DEC 2012/JAN 2013 |www.opp-connect.com


Editor’s letter • John Howell ✆ +44 (0)208 734 3960 john.howell@opp-connect.com | 5


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EDITORIAL Editorial Director John Howell ✆ +44 (0)208 734 3960 john.howell@opp-connect.com


International property reporter Francine Carrel ✆ +44 (0)208 734 3973 francine.carrel@opp-connect.com


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Exciting changes coming to OPP


More staff , new features, more travel and interviews, more OPP Tours and the new OPP Training all add up to an exciting 2013


Group editor John Howell


o much has happened since I last wrote my editorial letter that it is diffi cult to decide both what to tell you and in which order. The three most interesting and – by good fortune – most important events in my schedule this month have been our investigations into the crisis in Spain, the OPP “Doing Business in China” tour and the appointment of Adrian Bishop as the new editor of OPP Connect.


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The twists and turns of the property crisis in Spain have dominated our industry for six or seven years and look set to do so for several years to come. They have been important not only because Spain was the birthplace of the mass market in international property – and remains a market with huge potential – but because the problems there are similar to those affl icting several other markets in Europe and the US. As an industry, we need to address and fi x these problems – yet we have shown little sign of doing so. See the Big Issue article at pages 34-37. I hope that this will prompt debate within the industry and spur those outside it to sensible action. The market in China has not so much been one of twists and turns but rather


one of explosive – almost exponential – growth. The potential of the market for foreign property amongst China’s wealthy (there are now nearly 1 million ‘millionaires’ in China and countless more who have amassed considerable wealth) is huge: hundreds of thousands of units. The Chinese appetite for overseas property is equally large. The aims of the OPP “Doing Business in China” Tour were simple: to teach the ‘foreign’ delegates something about the cultural and other complexities of doing business in China, to teach the Chinese delegates some of the challenges involved in working with westerners and to introduce each to the other in order to discover and develop new business opportunities. The tour involved 10 days of very hard work but seems to have succeeded on all counts. See our short report at page 65. Adrian Bishop’s appointment was an essential, and very welcome, stage in the continuing development of OPP. His arrival, and the recruitment of a team of assistants to work with him, will allow us to increase greatly both the breadth and depth of our news coverage on OPP Connect and the development of OPP Connect generally. They also free off some of my time to focus on the OPP Tours and the new OPP Training, about which you will be hearing a lot more over the next few months.


The New Year is, traditionally, a time for introducing changes and OPP is no exception.


The production of OPP has always been a team effort. In future it will be even more so. In this edition you will fi nd already some news content and other material produced by Adrian’s team. This interaction with OPP Connect, together with closer cooperation with OPP China, OPP India, OPP South East Asia and OPP USA will become even more evident in


the coming months.


This month my special thanks go to my assistant editor, Francine Carrel, and to our intern Candice Ritchie. Between them they stepped up and took most of the responsibility for the production of this edition of OPP so that I could prepare and go on the China tour. If you enjoy reading the magazine, the credit is theirs. If you don’t, the fault is mine.


In the next two or three months you will also see the introduction of more features aimed specifi cally at the needs of our developer readers and a further extension of the reports from our correspondents around the world. All of this is intended to make OPP an even more important read for busy professionals in our industry. If you have any ideas as to things you would like to see in OPP, let me know: john.howell@opp-connect.com. As to this month, it’s a case of no rest for the wicked. My passport is going to be getting a bit more wear and tear. In mid-January I will be visiting New York to speak at a conference and interview some of the industry leaders in the US and, from New York, I will be fl ying direct to Hong Kong for the start of the OPP “Doing Business in South East Asia” tour.


This will bring together our ‘foreign’ delegates and agents in Hong Kong, Singapore & Kuala Lumpur who are keen to do business with them. Like China, this is a market with vast potential – probably the greatest potential in the world per head of population. See page 59 for more details of this tour. Finally, all of us at OPP wish you a belated Happy Christmas and a very prosperous New Year.


If you would like to contribute to either of next month’s discussions, please let me know your views:


john.howell@opp-connect.com


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