photo credit: AloneInThe House

How do you define a house price crash? If prices fall 20 per cent? Or if nothing costs more than £80,000? Well in one Italian town you can pick up a villa for one Euro. That’s $1.44 or 81 English pence.

You see, in the Sicilian town of Salemi, Italy, they are struggling to give them away. Forget foreclosures, a mortgage squeeze or over-development. Here around 3,700 homes are owned by the council and not looking terribly ‘bellissimo’ thanks to an earthquake decades back.

Historic centre under threat

Many families have since moved out, prompting fears the town’s historic centre will crumble and be forgotten. So mayor Vittorio Sgarbi dreamt up the one Euro slice of extreme Italian generosity.

Buy it, get plastering, not plastered

The only problem is, anyone buying one is more likely to get handed a trowel than a set of keys. All of the homes have to be renovated in keeping with their traditional style inside two years. Something likely to involve “significant cost”, according to the BBC.

This hasn’t stopped the rich and famous from signing on the dotted line. Chairman of top Italian football side Inter Milan, Massimo Moratti, has already got one and former Genesis star Peter Gabriel is said to be interested.

Mr Sgarbi is not just an unusually open-minded local councillor either. He’s previously served in high positions in the Italian government and has a host of high-profile connections. Check out his website, www.vittoriosgarbi.it – when the man in charge has a haircut and hand gestures like that, it can’t go wrong. I’m sure there’s a Euro in the house somewhere…

Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate investing, property, property investment

photo credit: bugtiger

We all know that developers in the UAE won’t have anything to do with projects that are anything less than outstanding / impossible. And the catchily-named Mohammed Bin Rashid Gardens is a prime example of this, but without a skyscraper in site. Instead, Venice had better watch its back

The $60 billion parks project by Dubai Properties was announced last spring and now the overall masterplan for the development has been revealed. The ‘Venice of the East’ theme, with more than 150km of the city made up of waterfront and wetlands, also involves more parkland than London and New York put together.

The design has been completed by London-based architect, Eric Kuhne, who tells arabianbuiness.com:

“The canal system, which will be navigable, will…provide wildlife habitats and provide numerous opportunities for leisure and recreation.”

But will there be gondolas?

‘Arabian urban design principles’

The urban development has been centred around Sheikh Mohammed’s 2015 Strategic Plan for Dubai, which apparently was to build “a city for roughly a quarter of a million people, that would create parks and gardens, waterways, educational institutions, cultural facilities and establish a new city based on Arabian urban design principles, not European and North American principles,” says Kuhne. Right, better get to work then.

New homes and other facilities

Mohammed Bin Rashid Gardens will consist of new homes, educational, financial and commercial facilities and iconic civic buildings, which will all be connected by the waterways and enough greenery to offset the carbon emissions of the whole city. Bill Oddie is yet to be confirmed for the opening. Sounds good to me, all the beauty of the floating city, but without the pigeons.

Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate investing, property, property investment

photo credit: Smabs Sputzer

The starving masses had hoped for a miracle, and they at least got a decent card trick. Yesterday UK chancellor Alistair Darling unveiled a package of measures to help the country’s housing market, which has been looking decidedly green around the gills for the last few months.

Darling’s headline medicine is a 12-month stamp duty holiday for homes costing less than £175,000 and ‘free’ loans for first-time buyers, plus help for households facing repossession while battling mortgage repayments.

‘Please sir, can I have some more?’

Reaction from agents, builders and banks was, unsurprisingly, par boiled as opposed to roasting hot. Most said the ideas were welcome and just about everyone said more was needed.

It does appear a bit limited, particularly given ministers pretty much had to do something with stamp duty after poorly-managed rumours over the tax caused a number of sales to collapse and more first-time buyers to go into hiding. Plus the ‘free’ loans for people purchasing a first home aren’t actually, er, free – an unspecified fee will have to be paid for taking them out after a certain amount of time. Oh, and they’ll only apply to households earning less than £60,000 a year.

‘Better than nothing’

But it’s better than what it looked like the market might get at one stage, ie, nothing. All Alistair has to do now is get his hair to match the colour of his eyebrows and it’s back to the good old days.

Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate investing, property, property investment

photo credit: buster19761976

The next time you pick up the phone to call an estate agent and they fail to answer, the lack of a response may not be just down to rudeness and disorganisation, for once. According to the Times, fears are growing that as many as 10,000 agents could lose their jobs by the end of 2008 unless the UK market picks up in the coming weeks.

But don’t laugh too loud – they aren’t ALL bad, and no work for them means one thing – banks still aren’t lending mortgages, which means if you are selling a house, you probably can’t shift it, and if you are buying one, you may not be able to borrow the cash.

Redundancy via eBay

Still, I’d like to propose every estate agency in the country launches an eBay-style bidding site if they are forced into job cuts. Disgruntled buyers and sellers could then vote or ‘bid’ on which members of staff should get the chop – whoever gets the most votes or bids gets handed their notice first.

Imagine the unforgivable tales of lost deposits, missed appointments and botched sales which would come crawling out of the woodwork – a gigantic cupboard full of ugly property skeletons never given a proper burial.

Discounts mounting up

Seriously though, jobless estate agents, while bitterly amusing to some property investors, is only a sign of a market so flat that someone’s grandma could sprinkle it in Jif lemon and serve it up on Shrove Tuesday.

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors pitched in this week with the latest plea to the government to help the situation. We watch and wait because, truth be told, the cuts and discounts are mounting up – all that’s needed is an ease on lending criteria and the sales doors can open.

Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate invetsing, property, property investment

photo credit: Number Six (bill lapp)Given the unpredictable nature of the market in many regions this year, what’s the most adventurous deal at the top of your list at the moment? Semi-detached house in the north-east of England? Apartment in Abu Dhabi? Condo in Miami?

How about a 5,500 barrel-per-day petroleum refinery situated on approximately 105 acres in the middle of Kentucky, US? That’s exactly what auctioneers Tranzon are selling, following a bankruptcy order on the site, known as Somerset Refinery, Inc, and Somerset Oil, Inc.

Big bucks per barrel

Ok, so the final bid will probably stretch into millions of dollars but it does represent one of the few big-return guarantees in the global real estate market. Why exactly? Because crude oil is currently hovering around the $116 a barrel point, having been about $59 a pop as recently as 2006.

Well running dry

The only catch here is that oil is running dry pretty much everywhere, meaning while prices may soar in the short-term, the long-term problem is that within 10 years there may be very little left in the US to refine.

Still, the black stuff is not the only thing up for auction at Somerset. Along with 105 acres of land, the package also includes more than 100 vehicles including trucks, tankers and company cars – perfect for sending all your new employees out to find more oil when the taps finally stop dripping. Personally, I think I’ll be sticking to buying a house or two in Derbyshire this year. I’ve already seen ‘There Will be Blood’ and have no intention of turning it into a documentary.

Somerset oil refinery

Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate investing, property, property investment

photo credit: aurevoirkatieLocation, location location, is usually the cry. Not today ladies and gentlemen. Today it’s happiness, happiness, happiness.

For UK investment landlords looking for chirpy tenants, Powys, Wales, is where you will find the nation’s most contented folk, according to a study by experts from the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester.

Oddly enough, this is not an area where residents are massively likely to find a cosy pub, Tesco and nice contemporary retail amenities on their doorsteps. Powys, it turns out, is also the most sparsely populated area in Wales. This does somewhat beg the question – if it makes you so blitheringly happy, why does no-one live there?

Edinburgh, you’re fired!

The survey took in 273 districts and threw up a few more interesting pointers for house buyers. Edinburgh, for example, is bottom of the list and supposedly the most miserable place to live in the UK. It does chuck it down there a lot, and I’d imagine it’s not so marvellous when you live there as opposed to drinking it dry while on holiday.

North of England in smile shock

Tellingly, the south of England, where property prices tend to be far higher than ‘oop north, did not fare so well, with northern metropolis Manchester scooping second spot overall. In fact, Scottish and northern locations, besides Edinburgh, put in a generally smiley showing. Perhaps what makes northern residents so cheerful is the knowledge that their rents and mortgages are so much lower than their cockney counterparts.

Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate investing, property, property investment

photo credit: chumsdock

You can almost see the fingers of smog curling their way back over the Beijing skyline. The gloomy mist, curtailed during the Olympics thanks to traffic restrictions, will no doubt return faster than any hint of Chinese pessimism.

But what happens when the sprinters, hammer chuckers and pistol shooters pack their bags and head home after an event of that size? The cost of hosting the games is thought to have run to more than $41 billion for China, so what will be left over to invest in the country’s property and infrastructure?

Beijing will probably be hoping it ends up with a similar fate to that enjoyed by Barcelona. The city in Catalonia, southern Spain, is thoroughly in the pink 16 years after the games came and went. However, the Olympic stadium in Montjuïc is in a somewhat grim state, with resident football club Espanyol soon to up sticks and move to a spanking new home.

Literal bird’s nest?

The Beijing Bird’s Nest stadium is a somewhat larger and more modern monolith, but could end up being a, er, bird’s nest, if a suitable use is not found for it. Public execution, anyone?

Evidently, not everyone, including me, was left starry-eyed by the public relations bonanza then. But the games are evidently a handy sales pitch for potential property investors.

‘Ride the growth curve’

Dan Johnson, managing director of the Move Channel, says:

“Many UK investors, despite the credit crunch, may still be considering the Olympics as an opportunity to ride a growth curve in London. Barcelona is an example of a city where the Olympics has been a success story, something which London will definitely be looking to emulate.”

Get ready to go for property gold in 2012 then.

Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate investing, property, property investment

photo credit: Gilgongo

Brian and Wendy Wilshaw are the proud owners of an 11-acre Devonshire estate in the UK. They are not alone in that they are sick of the ‘hassle’ of the sliding property market. But Brian and Wendy are not your average property sellers.

The couple have decided to raffle their “Oldborough Retreat” home and its grounds after getting fed up with low interest. They got on to a solicitor, who has helped them fix up the Richard and Judy-style competition (involving token silly question). “You’ve got to be in it to win it”, the pair say on their website.

2000 sq ft of living space

The house itself includes 2000 sq ft of living space, including five double bedrooms and a bathroom with a whirlpool bath. Four timber lodges help to make up the estate and the grounds feature woodland and a lake which is apparently great for fishing.

According to the BBC, each ticket costs £25, with 46,000 needing to be sold to cover the asking price, stamp duty and running costs of the competition.

PM’s private bog up for grabs

While we’re at it, why not run a similar contest for government ministers? Whoever comes up with the best scheme to get banks lending again wins the keys to Gordon Brown’s private bog. Alternatively Alistair Darling could enter and win a pair of b*ll*cks big enough to encourage him to scrap stamp duty. He can enter that competition for nothing, although there’s always a chance he won’t know the answer the entry question.

Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate investing, property, property investment

photo credit: Menlo School

As previously reported on this blog, students can no longer be looked upon as the penniless, scruffy little nerds they were back in the 1980s. These days the hordes of university goers which swamp chain bars across the UK are an altogether fancier bunch.

A collection of haircuts and Topshop t-shirts, ’studeys’ are often not actually that poor any more. This is largely down to the arrival of tuition fees combined with a decade of New Labour-inspired growth which put plenty of cash in the pockets of parents keen to send their kids off to study with a bit more than just a cardboard box full of tinned beans and a four pack of Skol.

Yuppies out, Slicas in

The result is that investing in student property is highly profitable, with rents in university towns across countries like the UK higher than in other areas. The latest twist is the naming of the more select members of the student population. You’ve met ‘Yachties’ and ‘Yuppies’, now prepare to target ‘Slicas’.

The Slica or Student Living In Comfort And Style, has emerged following research carried out by the University of East London for UNITE Group, which specialises in providing posh student digs. The study found a growing disparity in expectations of student lifestyles, with a growing number of students looking for ‘exceptional’ accommodation.

Rents at £195 per week

The result? Unite has responded by launching ‘premium city studio apartments’, entitled the London Studio Collection. Highlights include flat screen plasma TVs, 24-hour security, a concierge service and designer interiors featuring furniture from the James Bond film, Casino Royale. The rent? It STARTS at £195 per week, proving there’s cash out there in those previously troublesome and broke student tenants. A ready-made market for property investors who have turned into landlords.

Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate investing, property, property investment, students

photo credit: jadakatt

Few people count their bank manager among their closest friends, but the money men are doing a particularly bad job at endearing themselves to the British public at the moment.

It turns out that besides a long-term overpricing trend, a current refusal by banks to lend people mortgages is also driving the current slide in the UK property market.

412,000 rejected for a homeloan

According to GE Money, some would-be UK buyers are now being rejected four or more times before getting a homeloan. A survey from the firm says more than 412,000 people could not get a mortgage at all in the last year and a half – nearly enough to fill Wembley stadium five times over.

‘No mortgages, no market’

That’s potentially 412,000 sales which have been blown from the sky by the banks before they’ve even begun. Even when you take out the proportion of folks who no-one would lend a fiver to, let alone a mortgage, there’s still a lot of sales there. At this point, I don’t really care any more why banks are getting stingy, I just want them to start lending again. Without mortgages, the market can’t get on its feet again and until then anyone with a surplus of stock is left sitting on their hands.

After those stark GE statistics I can’t help but compare mortgage lenders with the big red plasticine blob from the BBC childrens’ show Trap Door. In case you never had kids at around that time, it hobbled
about moodily and only ever had one booming line- “I said NOOO.”

Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate investing, property, property investment