March 4th, 2010
I visited Cyprus on Wednesday 17 February for 3 days, basically for a catch up on QBP.
But first things first. I landed at the new airport and what an impressive structure it is. It would not be out of place anywhere in the world. The intention was certainly to create a far more positive impression of the island when you first land, and judging by the comments of the people around me it was achieving that objective. Secondly, the new offices of The Quality Group are similarly impressive, and should give us all confidence that they also view the future very positively.
As ever, the weather was warm and pleasant, but this masks the truth for the previous few months. As we all know, Cyprus has desperately been in need of rain for several years now, and at last, substantial rainfalls have arrived. In fact, the wettest January for many years saw 146% of the usual rainfall for the month falling on the island, continuing the rainy trend of the previous 3 months. The salt lakes around Larnaca were full, with the land displaying a green hue not dissimilar to our own pleasant land. I have never seen the island so green and what a wonderful sight that was. The dams high in the mountains are nearly 60 to 70% full, and I am told that there should not be a water shortage for at least the next two years, even if there is no further rainfall. Compare this to dam levels of around 20% this time last year, and you will see how much rain has fallen. Hopefully, water shortages will also be a thing of the past as more desalination plants come on line.
Obviously, having so much rain in such a short space of time also creates logistical problems. Much of the construction activity on the island has been hampered by the rains, but things seem to returning to normal now. The QBP project continues to progress, with the foundations and groundworks continuing. This really is a monumental civil engineering project and we need to devise a method to keep you up to date with its progress. For example, the engineers on site are currently pumping 400 metric tonnes of water AN HOUR from the site as they dig the foundations and put in the supporting columns. These columns will be 15 – 20 meters (around 60 feet) underground, and there will be approximately 200 of them to support the building!
There is now a lot of local interest in the project, and discussions with the financing bank are nearing finalisation to issue mortgages to all investors, along similar terms as originally envisaged. I should be able to report to you on this in the next month or so.
As we all know, the last 18 months have been the most challenging financial conditions any of us have faced. However, although I am sure 2010 will continue to throw difficulties at us, this project is still on track to deliver an outstanding building and investment to us and I will keep you in touch with its progress on a regular basis.
In the meantime, if you have any queries then please do not hesitate to contact any of us.
May 22nd, 2009
I know quite afew of you have been following the progress of Q Well Being (the world’s first purpose built accessible holiday home complex), well now it has its own website and blog. Plese visit www.qwellbeing.com and follow the launch there. Happy reading!
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.
October 28th, 2008
Today I attended the Abu Dhabi Investment Forum that was held at the Dorchester Hotel in London. Despite all of the current uncertainty in the financial markets the event was attended by over 300 delegates and the room was bursting at the seams!
There were a number of key note speakers and panel debating sessions which reinforced our view that Abu Dhabi has all the ingredients to be a top rate investment opportunity. Some of the key messages to emerge from the day were.
- There is a vision for what Abu Dhabi will become, and short term market sentiment will not detract from this vision. Indeed it is seen as an opportunity to acquire both capital assets and expert human resource which were previously either not easily available or expensive.
- Oil and Gas wealth underpins all future development, but diversification of the economy has already begun. There will be three main drivers, existing oil and gas, new industries and commerce such as aerospace and finally tourism where Abu Dhabi seeks to project itself as the cultural capital of the region
- The property market is a by product of all of the above, it is not a driver of the economy but something that must necessarily follow growth in other areas. The housing shortage is real and accute and is likely to stay this way for the medium term.
We continue to make great strides in with due diligence process on Abu Dhabi and as noted above the event today reinforced our view that Abu Dhabi property should form part of an investors international property portfolio.
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September 9th, 2008
As previously mentioned we are in the process of completing our due diligence on our next territory and project. It is clear that the UAE property sector continues to grow and emerge as a major global real estate market. We have looked at a number of different markets in the UAE and wider GCC region and have had detailed discussions with a number of developers. We are looking for a project to complement our existing EU Based offering in Cyprus. It is looking likely that this will be in Abu Dhabi, which we have labeled “The Classy Emirate†Discussions and our own due diligence continue with various developers as we look to bring this opportunity to market towards the end of the year.
July 30th, 2008
As you know we launched our projects in Cyprus a few months ago, we continue to believe that this market offers great potential even in these difficult times. However we feel that this is just one of many great opportunities currently available for savvy property investors. We are currently in the process of identifying which region and country will form our next project at QIS. We hope to bring this project to market towards the end of this year. There are a number of contenders that we are currently putting through our StEP due diligence process, namely Abu Dhabi, India and Dubai and we have identified developers in each of these regions that we are carrying out our due diligence on. All have their merits but whichever project emerges you can be sure that it will be a thoroughly well researched opportunity. Watch this space for more info as I will keep you updated on how we are getting on.
July 9th, 2008
Last time out I mentioned that UK developers were reporting a marginal fall in visitors to their show homes and the real problem was availability of finance. I believe that finance is still the key issue in the UK with lenders having been burnt with over enthusiastic lending policies in the recent past now retreating to the trenches completely. A great (or not so great!) example of this is Bradford and Bingley who in my opinion were one of the key drivers behind the buy to let phenomenon. They are clearly suffering as they wobble from one fund raising attempt to another in a desperate attempt to provide themselves with liquidity and shore up their balance sheet.
The knock on effect has not taken long. Over the last week or so we have seen virtually every major house builder in the UK announce major restructures, freezing of new development and write downs in values of strategic land banks. Without exception it was these house builders that led the stampede to build city centre apartments using the easy credit that banks and building societies were making available to buy to let investors.
Whilst I await the latest interest rate decision to be announced tomorrow with some interest, I don’t think this will have much effect. Financial Institutions are just not interested at the moment, they simply want to preserve what cash they have and looking to raise more. The Royal Bank of Scotland Rights Issue got away (just!) but the HBOS issue is already underwater and may struggle. Perversely, I think that this lack of financing and hence new development will help investors in the medium term as less new property comes onto the market good quality property will be in short supply for the rental market as lack of high loan to value mortgages will force more First time buyers to rent and rental yields will start to up. In the short term investors are better off looking for discrete opportunities offshore where growth is still available.
Investors with falling UK property portfolio values as well as those thinking of taking up their rights in an equity issue should remember that markets are cyclical and investing is for the long term. In the short term, sophisticated investors are using the current uncertainty to seek out new opportunities in selective offshore markets where there is still property price growth and funding available. I believe that they will be the winners in the long term.
April 18th, 2008
Welcome to our brand new team blog! We are just getting started in the blogosphere so please stay tuned as we will aim to post our insights and stuff we find interesting on a weekly basis, if not more often. If you have any thoughts about our posts, please feel free to comment or get in touch with us.
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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