Knowing – or maybe believing is a better word – that property markets and economies around the world are on the way back up sure is a nice feeling. It may be a short-lived feeling, because according to some there are signs that the short-lived positivity will end as quickly as it begun.
Having been on the market for just over a year, the US embassy building in London’s Grosvenor Square is to be bought by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co. The building was designed by Eero Saarinen and built in 1960, although the American embassy has been located in Grosvenor Square since 1938, and America’s ties to London’s Mayfair district date back to 1785, when John Adams, the first US ambassador to Britain and later the second US President, lived there.
After about two years of static and falling traffic, UK property websites appear to be making a come back with increased growth in traffic recorded in October by Hitwise, an online competitive intelligence provider. From October 2008 to October 2009 website traffic to UK Property websites increased by 4.8%.
Thanks to the supposed demise of the global credit crunch, traffic to top online property sites appears to be making a resurgence and no doubt increased income.
We are a nation obsessed by house prices, we are obsessed when house prices are rising, and we are even more obsessed when prices are falling.
Once again it is the season to be jolly, and none more jolly than the big-city bankers who receive multi-million Pound and Dollar bonuses if they have done well. This has been known for having a very positive effect on the central London prime property market, as the bankers spend their fortuitous fortunes on lavish homes. The question is, with so much regulation on the horizon, and so little supply on the market, will this year be the same?
Major UK online property portals recorded a year-to-year website traffic growth of 19 per cent from 2008. Despite the sluggish housing market, UK property portal traffic seems to be on the up.
The famous Millennium Dome of London, also called the O2 Arena is set to be bought by Cambridge’s Trinity College. Trinity College which is understood to be Oxbridge’s wealthiest college is in talks to acquire the O2 Arena for an estimated £20m+.
Property mogul Eyal Fishman has revealed his insights about global property markets that are influencing investment decisions at his private company Mirland.
Fishman’s companies – including London based Mirland – have property interests around the world.
So what are Fishman’s thoughts about the property world that may hold interest for smaller investors?
OK letting agents are being discriminating with overseas migrant workers even so it is against the law. Uncovered by a secret BBC video, the shameful methods by which these people are turned down from becoming tenants had now been made public to the world.
Since the credit crunch I have become ever more cautious of recommending property investment with a view to short-term gain. I mean, I was lucky; while they aren’t growing by the percentages I forecast for this year; the destinations I recommended are still set to make the total short-term gains I was forecasting in 2007/08, by 2012/13. Places like: the Philippines, Brazil, Koh Phangan (Thailand), Tunisia, and more mostly in Latin America.
Fancy being the owner of a £3m home on one of the richest streets in London but instead of enjoying your property with all its fancy dressings you find three squatters occupying the place. This is the stark reality at a Hampstead house in north London.
The Bishops Avenue property is being occupied by three guys from France and Romania. Close by lies Lakshmi Mittal’s £40 million gated home and down the road are properties of the Saudi Arabian and Brunei royal families.
The three squatters believe themselves to be of the friendly kind. They have linked up electricity, have running water, and plastered the ceiling in the rundown house since they’ve moved in.
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