Archive for January, 2009
January 30th, 2009
These lending figures come as a surprise in a week of gloomy economic data.
Net lending, which strips out redemptions and repayments, doubled to £1.9bn during the month – the biggest rise since July 2008. The number of mortgages approved for house purchase also increased after hitting a new record low in November. Approvals were at 31,000, up from 27,000 during the previous month.
Sterling immediately leapt at the news, pushing the euro below 90 pence for the first time in eleven days.
The increase is all the more surprising as activity we would normally expect activity to tail off if December in the run up to Christmas. However, lending is still considerably down on the previous year, with December’s figure only a quarter of the level seen 12 months earlier.
While the data may be a sign that banks are gradually becoming more prepared to lend, mortgage lending levels are still very weak. We await mortgage data for the coming months with interest.
January 20th, 2009
There are two major pieces of news that will be interesting to people considering buying a holiday home or investing in the Larnaca region of Cyprus.
The first is that from 31st March 2009 Easyjet will be flying from to Larnaca from Luton. Single flights look like they start from £41.
The second is that A Russian conglomerate called the Boema Group is applying for planning permission to build a €800million Disneyland holiday resort according to OPP magazine.
Scheduled to be the largest ever single investment made on the island, creating around 3,000 jobs,the project is likely to be built on leased state land near the UN buffer zone between Turkish and Cypriot lines around the Larnaca – Famagusta boder. The investors were reportedly looking at Serbia to locate the project, but changed their mind after a Cypriot delegation highlighted Cyrpus’ political stability, EU membership and year round sunny weather.
Christodoulos Papadopoulos, director of Boema in Cyprus, believes that his company has struck a deal with Russian tour operators, which plan to deliver an extra 500,000 holidaymakers from Eastern Europe alone. Alongside this, analysts believe the government is likely to speed up the approval process to complete the ‘Disneyland of the Mediterranean’ project ahead of Cyprus’ six-month European presidency in 2012.
Good news for those who have bought or are about to buy in Larnaca!
January 8th, 2009
No. 4 Cyprus – An Island On The Up
For the third year running ‘A Place in the Sun’ has carried out a survey to find out where it is that people are looking to buy an overseas property, via their website and visitors to their exhibition in 2008. Of over 1,000 responses Cyprus falls into the top 20 again and has risen 2 places since last year to being the 4th most popular destination. Unsurprisingly the top of the list was dominated by Mediterrean countries – those classic second-home and retirement destinations that are close to friends and family in the UK.
January 8th, 2009
The Bank of England has cut rates again, this time by 0.5% to 1.5%. These are truly historic times with this being the first time that rates have fallen below 2% since the Bank of England was founded in 1694. Is it enough? My guess is probably not, and I would expect the market to react as such.
However, I think that it is a sensible step for now and that there will now be pause for the economy to catch its breath after the substantial cuts we have seen since the cuts started in October and wait to see what effect these cuts are having. Any more moves and the Bank of England will have effectively have used all of its interest rate bullets. The only option then left would be quantitative easing (printing more money!) which really would be akin to reloading the gun for one last shot.
January 8th, 2009
Abu Dhabi has announced that it will form regulatory authority that will oversee the growing Real Estate sector in the emirate following on from the success of the equivalent authority in Dubai.
As you know Abu Dhabi is a market that we follow closely and indeed feel offers much opportunity in the medium to long term. We feel that the establishment of an appropriate regulatory authority is an important step in the evolution of the property market by improving transparency and trust in the property market. We believe it will provide an integrated framework for rentals and sales that will provide comfort to investors and developers alike.
We await further developments with interest.
QIS provides outstanding property investment opportunities to our clients from carefully selected partners around the world based on a professional and thorough due diligence approach. Here we try to share industry insights written in a personal manner. Please feel free to get in touch and let us know your thoughts!
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