What are the best property research sources?

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