MultiProperty Service's Blog

According to international agents, luxury and prime property in Morocco, particularly in the cosmopolitan city of Marrakech, is in high demand from discerning professional investors and second home owners from around the globe, who are seeking a relatively lower-risk real estate investment in a country less affected by the recession than others like the UK and USA.

The Jawhar Resort, Spa and Private Residences – a luxury destination resort developed by Aerium Atlas Management and managed by Monte-Carlo SBM, the resort operator behind some of Monaco’s most glamorous casinos, restaurants and hotels – is an example of a new standard of real estate that is being created in Marrakech to cater to this burgeoning demand and is receiving significant interest from the international elite since its launch last November.

source: menareport

The largest tourist expo – International Travel Trade Show, ITB, is opening in Berlin Tuesday with the participation of over 11 000 companies from 187 countries.

Bulgaria is represented by 32 tourist businesses and organizations with an exhibit displayed on 520 square meters. The motto of the 2010 presentation is – “Bulgaria – Modern, Year-Round Tourist Destination.”

The Bulgarian exhibit will provide folklore performances, demonstrations of typical and traditional Bulgarian crafts, and wine tastings.

Last year, Bulgaria was visited by 6 million tourists and collected revenues estimated at over EUR 2,5 B, the Bulgarian National Radio, BNR, informs.

Beginning Wednesday, the expo is open for trade visitors, and over the weekend for trade visitors and the general public.

Source: novinite

Bulgaria beach concessions and rentals are to be managed under a new strategy for beaches, soon to be approved by the government.

Bulgaria’s government will shortly approve a new strategy for development of the country’s beaches, and will lower the cost of concessions and rentals.

Rosen Pleveneliev, Minister of Regional Development, has made this announcement on Tuesday, at a meeting with the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria.

Plevneliev said government approval would be within 10 days and that the first new concession procedures would start within one month. The Minister estimated that prices would become up to 30% lower than their present levels.

“I will not hide from you that after these competitions there will be beaches without concessionaires and leaseholder,” he warned, however. According to the Minister, about 100 beaches are free at present.

Under the new strategy for beach rentals and concessions, some of them will be handed over to the regional governors to rent them out.

“Our goal is to have stable concession contracts with clear rules,” the Minister stated.

Source: novinite

Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s warned Spain Friday that its weak economic growth prospects could undermine its plan to rein in its budget deficit, making a debt downgrade even more likely.

Though short of the levels being posted in Greece, investors are increasingly worried about Spain’s budget deficit – and skeptical about the government’s ability to push through sharp cutbacks to right the situation.

The government has announced both tax rises and spending cuts – not all yet specified – to reduce its deficit back towards the 3 percent limit that euro rules prescribe.

In a statement, S&P said Spain’s deficit would likely remain above 5 percent of the country’s gross domestic product through to 2013 against the government forecast of 3 percent, and that as a result the debt burden could rise to above 80 percent of GDP by 2012.

S&P said it also expects much weaker economic growth than the Spanish government and that there was a “significant implementation risk” with regard to the current plan to reduce the deficit, which is estimated at 11.4 percent of GDP in 2009.

Spain, which has still to get out of recession, is expected to grow by an average annual rate of 0.6 percent between 2010-13, according to S&P, way down on the Spanish government’s forecast of 1.5 percent.

S&P said it saw downside risks relating to the government’s revenue collection assumptions in particular, largely because Spain’s tax base is “highly sensitive” to domestic demand and has been sensitive to the real estate sector, which has collapsed over the last couple of years.

“Neither of these sources is likely to be a strong contributor to revenue growth over the next several years,” S&P said.

S&P said it was maintaining its negative outlook on Spain’s double A+ rating, which it assigned in December, in the absence of “more aggressive and tangible actions” by the authorities to tackle Spain’s economic and fiscal problems.

“Any deterioration over and above our current expectations could put further downward pressure on the ratings,” S&P said.

Story from Forbes

There was a small uptick in Spanish housing sales during the fourth quarter of last year, according to recent data released by the Spanish Ministry of Housing.

The increase was small, but enough for the Government to get excited about: “The transactions in the fourth quarter represent a rise of 4.1% with respect to the same period last year, this being the first year-on-year rise since the fourth quarter of 2006″.

In fact, if you just look at the ordinary housing market, the uptick was even better. Excluding social housing there were 116,664 house sales in Q4, a rise of 5.5%. Regrettably, that’s where the good news ends.

Take the year as a whole, there 413,112 transactions last year, a fall of 19% compared to the previous year, and a whopping 46% down on 2007. Even the Q4 was down 33% compared to 2 years ago.

Some regions did better than others. Looking at a selection of regions popular with holiday home buyers, the inland province of Teruel suffered the most in 2009, down 36%, followed by Las Palmas in The Canaries, down 32%. At the other end of the scale, Spain’s two big cities did the best, down just 1.7% in Madrid and 3.9% in Barcelona.

The small national uptick in Q4 that got the Ministry excited was almost entirely driven by big increases in Catalonia and Madrid (Barcelona +35%, Madrid +41%). Why the big surge in home sales in those two cities in the last quarter of 2009? I don’t know. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it had more to do with banks shifting Spanish property around their balance sheets than families buying homes to live in.

Source: kyero.com

Figures for property sales in Spain have shown a small improvement for Q4 of 2009 and the government there has seized upon the opportunity. Sales are shown to be up by over 4% in Q4, compared to the same period of the previous year, with increased sales in Barcelona and Madrid.

The problem is that the sales activity in these two cities at the end of 2009 was so impressive, it elevated the national average and overshadowed the performance of places such as Las Palmas and The Canaries. Barcelona saw a 35% increase in sales with Madrid performing better at over 40%.

However, it seems to be a mystery as to why this should be, leaving industry professionals baffled by the statistics. Anyone who is selling a property in Spain at the moment shouldn’t get too excited about the figures either.

This small and unexplained upturn pales into insignificance when you realize that as a whole, sales figures for the year were down nearly 20% and 46% down on 2007’s figures. Sales and property prices in Spain face a tough year in 2010 and canny investors know that by waiting better deals that are on the way.

Source:propertyworld

Heavy snowfalls have pounded northeastern Spain, knocking out power, canceling flights and forcing the closure of schools in Barcelona and the surrounding area, officials say.

Accumulations of up to 50cm of snow have been forecast for the worst affected areas of Catalonia, prompting the regional government to cancel classes for more than 142,000 students at 476 public schools.

Power was lost in homes throughout the region on Monday, with energy company Fecsa-Endesa reporting 10,000 clients were without electricity, while traffic on more than 60 roads in the area was either prohibited or restricted.

Spain’s border with France at La Jonquera was closed because of the snow, leaving about 3000 trucks stranded, public radio RNE reported.

Bus service in Barcelona was suspended just before the evening rush hour and commuters were encouraged to use the Mediterranean port city’s metro system instead.
While Barcelona’s El Prat airport was operating normally, six flights out of the airport in nearby Girona were canceled and several more were delayed because of the snowfall, which was accompanied by strong winds.

Source:Yahoo News

If you’re looking to diversify, broaden or even begin your property portfolio consider Europe for your next investment destination.

Europe is host to such a broad range of countries all offering diverse property opportunities – you have everything from emerging market economies with massive potential for sharp growth rates, well established city based rental markets giving great yields and even residential housing markets offering an investor a slow burn on his capital outlay.

Here’s an overview of the potential on offer in the top ten European countries for real estate property investors right now.

Bulgaria – Bulgaria is in position for EU accession in 2007 and as a result it is receiving massive foreign and domestic investment particularly into infrastructure and construction and the whole country is benefiting from the amount of money being spent on it.

Those who buy now in Bulgaria are buying into the longest projected period of growth and buying before the expected boom that will begin when Bulgaria is officially made an EU Member State. Furthermore they are buying to target the burgeoning tourism market that heads for the beautiful beaches of the Black Sea Coast in the summer and the snow capped mountains of Bulgaria’s ski resorts in the winter.

Croatia – Another country tipped for full EU membership in 2007, Croatia offers property investors commercial and residential property opportunities. The numbers of international business establishing bases in Croatia has increased substantially in the last couple of years and there is demand for the development of light industrial and office space.

Furthermore Croatia has a strong tourism market that offers a real estate investor further opportunity to either target short term rental yields or to buy off plan or develop for resale to the second and holiday home market in Croatia.

Cyprus – There are two real estate economies in Cyprus – you have the well established Republic of Cyprus property market where an investor should seek to target the retiree audience or the tourism market and then in Northern Cyrus you have an emerging economy currently offering massive growth potential.

Property price increases in North Cyprus have consistently been in double digits for the past three years and there are no signs of a slow down in the offing.

Czech Republic – The majority of real estate investors consider Prague the only city worth targeting in the Czech Republic but the country’s other cities like Brno also offer an investor opportunity to purchase residential accommodation for rent to the domestic and expatriate professional population. Property price growth has been fantastic in recent years and rental rates are increasing annually.

Estonia – Real estate investors should target the local market in Estonia and consider looking for opportunities in the capital city of Tallinn. The Estonian economy is growing at a staggering rate which is affording the local people greater purchasing power which in turn is having a direct effect on the property market in Estonia.

Basically as local demand increases so prices can rise and as local purchasing power increases so it can sustain these price rises. A real estate investor can buy into this growth now and should expect the period of growth to be sustainable for at least the medium term.

Hungary – Property investors who targeted Hungary’s capital city of Budapest last year enjoyed up to 15% growth on underlying property prices and these growth rates show no sign of slowing down currently.

There is local and expatriate demand for property to buy and let in Budapest and the local economy is benefiting from foreign direct investment and strengthening. This means that there are long term prospect for growth in Hungary. Furthermore there’s an emerging market within Hungary’s property sector and that is the tourism market which offers an investor a chance to get in on both residential and commercial property ventures targeting this growing market segment.

Latvia – Latvia is benefiting from substantial foreign direct investment which has helped establish the Latvian economy as one of the fastest growing in Europe and Latvians are on target to receive one of the five largest wage increases in the world. All this means that locally the population can afford to spend more on property either in the form of rental rates payable or property prices payable and real estate investors can buy off plan and flip on to the local market upon completion or even buy to let out in the capital city of Riga or in the coastal port towns.

Poland – Having joined the European Union back in 2004 Poland has received massive aid and investment as a result which has improved the country’s infrastructure incredibly and led to a strong period of economic growth.

Many European and international companies have established bases in Warsaw and Krakow and the demand for accommodation in these cities alone has really soared. Real estate investors are targeting Poland because it offers a low risk, high potential property market. Furthermore investor confidence in Poland is high because the Polish government have already proved that they have a strong commitment to maintaining the good economic growth rates that their country is currently enjoying.

Romania – Because Romania has yet to join the EU and align all its governmental, fiscal and constitutional policies with those of Europe it is quite a tricky country for a foreign investor to get in on. However it offers a real estate investor such exciting opportunities – where else in the world can you buy anything and everything from a castle to a factory at such ridiculously low prices.

Those with a strong appetite for paperwork and red tape will make their fortunes from Romania’s property market, but for the rest of us it’s an economy to watch carefully. As the country moves slowly towards EU membership so it will become easier and more attractive for property investors to target.

Turkey – Turkey is on track for EU accession following agreement that it should begin accession talks in 2005. Since that point Turkey’s economy has been granted ‘Market Economy’ status, the country has received billions of dollars of Middle Eastern funds into its property sector and world wide investor interest in Turkey’s property market has exploded.

The majority of opportunities either exist in Istanbul or along Turkey’s southern coastline where hundreds of thousands of tourists flock every year. Prices for property in Turkey are currently incredibly low so with all the positive data and news coming from Turkey recently there is only one way prices are going to go – and that’s up!

There are so many opportunities available to an investor in Europe that those serious about profiting from real estate property should give the continent careful consideration!

By Rhiannon Williamson

Bulgaria is among the leading European countries in terms of the cost and quality of the outsourcing services the country offers, according to a report by two international real estate and global management consulting firms.

A joint analysis by Colliers International and AT Kearney shows that Bulgaria is in the top position for outsourcing opportunities among the 12 European countries surveyed, the Sofia News agency reported on Monday.

The other countries were: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine.

“The assessment was based on criteria such as financial attractiveness, the economic environment and the availability of a skilled workforce,” said Atanas Garov, executive director of the Bulgarian branch of Colliers International, adding that outsourcing could become a major economic engine for Bulgaria.

Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries will continue to be among the leading global destinations for outsourcing services, according to the study. Their chief advantages are a combination of skilled staff, excellent foreign language training, know-how, cultural proximity and tolerance.

Source: rian.ru

Newly built residential buildings marked a quarter-on-quarter increase of 40.4% in the last three months of 2009, shows preliminary data of the National Statistical Institute.

For October to December 2009, construction companies cut the ribbon on 962 building with 6,404 dwellings in them. For July to September, 685 buildings with 5,214 dwellings were brought to market.

In comparison with the last quarter of 2008, however, the October to December 2009 number of the newly built residential buildings decreased by 1.7% and the number of the dwellings in them marked a decrease of 6.0%.

For October to December 2009, the Varna district accommodated most of the new homes for the period – 1,325. Second came the capital with 1,228, followed by Bourgas with 865, and Plovdiv with 448.

Source: amcham