Overseas Property Investment Consultancy & UK Property Investment Consultancy

HSBC has committed itself to lending at least £15 billion to borrowers this year, of which £3 billion will be for first time buyers.

It says that 150,000 home buyers and 27,000 first time buyers are set to benefit as it expects 2012 to see it with its largest ever share of the UK mortgage market.

Of the £15 billion HSBC will be making available for 2012, the majority will be new money into the mortgage market, it added.

‘In 2011 we offered UK borrowers some of the most competitive rates around and we plan to continue this in 2012’ said Martijn van der Heijden, head of Lending at HSBC.

More than one in four loans granted by HSBC in the first half of 2011 was to first time buyers, making HSBC the largest direct provider of first time buyer funding in the UK.

The extent of the decline in residential property prices in Bulgaria are shown in the latest figures which reveal they were 5 to 10% lower in 2011 than in 2010.

Initial predictions for 2012 are that prices are largely expected to be unchanged as real estate markets around the country remain at a standstill.

Average prices in the capital city Sofia were around €920 per square meter, down from €1,100 in 2010, according to brokers.

Prices in Bourgas on the Black Sea fell to an average €860 per square meter and in Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second city, they were €770 per square meter. Bansko, which has been very popular with overseas buyers, saw prices fall by 25%.

‘At the moment, sales have fallen hugely. It is almost tragic,’ one hotel manager Dimitar Iliev told television station bTV. He added that ‘the British have deserted the ski resort.’

Interest in buying is strong in the first few weeks of 2012 in the UK despite a lack of mortgage finance, though the willingness or ability of new sellers to come to market remains weak, according to the first Rightmove report of the year.

Search activity during the first 10 days of 2012 reached new record heights, up by 27% on the same period in 2011, as prospective movers intensively research the market. However, they are faced with the lowest level of new supply per estate agency branch that Rightmove has ever recorded, an average of less than one new listing per branch per week.

‘Old records are being shattered as search activity is up by a staggering 27% on this time last year. Potential buyers and sellers are looking more often and researching more thoroughly. In areas where there is a lot of property up for sale, buyers are looking hard for properties that tempt them with something really special in terms of value, potential, location or quality of finish,’ said Miles Shipside, director of Rightmove.

‘If it doesn’t shout special then they are unlikely to overpay for the privilege of buying an average property in these mortgage constrained times. In locations where there is little stock for sale, they appear to have become online junkies, ready to pounce on fresh property coming to market to see if it will satisfy their housing need,’ he explained.

‘This search addiction is in part caused by each estate agency branches currently listing an average of less than one new property per week, an all time low and around half of pre-credit crunch levels. The market is stuck in a low transaction volume pit that will be hard to escape from without the mortgage funding to satisfy what appears to be strong pent up demand,’ he added.

The January report reveals that there were more than 44 million property searches on Rightmove during the first ten days of 2012. While this doesn’t necessarily indicate a surge in proceedable buyer numbers, it does highlight a strong pent up demand to move and is also a reflection that value seeking buyers who can proceed are taking extra care to research the market.

A pledge by US President Barack Obama to provide massive financial support for the regeneration of the State of Michigan’s biggest city, Detroit, should be of interest to property investors.

A growing number of investors, disenchanted by the performance of the ailing stock market, are putting their money into buy to let bricks in the US city as regeneration means more jobs and more demand for rental properties.

Attracted by discounts as high as 70% and net yields of up to 17% investors can access very high demand with more than 9,000 working families already on the rental waiting list.

Detroit, which as one of America’s leading cities in the field of industrial research and development has attracted more than half a million high tech workers, has suffered from a shift in urban sprawl to the suburbs. The resulting housing crash has left the city short of affordable housing.

Investing in this type of property is also seen as ethically worthwhile as it is saving foreclosed and uninhabitable properties and converting them back into homes.

Coyle points out that Detroit’s city authorities are managing the newly refurbished homes though their Housing and Urban Development scheme. It includes extensive checks on the financial security of would be tenants and the underwriting of rental payments so that investors do not have to collect money from individual tenants.

The prices of properties available depend on size and location. Typically a three bedroom detached home with a monthly rental income in excess of US$850 can be purchased for as little as US$30,000.

Purchases can be completed quickly, and annual capital growth is expected to average 5% over the next five years.

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Property prices in Brazil are likely to increase modestly, around 5 to 10%, in 2012 and the real estate sector should avoid a bubble, according to a poll of real estate and financial experts.

The Reuters poll of 15 banks, research groups and business associations downplayed the risk of a sharp downturn, with a recent credit boom underpinned by a steady improvement in wages and affordability conditions.

The rapidly expanding Brazilian middle class is expected to keep a close eye on opportunities to stop renting and move into ownership, holding up prices even after they almost doubled in some neighbourhoods.

Brazilian home prices should rise between 5 and 10% in 2012, according to nine of 14 forecasts in the Reuters poll, with one analyst saying there would be a smaller rise. Three saw no change in prices, while one thought they would rise more than 10%.

That performance turns the Brazilian housing market into a rare bright spot in a gloomy scenario around the globe. Further gains, however, should be smaller than in 2011 as the Brazilian economy cools off.

Brazil’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth slowed to a standstill in the third quarter as the eurozone debt crisis hurt global demand and is expected to grow by around 3.5% in 2012, much less than the 7.5% growth recorded in 2010.

Mortgage lending picked up slightly towards the end of last year, mortgage lenders have reported.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said the number of loans made to home buyers rose by 4% in November, to 47,000.

That number was also 3% higher than in November the year before.

The CML’s director general Paul Smee said: “A rise in mortgage lending towards the end of 2011 is a welcome indicator for the industry considering confidence has been weak due to fragile economies both at home and in the eurozone.”

“We should expect a further increase in first-time buyer activity over the next few months as they push through their purchases to take advantage of the stamp duty concession before it ends in March.”

UK housebuilder Bovis says it expects a significant increase in profit for 2011, following strong earnings growth.

The Kent-based group expects to record profits of about £31m for last year, up 68% on 2010.

The firm also expects to report an 8% increase in overall home completions for 2011, to 2,045 units.

It also said forward sales at the start of 2012 were up 35% year-on-year, at 568 homes, thanks to a rise in private and social housing reservations.

Bovis said the average sales price rose 4.5% to £180,100 pounds in 2011.

France has overtaken Spain as the most searched for location for British buyers looking to invest in a property overseas.

In the last month there have been more searches for property in France than ever before, according the latest monthly report from Rightmove Overseas.

Currency expert Charles Purdy, managing director at Smart Currency Exchange, said they have also seen an increase in buyers seeking money transfers to buy in France.

‘Our experience is very similar with France continuing to be ever popular. Buyers tend to be in a position to be act quickly and therefore get better value for money. Also we have seen some weakness in the euro which has reduced the sterling cost of their new property,’ he said.

‘The recent upheaval with David Cameron exercising his veto has seen the euro weaken to over €1.18/£1, a level last seen in the first few months of 2011. Market forecasters are predicting further weakness for the euro which should encourage increased interest in buying in France and elsewhere in the Eurozone,’ he added.

Mortgage repayments are cheaper than rental bills but many first-time borrowers can’t get a mortgage.

Renting a home is cheaper than buying in just three of Britain’s 50 biggest towns and cities, a study from Zoopla.co.uk found.

Swansea, Plymouth and Bournemouth are the only three locations in the survey where renting works out cheaper than buying a property.

In London, renting is 31pc more expensive than the cost of ownership, leaving renters paying £6,888 annually on average compared with owners.

Rents have soared due to high demand in the sector, as would-be buyers needing large deposits or finding the terms of some deals too restrictive have struggled to get on the property ladder.

Prime central London property prices rose by 7.9% in 2011, recording a 1.1% increase in the final quarter and are now 2.48% below the market peak of 2007, according to real estate consultants.

The Winter 2011 report from Cluttons shows that central South West and central North West London have witnessed the highest growth in the capital.

However, while supply levels across prime central London are significantly down, leading to a drop in registrations, anecdotal evidence suggests that real demand levels are significantly higher as potential buyers only rush to register once they see a suitable property come to market.

‘The incentive to buy in central London remains strong with homes that come to the market in prime areas generating immediate interest and usually selling for well above listed values as long as they are correctly priced in the first instance,’ said a company spokesperson.

Meanwhile, a report from Knight Frank shows that prices in this sector may actually have risen by an astonishing 13%. Properties in the £2.5m to £5m price bracket rose by the greatest amount, achieving 16% growth for the period.

The average property price in this index is £3.19m which means a typical prime central London property has risen by £1,202 per day over the last year according to the company.