Property mogul Eyal Fishman has revealed his insights ^[1] 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?

Property markets in Britain and France are still plunging with commercial tenants ‘whimpering’ about rents but still paying them, he observed.

“The situation in Britain is still terrible,” said Fishman. “I read that Israeli businessmen are storming London. We didn’t go there, and I don’t recommend that anyone invests there either.”

Commercial property values tend to increase slower in Britain because rents are reviewed every five years instead of yearly, like many other countries, Fishman said.

“Investment in yield-generating property in Britain is like buying a bond unlinked to inflation that yields 7%,” he said. “You don’t need to go to Britain for that. You can buy bonds like that in Israel, at yields of 5.5% to 6%.”

Fishman also acknowledged that Israeli property traders are not doing deals in Britain, including Nochi Dankner, who decided not to close the British Lands Broadgate Estate deal.

“That shows London isn’t attractive yet,” Fishman said.

As for other markets, Fishman’s pronouncements were:

• Sweden and Norway are better off than most European markets and will recover in a year or two.
• In the USA, tenants are walking away from agreements and abandoning properties
• The Switzerland real estate market remains unaffected by recession
• Russia has a demand for property but financing developments is not easy
• The market in India is in much the same state as Russia

Fishman sees property investors in Eastern Europe failing to make money in the foreseeable future.

“Anybody who invested in eastern European property had better not count on returning the money in the next two or three years,” he said. “It won’t happen. I don’t see any movement in Ukraine or Bulgaria in the coming years, and I don’t see anybody financing the projects. The banks in those countries have been battered and won’t lend, even at interest rates of 15%. “