NEWS review Words | Adrian Bishop Feel-good factor returns
Smile! Suddenly, things seem an awful lot better in the property world. The feel-good factor is returning.
O
ver the last couple of months, there has been an abundance of good news about rising demand – and, more importantly, rising prices – in a whole host of markets around the world. Robert Gavin, Managing Director
of worldwide investment company Property Horizons, which has just launched a new single family homes project in a booming oil producing area in North Dakota, USA, told OPP Connect, “I have personally never seen a property market so buoyant.” In Singapore, where there
were a record 20-plus overseas property exhibitions over one weekend in April, another experienced professional praised market conditions. Richard Levene, Colliers
International’s Director of International Properties for Southeast Asia, who has been selling overseas property for more than 15 years, says the last two years have been the busiest he has witnessed.
There was good news from Portugal, too, but on a lesser scale. Data from the RICS/Ci Portuguese Housing Market Survey showed new buyer inquiries in Portugal have risen for the fi rst time since it began in September 2010. Still – any positive data about property sales in the Iberian Peninsula is welcome for investors, agents and developers alike. The Sunday Times’ Spanish Property Doctor, Mark Stücklin, from the SpanishPropertyInsight. com website, says he believes the market is at a turning point. In nearby France, sector experts say historically low interest rates are drawing interest from investors and John Busby, Director of UK-
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Time for enthusiasm!
based French Private Finance, says now is an ideal time to buy. There was even positive data coming out of Cyprus, Shameem Golamy, Head of
Rightmove Overseas explains, “The recent news coverage of the economic woes in Cyprus led to an increase of searches, overtaking Ireland as our seventh most popular destination.” Searches for Madeira
I have never seen a market so buoyant
increased 105% over February. In Dubai, annual price rises are among the best in the world. Apartment values increased 27% a year in March and by 12% just in the last three months, according to the Dubai Focus from agents Asteco. Villa prices did nearly as well, rising 24% year on year and 5% over the previous quarter.
More good news came out of Singapore, where sales volumes leaped almost four times over the last month to a record March high. The sharp rise from 712 to 2,793, reported by the Urban Redevelopment Authority, has been boosted by strong price cuts and special off ers from developers. But, in China, rising prices
are not so welcomed – certainly not by the national leadership, who recently instructed local governments to strictly impose 20% Capital Gains Tax to try and cool the market.
In April, data from the China Real Estate Index System showed average residential home prices in China’s top 10 cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, rose 1.3% in the month and 7.9% in the last year. The value of homes sold climbed to CNY 1.2 trillion (USD 242billion) from a year earlier, the biggest fi rst-quarter increase in three years, China’s statistics bureau says. As a result, there are renewed rumours that the leadership will introduce even more market cooling measures.
www.opp-connect.com
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