10 | TOP TEN
Singaporean buyer surge 4
NEWS OPP TOP 10
1- EUROPE 2- CHINA 3- MIAMI
SINGAPOREAN overseas property buyers are becoming major players in the market as demand increases according to a local expert. There were eleven overseas property
exhibitions held in the city-state last weekend, with developments from Malaysia, China, Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. brought infront of potential investors. And Andrew Batt, regional group
editor of Property Guru, believes this level of activity signifi es that the Southeast Asia market is becoming increasingly important to international professionals. “There are no offi cial fi gures which
detail exactly how many Singaporeans are investing in overseas property, but judging from the six exhibitions that I attended last weekend the numbers are on the uptrend,” he said. “The fact that one London project
– Chelsea Creek – opted to have its world exclusive launch in Singapore speaks volumes, and the fact that Kuala Lumpur is the next stop for this West London development is testament to the importance that overseas developers are placing on buyers from Southeast Asia.” Janice Low De Yean, regional sales
director for Centaline property agency added: “There is a lot of pent-up demand from Chinese developers who want to attract Singaporean property buyers and investors.”
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Japanese look to escape JAPAN’s troubles have sprouted a
cottage industry looking to safeguard Japanese people’s savings into overseas real estate. Last year’s earthquake and
subsequent tsunami and nuclear disaster at Fukushima has seen many people look abroad for living, according to realtor Hiroshi Kosaka. “A lot of people tell me they are
worried about nuclear
radiation.People also tell me they are worried about an economic disaster in Japan,” Kosaka says. This has seen property buyers come from all walks of life, not just retired and rich. “Since November, I’ve helped
around 25 people buy condominiums at a development in Malaysia. I would classify only three of these people as rich,” Kosaka added.
hina’s expansion is slowing to levels seen immediately after the global recession as weak overseas demand, cooling housing markets and reduced lending hits. Economists from Barclays said: “Many government offi cials argued repeatedly during the past year tolerating slow growth is critical for rebalancing the economy, improving growth quality and sustaining it at a rapid pace. Yet the government’s already implementing a second stimulus package. Near-term growth may be well supported now, but what about next year and the year after? This begs questions: whether the economy can ever graduate from the state-investment-driven stage and whether the economic transformation will happen.”
C
OPP COMMENT There’s been very mixed news coming out of China over the last few weeks, much of which is important to the large parts of our industry that are looking to the Chinese to invest overseas. Interestingly, our staff in China
and the developers and agents we’re speaking to suggest that this uncertainty in the Chinese economy is making more and more Chinese anxious to protect their options by locating some of their funds into other countries and, in particular, into countries where investment will secure them a residence visa. China remains the place to watch.
4- SINGAPORE 5- JAPAN 6- SPAIN 7- GERMANY 8- TURKEY 9- BRAZIL 10- DUBAI
By: John Howell
he eurozone is confronted with the prospect of “fi nancial disintegration” and should use its new bailout fund to recapitalise distressed banks directly while embarking on a transnational banking union, the European commission has said. The commission delivered more than 1,000 pages of diagnosis and
T 2
policy prescriptions on the dire condition of the European economy and how to try to end almost three years of euro-crisis in its report. It also talked up the merits of eurobonds or pooling of eurozone debt. This proposal is gaining in
traction, but is strongly resisted for now by the continent’s biggest economy, Germany. With international attention focused
on Spain wrestling with an escalating banking crisis, the commission was surprisingly critical of Mariano Rajoy (Spain’s Prime minister)’s, attempts to chart a way out of an extreme predicament – recession, soaring national debt, a ballooning budget defi cit, the highest unemployment in Europe, and the banks sitting on tens of billions of toxic assets from the bust property bubble.
China hits the wall Miami up M
iami’s recovery continued apace as foreign buyers fuelled the Florida city’s
fi fth-straight monthly price gains. Condos in the Miami-Dade area had a $150,000 median sales price in April…30% up year-on-year. Other properties also performed well. Single-family homes had a median sales price of $183,000 (up 8.2% y-o-y). International buyers paid predominantly in cash, with 90% of all buyers in Florida paying in this way. 64% of all buyers in Miami used cash. On a national level cash-buyers represented under a third of the market (29%). Martha Pomares, chairwoman of the board of the Miami Association of Realtors (MAR), said the increases should continue.
“Miami single-family home and condominium prices continue to trend upwards due to the record demand experienced last year,” said Pomares. “Price appreciation should continue due to limited supply and strong demand from both U.S. and international buyers and investors.”
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www.opp.org.uk | JUNE 2012 Single currency could sink
Bright spot | Foreigners spur Miami on
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