10 | INDUSTRY


NEWS IN BRIEF Russians buy big abroad


NEWS By Sean Lightbown


LARGE numbers of Russian overseas property buyers are continuing to invest abroad as the country benefi ts from its lowest rate of consumer price infl ation on recent record - 6.1% during 2011 according to the Federal State Statistics Service - and a rising tide of disposable income in the general population. Svetlana Andyryukina, the editor of International Residence, Russia’s leading overseas property magazine, told OPP that the Russians’ “reluctance to rely on their own banking system has fuelled a huge appetite for overseas investments with an estimated US$12billion earmarked for the real estate markets abroad.’”


SoCal surge pleases pros


AGENTS have welcomed a sudden surge in house and condominium sales in Southern California. Transaction volumes were 14% up on November in December “as investors and second- home buyers made a record share of purchases,” market monitor company DataQuick told OPP this month. 2012 might prove to be “the rock bottom for pricing that many buyers and sellers have been waiting for,” DataQuick President John Walsh told OPP.


France set for UK retirees


RETIREMENT community developers in France are gearing up for a 22% rise in the number of people reaching retirement age in the UK in 2012 … a two-million rise on 2011, according to the UK’s Department for Work and Pensions. Danny Silver, managing director of The Villages Group, told OPP: “Most entering their ‘third age’ can expect to live well into their late 80s which means that considerable strain will be placed on the UK housing stock.”


GERMANY’S RECORD


2011 is emerging as a record year for the German residential market. More than 220 large-scale residential portfolios were sold to international investment groups during the year versus 171 in 2010, Patrizia Immobilien told OPP.


Montenegro is being misrepresented as a Russian-only property haven despite many investors from other countries buying up stock there according to a leading expert, who has branded the claims as damaging and “ludicrous.” Articles in the Russian press


have recently claimed that 40% of Montenegro’s property is owned by Russians, while Croatian publication Slobodna Dalmacija has said that some villages are 100% entirely owned by Russian buyers. However Andrea Marston, a partner


of agency Montenegro Prospects, told OPP exclusively that she feels the claims are “ludicrous”. Marston said: “I fi nd the claim that


40% of property owners are Russian pretty ludicrous. You only have to walk around to know that isn’t true.” “I think more likely is that 40% of


buyers in 2009-2010 were Russian. So of all the property that was sold in Montenegro in this period, 40% was bought by Russians … not 40% of the entire housing stock.” She added that


www.opp.org.uk | FEBRUARY 2012 No Russian Monte invasion


Mixed bag | Montenegro is more than just Moscow-on-sea, says Andrea Marston


there is more to Montenegro’s market than Russian buyers. “The article doesn’t mention the huge amounts of British or Irish that have bought properties in Montenegro, nor property investors such as Nathaniel Rothschild and Peter Munk (who are the men behind the giant Porto Montenegro super-yacht marina), nor the Egyptian company Orascom that is creating a village on Lustica peninsula. The situation is far more balanced than the Croatian article likes to make out. Not only is there a Russian school opening, but also an International School in Tivat.


There is also a village above Sveti Stefan that is very expensive – many locals have cashed in during the last few years, and sold to foreigners. I think it’s very likely that most of the owners there are Russian, but that’s hardly representative of the coast.” “Russian buyers and tourists are


welcomed in Montenegro and I’m sure this will continue, but it’s not Moscow-on-Sea! It’s just a country that is able to welcome affl uent tourists and property buyers, and that can cause some jealousy.”


Global market grinding to a halt


The global housing market suffered its worst performance for more than two years in the third quarter of 2011 according to property consultancy Knight Frank. The company’s Global House Price


Index rose by just 1.5% in the year to September 2011 ... the worst level since the second quarter of 2009 with house prices falling in more than half of the countries monitored in the third quarter. Ireland was the worst performer, with


ISTANBUL’S BOOM


PRIME property values in Istanbul continue to skyrocket, despite a fall home prices on some parts of Turkey’s over-developed coast. $10,000 per sqm is now possible according to Castle Research’s Turkey Real Estate Investment Outlook 2012 report.


prices falling 14% year-on-year. Hong Kong was the strongest, with prices rising 19% over the same period. However the city-state saw its prices drop 1.1% in the third quarter. “The third quarter saw mounting pressures on the global economy with politicians seemingly helpless to get to grips with the eurozone debt crisis,” said Knight Frank. “This has reawakened fears of a double-dip recession, not just in Europe but around


LONDON GOES BIG


LONDON’s developers are making larger apartments due to foreign buyer demand. Reuters said that the trend has happened because “developers [can] charge affl uent buyers up to 70% more to add larger properties to their portfolio.”


the world.” And, “unsurprisingly, this economic uncertainty has been reflected in the performance of the world’s housing markets.”


Sinking? | Global markets are slowing INDIA HITS DUBAI


INDIAN buyers are the top foreign owners of real estate in Dubai according to new fi gures published. Investors from the Asian superpower pumped Dh6.97 billion into 4,176 properties in 2011 … almost a fi fth (18%) of all foreign ownership.


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