2008 was quite an eventful year – we witnessed extraordinary property price rallies at the start of the year with markets like Moscow & Dubai each growing by over 75% from 2007 and a generally positive outlook for the year ahead. Although cracks did start to appear in the US market and the year started with a total collapse of the Baltics property market, the outlook was generally optimistic as hardly anyone anticipated the ripple effect the credit crisis would have on the global property scene in markets spanning from Europe to as far off as Phnom Penh.
We have put together a series of some of our most popular posts in 2008 based on reads, links from other blogs/websites, comments and bookmarks from social media sites. Here we go….
- In January, we showcased the the fourth most expensive place to buy a property in the World which turned out to be a Dune….yes Dorset, with average property prices at £850 per square foot (January 22).
- Lord Norman Foster unveiled plans for a $22bn carbon-neutral city in a desert in Abu Dhabi called Masdar City. It is to span 6.5 SQ. KM and would house 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses (February 18).
- At the start of March, we noticed that the booming property market of the oil producing city of Edmonton in Canada was one to watch. This upward trend in property prices was commonplace in most commodity rich regions at the time (March 3).
- With five star hotels no longer in vogue, we showcased seven ultra-luxury 7-Star hotels, most of which are under construction – this was our most popular post in 2008 based on reads and page views (April 29)
- Our top five Latin American property investment destinations were Mexico, Brazil, Panama, Venezuela and Argentina (May 13)
- This post was a favourite for our sail loving readers – we showcased our top ten picks of the best Marina developments in the world (May 15)
- We showcased five golf resort communities with off-plan property investment opportunities. This post was inspired by Miguel Angel Jimenez’s triumph in BMW PGA Championship in Wenthworth, England the previous weekend (May 23).
- Besides being incredulously rich and famous, we pointed out what Tiger Woods, Boris Becker, Giorgio Armani, Greg Norman and Brad Pitt have in common -they are part of a stream of celebrities used to promote Dubai (June 13)
- With the emergence of Natal as the fastest growing second home destination for Europeans in Brazil, we couldn’t help pointing out five beach front resort Developments in Natal Worth Checking Out (June 26)
- A $750 million estate on the coast of France’s Côte d’Azur was hardly one we could miss. Villa Leopolda was bought by the Russian precious-metal mogul, Mikhail Prokhorov (August 12)
