Good morning and welcome to the Someplace Else Blog.
We had a great response to the launch of our first Panama project last week - many thanks to all who got in touch. Panama is just a fantastic investment prospect at the moment, and there is plenty of information at http://www.someplaceelse.ie/ for those who would like to learn more.
We are also in the process of finalising details for a commercial project, a 30 storey office building in the heart of Panama's banking district. Rental yields for these types of properties are about as high as anything I've ever come across, and we've been very lucky to secure a few floors at prelaunch prices for our regular investors. Please feel free to call the office if you would like to discuss further with myself or David Shaw, our Sales Manager.
Research
Focused research, as our regular readers will have heard me say before, is essential for those who want to maximise their savings and borrowings to build and maintain a balanced and profitable property portfolio. With August looming, I thought I'd briefly list my favourite research sources for those who'd like to spend a few hours during the holidays learning about emerging markets.
Starting with the Irish Media - The Sunday Times and The Examiner are the only two national titles publishing dedicated property supplements during the summer months.
The BBC Website is a fantastic source of free information, one of my favourite sections is their Country Profile page. The Economist website is also quite amazing. Particularly useful are their country briefings, city guides & special reports.
I also find the Global Property Guide a useful source of information on the average rental yields, tax regulation and legal fees for dozens of countries. For currency exchange rates, I find www.xe.com/ucc very user friendly. www.ft.com is the homepage of the Financial Times, and is much easier to read than the rather stuffy print version.
Staying closer to home, www.overseascafe.com has an abundance of property information tailored to an Irish audience and I'd highly recommend signing up to it.
www.myoverseasproperty.ie is also quite good.
The Someplace Else Website is a work in progress. Our research centre currently contains five of our previous print newsletters, four buyers guides and several articles in the industry. The Newsletter Archives contains the previous 21 newsletters (this is Issue 22). Our FAQ section is worth a visit, as is the Someplace Else Blog. Each of the country headings on our homepage also contains information on laws & taxes, general overviews, and of course, property listings.
Speaking of property listings, this week we're promoting Bellevue Residences in Romania, Tropical Hill in Panama, and Castle Loft Apartments in Berlin. Details all at http://www.someplaceelse.ie/
Kind Regards
Colin Murphy
Director
Someplace Else Ireland
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
How to Profit from a Domestic Downturn
Hello and welcome to the Someplace Else Blog.
Despite the uncertain times we currently face in the Irish & UK economies, there are a whole range of emerging markets out there offering exciting investment opportunities to those looking in the right areas.
Our domestic house prices are falling, that is very true, but those of us who were lucky enough to have lived through an economic boom have a very large disposable income compared to the average hard working citizen of an emerging economy.
The Irish are also particularly well placed to spot trends and opportunities in poor but very fast growing economies, and as one of the wealthiest nations in the world in terms of GDP per capita, we still have the ability to build a diverse portfolio in markets at a much earlier phase of the property growth cycle than our own.
No matter what happens to the Irish & UK economies over the next five years, we are in a unique position to capitalize on the huge growth in emerging economies that are, by and large, unaffected by the credit crisis. For example - about 2% of Romania's GDP is mortgage debt. Ireland & the UK? Over 40%.
I firmly believe that focused research aimed at achieving well defined goals and targets will be how savvy investors use current market conditions to their advantage.
Someplace Else has specialized in these high growth markets for the last four years and our doors are always open to those who would like an informal chat with one of our sales consultants. Speaking of which, I'd like to extend a very warm welcome to Genevieve Judson, the newest member of our sales team.
To view a selection of our latest investment opportunities please visit www.someplaceelse.ie.
Kind Regards
Colin Murphy
Friday, July 11, 2008
Launching Panama & Current Economic Woes in Ireland and the UK
Hello and welcome to the Someplace Else Blog. Panama is the big theme of today’s post and the Someplace Else team are all very excited by the release of our first investment project in this wonderful city. It is called Tropical Hills and the details are all below...
Before I begin though, I must offer an apology to our regular readers for the irregular frequency of these emails lately – these posts & newsletters are very much a team effort and are therefore disrupted during the holiday period. I’d also like to officially welcome Nick Beard to the Dublin office, who joins us from Trinity College and will be concentrating her many talents on the marketing and administration side of our business.
Panama – What’s so special?
While it’s no secret that current domestic economic woes have diminished the famous gung ho investment attitude of the Irish & UK buyer, it is worth noting out that there are still many cities in this world moving to a very different rhythm to our local markets. Some of them offer excellent investment returns to those willing to do their homework and buy the right type of property. Panama is one such city, and we’ve sourced some excellent property starting at just €100,000 ($157,000).
It is officially one of the best places to live in Latin America, and is hugely popular with foreign retirees because of the quality of life, dollar economy and status as a tax haven. Additionally, inflation is low, taxation is low, unemployment is low, economic growth is high and the government is stable, democratic and very open to outside investment. What’s not to like about all that!
Side Effects of a Property Boom
Before moving onto the further information on our Panama project (which you’ll in the new Panama section of our website); I’d like to acknowledge the huge change in our national optimism levels these last six months, which seems to have dramatically changed attitudes towards property and the people who sell it.
One of the drawbacks of our prolonged boom was that it gave unscrupulous agents and developers the opportunity to make a lot of what I would call easy money. Life isn’t so easy for these companies nowadays, which I’m quite happy about.
In my view (and it seems to be borne out by innovative colleagues in the industry who are thriving in the current environment), the only companies that will continue to be successful are those that have always protected their clients and advised them to buy only what suits their budget, timescales, risk profiles and income levels.
It’s all about trust
It’s not an easy thing for a property company to gain the trust of its clients, as it involves taking a long term point of view that doesn’t suit (or even occur to) everybody. You need to continuously source very good properties and research them to death, you need to take a modest commission, and you need to work very hard to ensure your clients get rock solid mortgage, tax, legal and aftersales advice.
In a boom you also often have to ignore requests to promote developments in areas which would be easy to sell but which you know won’t work out in the long term. Instead you must sometimes work extremely hard to convince clients that a city they’ve never even heard of will turn out to be a great property investment for them.
Thankfully, most people have heard of Panama, due to the incredible canal that cuts right through it. And in case anybody is interested, about eight of the apartments we’re selling have unobstructed views of it…
As always, all opinions and points of view are welcome in the Someplace Else Blog.
Kind Regards
Colin Murphy
Before I begin though, I must offer an apology to our regular readers for the irregular frequency of these emails lately – these posts & newsletters are very much a team effort and are therefore disrupted during the holiday period. I’d also like to officially welcome Nick Beard to the Dublin office, who joins us from Trinity College and will be concentrating her many talents on the marketing and administration side of our business.
Panama – What’s so special?
While it’s no secret that current domestic economic woes have diminished the famous gung ho investment attitude of the Irish & UK buyer, it is worth noting out that there are still many cities in this world moving to a very different rhythm to our local markets. Some of them offer excellent investment returns to those willing to do their homework and buy the right type of property. Panama is one such city, and we’ve sourced some excellent property starting at just €100,000 ($157,000).
It is officially one of the best places to live in Latin America, and is hugely popular with foreign retirees because of the quality of life, dollar economy and status as a tax haven. Additionally, inflation is low, taxation is low, unemployment is low, economic growth is high and the government is stable, democratic and very open to outside investment. What’s not to like about all that!
Side Effects of a Property Boom
Before moving onto the further information on our Panama project (which you’ll in the new Panama section of our website); I’d like to acknowledge the huge change in our national optimism levels these last six months, which seems to have dramatically changed attitudes towards property and the people who sell it.
One of the drawbacks of our prolonged boom was that it gave unscrupulous agents and developers the opportunity to make a lot of what I would call easy money. Life isn’t so easy for these companies nowadays, which I’m quite happy about.
In my view (and it seems to be borne out by innovative colleagues in the industry who are thriving in the current environment), the only companies that will continue to be successful are those that have always protected their clients and advised them to buy only what suits their budget, timescales, risk profiles and income levels.
It’s all about trust
It’s not an easy thing for a property company to gain the trust of its clients, as it involves taking a long term point of view that doesn’t suit (or even occur to) everybody. You need to continuously source very good properties and research them to death, you need to take a modest commission, and you need to work very hard to ensure your clients get rock solid mortgage, tax, legal and aftersales advice.
In a boom you also often have to ignore requests to promote developments in areas which would be easy to sell but which you know won’t work out in the long term. Instead you must sometimes work extremely hard to convince clients that a city they’ve never even heard of will turn out to be a great property investment for them.
Thankfully, most people have heard of Panama, due to the incredible canal that cuts right through it. And in case anybody is interested, about eight of the apartments we’re selling have unobstructed views of it…
As always, all opinions and points of view are welcome in the Someplace Else Blog.
Kind Regards
Colin Murphy
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