower through 360 degrees over the course of a week.”This will be a fair building,” says Nick Cooper, the British engineer working with MG Bennet and Associates of Rotherham, which will build the mechanism. “Everybody will have the same views for the same amount of time.”

Mr Cooper is not referring to “fair” as in “funfair” - though the building is, it has to be said, the spectacular proposed centrepiece of the giant City of Arabia amusement park, complete with animatronic dinosaurs, which is due to open in 2009.

Time Residences will comprise 200 apartments. Its 80,000-tonne bulk will rest on a series of more or less friction-free polymer bearings. “It moves very slowly,” says Mr Cooper. “It is not a theme park ride.”

Will it work? Cooper has previously designed the drilling machine that bored for England and France beneath the Channel, allowing Eurostar trains to race between London and Paris. He has also designed a giant rotating rock-crushing machines for use in mines. Getting a 30-storey building to turn slowly should be a doddle. And, Cooper claims, the power required to make it spin should be no more than is needed to boil 21 electric kettles.

Rotating parts of buildings is nothing new: London’s Post Office tower, featuring one of the world’s first rotating restaurants (with a very British catering service ,provided by Butlins), opened in 1966. But, this side of an observatory, getting a whole building to turn around its axis is something else - a case of a “white hot” sixties technological dream realised in a blazing hot emirate half a century on.

The £41m building is designed by British architects at Glenn Howells Associates, the company currently converting the Birmingham Rotunda into a block of 230 flats, and the Dubai city developers Palmer and Turner.

It will be capped with a crescent-shaped Moon Lounge, which will feature a theatre and an observatory. From here, future residents may just be able to catch glimpses of the further 23 rotating towers the Dubai Property Ring plans to build in cities around the world - one for every time zone. The idea is enough to make anyone dizzy.

Source: Guardian Unlimited

Related:

• AME Info Press release
• Rotating towers get Dubai real estate in a spin (Gulf News)
• Rotating tower to be solar-powered
• Scraper City discussion thread

Previously a reserve of rich and maybe infamous Seychelles, the island of 115 islands has just got a brand new man-made island added to it. The 116th Island called Eden has reclaimed 95 acres of land using the same technology used in The World Islands in Dubai.

Eden homes are an attempt to open Seychelles to a more main stream market with starting prices of £155,000 for small villas to £1.5m for large hearted buyers looking to snap up large sea facing villas. Read more about it here.

Useful Links

• Eden Island Official Website
• Seychelle Wikipedia

Abu Dhabi: Damac Holding, the Dubai-based real estate developer, is planning a major investment in the Egyptian real estate market, a top company official said.

“We have been negotiating the issue with the Egyptian side for almost six months now, and the site will be finalised soon,” Hussain Sajwani, the group’s chairman, told Gulf News yesterday.

The value of Damac’s international expansion and projects has been on the rise recently, reaching almost Dh25 billion so far, including a Dh10 billion in China, and a $400 million in Qatar, in addition to Lebanon and Jordan.

“We also find the Abu Dhabi market very promising, given the huge projects that have been announced or are in the pipeline,” Sajwani explained.

“However, Abu Dhabi needs to open up to foreign investors in the real estate sector, as the government cannot carry out all the required development,” he added.

Rents in Abu Dhabi are expected to increase by 100 per cent in the next five years, as the city’s demography is expected to change dramatically, due to the need to upgrade existing properties.

Accordingly, a different tenant mix is expected to enter the market, with much higher income than that of the average middle class in the capital today, according to Sajwani.

He said rents in Dubai and Abu Dhabi would keep going up, but at a slower pace than hitherto as the market is maturing. “However, Dubai is still relatively cheap compared to similar places elsewhere in the world and prices will keep going up about 40 per cent in the next five years,” Sajwani said.

Abu Dhabi rents would also rise because the real estate sector had been neglected for a very long time and would be pushed higher by the wealth of the emirate and new developments in the sector.

Sajwani attributed the rising rents to rising investment costs as well as strong demand. Building materials, administration costs and land prices were all rising, he said.

“Foreign competition has been good to Dubai’s local developers, as it opened up more markets and introduced the emirate to the outside world. Abu Dhabi needs a similar kind of foreign exposure and its market need to mature as well,” he said.

With its project Ocean Scape in Abu Dhabi, Damac is the only Dubai-based developer carrying out projects in the capital city, and the company is planning to further expand in that promising market with a new sales office there to cater for its ambitious plans.

Source: gulfnews.com

Related links:

• Official Damac website
• Oceanscape Abu Dhabi