The Best of 2008 on Overseas Property Mall (Part 2)

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

Posted by Overseas Property Mall in General, Property News Summaries, Trends

This is part two of our post about the most popular posts on Overseas Property Mall in 2008 based on reads, links from other blogs/websites, comments and bookmarks from social media sites. Here we go….

We introduced two property developments in Egypt on opposite sides of the budget spectrum. The first was a budget Hurghada Village apartment development and the other was the Hyde Park luxury Villa development by DAMAC (August 13).
With predictions from Morgan Stanley & the Wall Street Journal on the eminent fall of the Dubai property market, this post questioned whether it was all really doom and gloom in Dubai (August 21)
Desperate to shift units, an Irish property developer was offering a first of its kind ‘Buy One home get One apartment Free’ deal to buyers of homes in their resort development in Milford, Northwest Ireland – each buyer was given a ‘free’ apartment on the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria. With the IHT covering it three months later in December we don’t think investors’ took the deal in well (September 12).
This was the height of it all for us – an ‘Ultra Luxury’, 11,000 SQ. FT, six bed, three-level penthouse apartment in Miami for $22m. Given that it came to the market at about the same time as the Lehman Brothers collapse, it stirred over 145 comments on its feature on the IHT’s Raising the Roof blog.(September 21)
Cambodia joined in the global property price boom frenzy– we showcased five property developments in its capital, Phnom Penh to watch (September 22)
This is was a major announcement from Dubai developers, Nakheel. They unveiled plans to build a 1km tall building in Cityscape. Yet Another World’s Tallest Tower Planned for Dubai (October 7)
We showcased the World’s top ten expat cities for to work, live and do business in – apart from Manama, there were no big surprises (October 15)
Another hugely popular post was our showcase of 10 Get Away Private Islands spanning from Seychelles to the Maldives. It was our second most popular post published in 2008 (October 24)
Amidst the economic slowdown, Westfield London Shopping Centre in Shepherd’s Bush opened it’s doors in October, as the UK’s Largest Shopping Mall (October 31)
In December, Dubai had lost its bubble and it was official! Lack of finance due to the global credit crisis, it’s over-exposure to debt and the impending over-supply of properties were some of the factors that led to its slowdown (December 11).
The year ended on a positive note with advice from Property Mogul Sam Zell, recommending Brazil, Egypt, China & Mexico to being the best property investment markets at the moment. Please still apply caution in your property investment decisions – watch out for oversupply issues and dodgy developers if you are buying off plan (December 15).