Housey Housey: The Games People Play To Boost Property Prices

Is time to cash in the chips and walk?

The answer, says agricultural estate agents Savils, lies in the soil. Traditionally land prices have been more closely tied to the price of wheat than to the general economy.

So agricultural land prices will end the year up 21.5 per cent on 2007. A slight fall back in wheat prices saw values drop by 4.4 per cent in the last quarter. But set against a rise in prices of 135 per cent over the last five years, that is trifling.

The estate agents reckon wheat will again go up in price next year, and therefore recommend piling into pastures for property profit. Others look abroad. Some are looking to Holland for a more stable market. They cite a large social housing sector and a culture that supports rather than stigmatises social housing.

In Britain only 18 per cent of households rent from councils, cooperatives and housing associations. In Holland one in three homes are designated as social housing, rising to one in two in Amsterdam. There is, therefore, little scope for gambling on housing stock prices.

The housing market in most of the States may be in ruins, but what about taking a punt on Las Vegas?

Every year its population grows by 50,000. According to the US Census, every hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, another two acres of Vegas are developed for commercial or residential use.

The overall cost of living is 20 per cent below the national average, and jobs are plentiful, thanks to a pro-business environment in which companies do not pay corporate income, franchise, inventory, or unitary taxes.

The average property costs around 180,000GBP. But don't expect rental returns from tourists. Most want to stay in an Ocean's 11 style fantasy hotel hoping to run shoulders with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts and Matt Damon. For them, the suburbs just do not hit the jackpot.

Despite the desperate state of the American market, it is still popular with the Brits.

The National Association of Realtors' (NAR) Profile of International Home Buying Activity 2008 shows that buyers from the UK accounted for 12.5 per cent of foreign buyers in the country, ranking in second place only to bordering Canada.

One region offering real fire sale opportunities is the Mississippi Gulf Coast - the region that was hit hard by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Re-branded the 'Go Zone' or Gulf Opportunity Zone, it is getting federal support for rebuilding and regeneration. Federal and state inducements to investors are attracting the adventurous carpet baggers to the south once more.,

Back in Euroland more tourists and investors are expected to flock to Portugal's Western Algarve following the recent opening of the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, a brand new state-of-the-art race track near Portimo.

And, according to the annual top 20 survey in the current issue of A Place In The Sun magazine, Portugal is the biggest climber leaping from 12th to 3rd position as the UK's favourite place to buy property around the world.

With the new venue, the region is expected to welcome a further one million tourists a year.

But maybe we just have to accept property will never be a get-rich-quick opportunity again. A new property fund has announced it plans to spend 100million euros in Albania and other countries in the Balkans. Liam Bailey, chief market analyst for overseas property portal Property Abroad had this to say of the announcement:

'Albania has kind of taken a back seat in terms of media coverage of late, and that is not because it has been badly affected by the credit-crunch.'

'The good thing about buying in Albania is that the economy is growing from a grass-roots level if you like, and the demand for housing from average Albanian's is growing steadily, if not rapidly.' So, it's goodbye Las Vegas, hello Albania. There's a time to hold - and a time to fold.

Seed Newsvine

Bookmark this article in your preferred program

Comments

Add Comment

Popular Articles in this cathegory

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.