Articles on RealEstate&CoUK - p5

The market peaked in the second half of 2004 and bottomed out in the second half of 2008. It’s become a buyer’s market. There are low interest rates, a more diverse economy and an influx of money from overseas investors. Prices are close to the bottom, and they should get a boost when mortgage financing returns this spring. 

The hills really are alive Prices in some of Austria’s better-known ski destinations are considerably cheaper than in their French or Swiss equivalents, and there are signs that the country is finally loosening some of the rules that have hitherto made it difficult for foreigners to buy. 

With Russians currently accounting for a 90 per cent chunk of all Bulgarian property purchases at the moment according to Green Life, other nationals bucking up the Bulgarian property buying trend are Scandinavian and Romanian buyers.

"NAR estimates that between 150,000 and 190,000 homes were sold to foreign nationals from May 2007 to May 2008," according to the NAR press release on the findings. "Recent foreign buyers purchased properties in every state and the District of Columbia. The most popular states where international buyers purchased homes are Florida, California and Texas. Arizona, New York, Washington and Nevada were also popular."

The two-day show attracted 6,293 visitors to stands representing investment class properties in 28 countries and left most participants exhausted and out of brochures. The visitors were keen to buy, and developers with properties ranging from mountain top villas overlooking the Mediterranean on the island of Cyprus to a futuristic beach front skyscraper in Thailand were busy fielding enquiries from well heeled Russians apparently oblivious to the global banking crisis.

"Despite crisis, wealthy Russians are buying up coastal Montenegro," writes the The New York Times. Cash clad Russians have arrived at the international property scene with a bang and they are looking to buy prized real estate through out the world. Who is buying ?