While China is in the middle of a housing downturn, wealthy Chinese buyers are travelling to the US in groups on home-buying tours. Many are buying homes in the US to take advantage of the recent reduction in real estate.
Yin Guohua, a partner in a law firm stated ”The real estate prices in America have gone down drastically. It’s a good option for Chinese people who want to buy for investment purposes.”
Moscow investors and banks are playing a deadly game of Russian roulette in a stand-off to see who flinches first as the city’s once booming property market falls to ruins around them.
Billions of roubles are tied up in commercial and residential property portfolios.
Homes, offices and shops are standing empty as rents are unaffordable, new build projects are being cancelled, investors can’t refinance and the banks are sitting on a pile of yet to be realised toxic debt.
Flipping off-plan property was a mainstay strategy of property speculators over the past few years. With fast rising house prices, the idea was to put a deposit down on a home before building starts and then sell it when construction is completed.
Meanwhile, all the capital at risk is the deposit and the profit comes rolling in at the end as the property value appreciated during the construction time. Now, builders are mothballing their projects or selling them off at a supposed discount to stave off the creditors as off plan speculation has dried up.
Off plan was always a high-risk strategy- and now it’s hit a wall with the recession, according to the International Herald Tribune.
Scammers have been quick off the mark to start making money out of those who can least afford to pay. Within 24 hours of President Barak Obama announcing details of initiatives to bail out US homeowners facing repossession.
Luanda in Angola, is apparently the most expensive city in the world
London-based human resources consultants, ECA International released their latest Cost of Living report late last year, on first look not much had changed from the year before. However, some of these cities still posed a surprise in terms of expense. Especially Luanda in Angola surprised us, since nobody would think them to be ranked the most expensive city in the world.
The Urban Land Institute’s Emerging Trends in Real Estate have established themselves as a reliable source for information when it comes to our property investments overseas.
Their latest 2009 report for the Asia Pacific region clearly states one mantra loud and clear:
Focus – Focus – Focus!
Due to the global property market investors are well advised to be picky about where they invest their money and with whom. If you are familiar with a particular real estate market you are also advised no to stray due the volatility.
As the global financial crisis looms, there appears to be a ray of hope in specific property markets according to billionaire real estate mogul, Sam Zell who has highlighted Brazil, Egypt, Mexico and China to being some of the best destinations for property investments at the moment.
The key fundamentals of the investment prospects of these regions, pointed out by Zell are the shortage of affordable housing and infrastructure that support foreign investment.
Russian investors are buying up real estate around Europe, Africa, Australia and many other places, while the rest of he world is licking their wounds. Reports from across newspapers and many websites confirm that the Russians don’t intend to stop soon with their overseas property buying activities.
Headlines such as “From Russia with Cash” by the Wall Street Journal; “You are not imagining that Russian buying spree” by The New York Observer“; “Russians snap up Australian luxury” by the BBC are all testimony that there is plenty of action with Russian buyers worldwide.
With the current UK economic slowdown, the British pound is taking a nose dive as we speak (currently GBP/EUR 1.19 and GBP/USD 1.49 – a record low against the Euro). The current state of the weak British pound is putting a large number of foreign holiday property owners in a very tight financial spot as their mortgage payments keep increasing due to the exchange rate while increasing flight costs prevents them from visiting their property as often as they did a few months ago.
Foreign Direct Investment published a top 20 list of the world’s best cities for an expatriate job posting. Many of these seem the perfect choice when it comes to lifestyle, the vibrancy of the community, the weather and the sights.
We have taken the liberty and rounded the list up to represent the top ten expat cities for the perfect way of life. So if your boss ever gives you a choice, you will have a good idea on where you like to be relocated to.
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