photo credit: Mr.Thomas

Couples who are able to turn to the ‘bank of mum and dad’ make up the majority of young UK first-time buyers, a case study suggests. Linden Homes said young people who can borrow money from their parents are among the few who can currently make it onto the country’s property ladder.

The firm used two people who recently moved into one of their apartments as an example, with a family loan of £30,000 proving crucial to the purchase. Having made the decision to move in together, Richard Godbold and his partner Laura, both 20, were determined to avoid the increasingly expensive rental market in their home town of Tunbridge Wells.

The £30,0000 from Laura’s parents was used as a deposit on a £182,000 one bedroom apartment at Linden Homes‘ Viva development in Tunbridge Wells town centre. Richard said:

“We have been living with Laura’s parents and were eager to get on the property ladder as opposed to renting when we decided to move in together.

“The loan gave us the boost we needed to get off the ground, and meant we were able to access a more favourable mortgage package.”

Linden Homes South East managing director Paul Cooper, said:

“Parents offering children a helping hand to finance their deposit is a key way of getting first-time buyers onto the property ladder, particularly in the current climate.

“However, there is still a range of competitive mortgage products available, and developers are doing all they can to offer incentives.”

photo credit: kozumel

Officials have said the UAE will get a VAT scheme in 2009, although no exact date has been set. Dubai Customs’ executive director Abdul Rahman Al Saleh said value added tax would arrive in 2009 and would strengthen the region’s economy.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has previously said the implementation could raise inflation. Quoted by Gulf News, Al Saleh said:

“It is well known globally that implementing VAT in many countries has significantly contributed to boosting the economy’s sustainability, as VAT is considered the ideal tax for already strong economies.”

According to some reports these comments came after Mohsen Khan, the IMF’s Middle Eastern Director, said the arrival of VAT would mean inflation in UAE would go up by bewtween one and two per cent.

When it arrives the rate is expected to be between two and five per cent and will be imposed on consumer goods and services. Dubai’s current inflation rate is already high, with estimates ranging from around nine to as high as 12 per cent.

Earlier this month Dunbai Customs released details of the ‘Dubai Declaration’, a set of recommendations on how it intends to combat piracy and counterfeiting.

photo credit: joiseyshowaa

New York real estate is the new property investment route of choice for wealthy Middle Eastern speculators, according to reports. Gulf and Asian sovereign wealth funds could be moving away from banks in favour of property, the Financial Times says.

The paper states funding representatives from Kuwait and Qatar are among a group of buyers attempting to buy the GM building, which overlooks central park. Four other prime sites are apparently up for grabs as part of the deal, which involves the selling off of real estate belonging to the tycoon Harry Macklowe.

If the deal is agreed, it will mark a major stepping stone for Middle Eastern investors, who have previously concentrated on injecting cash into Wall Street banks. Quoted by the paper, senior managing director of broker GVA Williams Richard Warshauer called the planned sale a potential “watershed transaction”.

The deal could cause some murmurs in the US as sovereign wealth funds remain something of a enigma to the authorities. Late last year US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to develop guidelines for how such government reserve bodies should be permitted to wheel and deal.