Overseas Property Blog :: guide to international real estate investment

^{Sandbanks, a dune off the coast of Poole in Dorset England has the fourth highest land value, by area, in the world}

Every now and then, we come across something that makes us wonder as to the sanity of the property market and behaviour of some estate agents.

A small dune in Dorset recently hit the news as being the fourth most expensive place to buy a property in the World with average property prices at £850 per square foot. Correct, the world. More expensive than Tokyo or Paris. A dune. In Dorset.

Putting this in context of global property prices; Prime Central London properties currently average at about £1,300 per-square-foot; in Upper Manhattan, New York £950 per square foot; in Moscow about £900 per square foot, in Sandbanks, Dorset £850 per square foot, in Paris £800 per square foot & in Hong Kong £785 per square foot.

Quite apart from the frankly ridiculous property prices being asked – and achieved, experts agree that at some point in the future, the dune will in fact, sink into the sea.

Ten million pounds for a seaside property near the cultural mecca, Poole. The last time we checked, one of the main cultural attractions of Poole was the renovated gas works. Although the Special Boat Service deploy from here, so we suspect the threat of a seaborne invasion is slightly lower here than other parts of the coast line.

It’s not as though the ferry across is even gold plated although we see this as a likely addition in the future. If we had just paid that much money for a house, we would certainly expect something a little flashier than the current ferry.

^{The Sandbanks Ferry}

How does it make sense that a small spur of dune at the mouth of Poole harbour is the fourth most expensive place to buy property in the world ? The obvious answer is that it doesn’t make any sense at all. The only thing keeping property prices this high is the avaricious estate agents and an apparent willingness by the local inhabitants to pay whatever price is asked to be able to claim they live in the fourth most expensive part of the world. It is a nice beach, with a great view, but still…….

And though we may point the finger at a few estate agents, if they have customers like this, who can really blame them. It’s fair to say they won’t be refunding any commissions when the little island finally sinks in to the channel. And it will be a few less footballer’s wives to watch strut their bling, so perhaps it does make sense after all.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Billionaire Homes, Celebrities & Property. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

• Tweet
• Share
• Print