Overseas Property Investment Consultancy & UK Property Investment Consultancy

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has revealed that gross mortgage lending increased again during October by a very respectable 5%. Of even greater interest is that buy to let mortgage lending rose during the 3rd quarter of this year for the first time in 2 years.

As we approach the slowest time of year for the UK property market the main market surveys are reporting a slight slowing but reassuringly all still show price growth for last month. Hometrack’s survey of selected estate agents indicates an October increase of 0.2%. This is the 4th month in a row that Hometrack have reported an increasing price trend.

The two largest mortgage lenders Nationwide and Halifax have both revealed price increases during the previous month of 0.4% and 1.2% respectively. Commenting on the figures Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide’s Chief Economist said: “At £162,038, the average price of a typical UK property was 2.0% higher than a year earlier, representing the first time since March 2008 that the annual rate of change has been in positive territory. Over the first ten months of 2009, the seasonally adjusted index of house prices has risen by 4.6%.”

Rising prices combined with increased buy to let lending would certainly indicate that investors are starting to take advantage of current property prices. If you are looking to invest in property our advice would be to buy right now whilst prices are still low and you can maximise the capital growth potential. Give us a call today on 01235 553569 to see how we can help you to achieve your investment goals.

Even more positive is its forecast for the rich nations (including the US and UK), where is has more than doubled its growth forecast for next year to 1.9% from 0.7%. If this forecast proves to be accurate then the UK economy will soon be in a state of recovery.

But it is the so called BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia, India and China that will experience the largest growth, with Brazil’s economy expected to rebound in dramatic style during 2010 with growth of around 5%, thereby helping the nation to edge closer to its goal of becoming one of the world’s largest economies.

The OECD also expects China to grow by a huge 10% as the Asian powerhouse picks up pace, driven by improving western economies.

But the OECD warns that recovery will not be a smooth ride as significant headwinds still exist, notably that of rising unemployment. Both the US and the EU are continuing to experience rising unemployment which in turn has a knock on effect to the world economy.

However, with recovery now looking imminent it appears that we have ridden the worst of the storm and that a return to the good times is edging ever closer.

The second largest country in the European Union by area, Spain occupies an enviable position on the Iberian Peninsula with both Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts and divided from France by the Pyrenees mountain range. A land of great diversity from lush forests to barren desert, and beautiful sandy beaches to snow capped mountain ranges Spain really is unique.

With an empire that stretched to all four corners of the world Spain was Europe’s leading power throughout the 16th and most of the 17th centuries. Because of its reach it was said that the sun never set in the Spanish empire. As a result of Spanish influence around the planet the Spanish language is widely spoken, particularly in South and Central America as well as the Caribbean and even the United States.

Today Spain is a major European Union member state. During the 1960’s the country registered unprecedented economic growth in what was called the Spanish miracle. Tourism became a major part of the economy as tiny fishing communities were replaced with huge hotels and resorts.

Why invest in Spain?
During the last four decades the Spanish tourism industry has grown to become the second biggest in the world, According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, Spain generated a massive €225.4 billion in economic activity related to tourism in 2007. Keen to maintain its position as a major destination the Spanish government invested approximately 40 billion Euros, about 5% of GDP, into tourism related facilities and infrastructure during 2007.

The figures are truly staggering. Each year Spain welcomes in excess of 60 million visitors with nearly 14 million from the UK alone. The developing luxury end of the market is growing as new golf and spa resorts draw wealthy visitors from around the world, including the United States, Northern Europe and Russia. Because of this it is widely expected that tourism income will increase over the coming years.

The thing is the article would never really have been able to reach a conclusion, because the question is nowhere near as simple as it at first sounds. This is mainly due to the fact that there is no such thing as a UK or overseas property market.

The UK is made up of many regions that all perform in a very different way. For instance, the market in London is very different to the market in Penzance, and in turn the market in Penzance is very different to the market in Bradford. But it goes further than this because there are of course different types of property as well as different locations and as such, 2 bedroom apartments perform differently to 2 bedroom houses, and so on.

So, clearly the UK is not just one property market, it is many, maybe thousands of different markets all performing very differently. The overseas market of course is just about everything else, and is therefore made up of tens or even hundreds of thousands of differently performing micro property markets.

So we can see it is never as simple as one or the other.

The UK versus Overseas question is one which I have been asked many times. So let me tell you where I stand on this. I believe that both are good and bad. There are some fantastic opportunities right now in the UK with strong rental demand and surprisingly strong capital growth. There are also some shockingly bad opportunities. Likewise, around the world, there are some mouth-wateringly good opportunities but there are also some eye wateringly bad ones. The key here is research.

Never dismiss a region or entire country because it’s widely believed to be bad. Research a little deeper and see if there is a hidden gem just sitting out of eyesight. Maybe a town that has a chronic undersupply of a particular type of rental property, or a region with incredible tourist potential that is about to be unlocked by the opening of a new nearby airport, or an area where prices have clearly over fallen and the only way is up. This is where professional property investors really make their money, but it requires effort and time to research.

So you can see that the original question really has no answer, I believe a little bit of everything is good. As the saying goes `never put all your eggs into one basket’, by spreading your property portfolio across different regions and countries you are effectively reducing your exposure to risk.

To your success

Kevin Wilkes