MARCH 2011 |
www.opp.org.uk
NEWS Paramount park confi rmed By Amit Katwala
THE Paramount theme park in Murcia has been offi cially confi rmed by the developers involved. An option has been agreed to purchase 1,716,000 square metres of land, comprising of 15 adjacent lots, for €15.6m. The land is currently owned by Infraestructura Terrestre S.A.; Desarrollo Antrade S.A; Sierra de Alhama Golf Resort S.A.; Gispafruit S.L., and SAT Cancarín. It is near the intersection of the RM2 and RM23 motorways. The option is for one year, and should
no money change hands by this point, it will lapse. Jesús Samper of Proyectos Emblemáticos, which is behind the project, said there were different zoning classifi cations on the land, which could take 12 to 15 months to adjust, and estimated that the park would be up and running in approximately four years. Pedro Cruz, the Consejero for
Tourism and Culture said the park hoped to attract 4.5 million visitors a
INDUSTRY| 09
NEWS IN BRIEF Brits cut losses in Bulgaria
Blockbuster attraction | will draw 4.5 million visitors a year to the Murcia area
year. Work has also resumed on the new Murcia City airport, which had fallen 10 months behind schedule due to funding problems. This, in conjunction with the Paramount announcement, is good news for the area, according to Ignacio Osle, Sales & Marketing Director of Taylor Wimpey de España. He told OPP: “rental occupancy should defi nitely show an increase after the opening of the airport although it is hard to state fi gures.” He
added: “The Paramount Studios theme park will bring many jobs to the area and the investment in our local infrastructure of €555.7 million will ensure that by the time the park opens its doors there will be enough airlines and high speed rail links in the area to serve a theme park of this magnitude. We are very confi dent that this will bring further wealth to the area - not to mention greater opportunities for our homeowners.”
US market has not bottomed yet
US prices will fall until the middle of the year says a new poll by Reuters. At best, by the end of the year, prices may start to recover and rise by 2%. Asked when they see a bottom
for US house prices, 14 of America’s 26 leading economists said that they would trough in either the second or third quarter of 2011. Three saw the bottom coming as
early as Q1 but one did not anticipate the market bottoming until the fi rst three months of 2014. “A pullback in prices following
the expiration of the homebuyers tax credit was not a surprise. Ultimately, a recovery in the housing sector will depend critically on the job market, which should improve over time,” said Scott Brown at Raymond James. The Case-Shiller index has struggled
since home-buyer tax credits expired earlier this year. It declined by 0.5% at the end of last year after 5 straight months of decline. Asked how much further prices
would fall before stabilizing, the median response of the 24 economists interviewed was another 3.3% drop on
STRONG RISE IN GERMANY
GERMAN residential property prices rose strongly in the fourth quarter of 2010 with house prices rising 1.5% year-on-year, according to the VDP association of German mortgage lenders this month. The improvement in Q4 followed a 1.4% jump in Germany in Q3. These are the country’s strongest price increases since Q4 2008.
Crash | to continue until the summer FLORIDA INVENTORY LOW
INVENTORY levels for homes in the Orlando area have hit a 5-year low as prices start to rise. In Jan 2009 the average sales price was $190,243 (£117,878) which fell to $159,942 (£99,127) in Dec 2009. In contrast, the average sales price in Jan 2010 was $140,422 (£87,029) with the average sales price in Dec 2010 being $146,582 (£90,831).
current levels. Two economists saw a further decline as sharp as 10%. The experts see US house prices as
fairly valued now. The average home sales price in the United States was $169,800 in Q4 2010, says NAR.
THE number of Britons putting their Bulgarian holiday homes up for sale nearly doubled in 2010. According to a recent report by the Sofi a News Agency, falling rental income and the weakness of sterling is making more British owners consider letting go of their overseas property.
Krona holding off buyers
SWEDEN’s strong currency exchange rates are undermining its overseas property sales with far fewer Germans and Danes interested in buying its classic red-painted holiday cottages. Prices are starting to fall and the overseas “market is almost gone now,” says Bo Collryd, from estate agency Mäklarhuset. “The houses we sold to Germany and Denmark last year can be counted on the fi ngers of one hand.”
Sales up, but prices fall US home sales came back in 49 states during the fourth quarter of 2010 with 78 markets – just over half of America’s metropolitan areas – seeing values rise year-on-year. Prices fell elsewhere according to the National Association of Realtors. “Total state existing-home sales, including single-family and condo, jumped 15.4% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.8 million in Q4 2010,” NAR told OPP.
Kenya’s rents climbing
KENYA’s resi sector is growing strongly according to the HassConsult Property Index, with returns from all the sub- sectors rising. For the period between September and December 2010, rent levels across all of Kenya’s residential property sub-sectors rose, including the high-end apartments. The last time that this happened was late 2007.
ISLAND PRICES RISING
GUERNSEY property prices rose by 4.7% on average during the fourth quarter of 2010, according to data released this month by the Guernsey States. Year-on-year, prices rose by 13.1% despite a slight dip in local transaction volumes. The average price of a house in Guernsey has now risen to £396,500, which is more than 20% up year-on-year.
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