We have covered many of the traditional overseas property hotspots over the last year and a half, but this is the first southern African country we have covered and another take on the eco property proposition. Botswana is and up and coming country, whose citizens are proud people. Since independence, Botswana has strived to build a successful nation and capitalise on the success of its diamond mining industry. Botswana is embracing the eco tourism boom, attracting visitors and investors alike from around the world.

Alan and I discussed the following:

The Government’s Vision 2016 plan

Alan explains the pillars to do business to achieve the ideal country for the Botswana people.

1. Open and democratic nation
2. Prosperous, productive and innovative nation
3. Educated and informed nation
4. Moral and tolerant nation
5. United and proud nation
6. Caring and compassionate nation
7. Safe and secure nation with a crime free society

Eco tourism on the up and what that means for Botswana

The government is looking to increase value added production and sustainable eco tourism to the country by offering reserves like Limpopo Lipadi to mitigate mining which accounts for 30% of the GDP. This type of offering attracts high net worth individuals, who are willing to pay for an experience like no other. By keeping the offering at this level Botswana can attract the right type of tourist.

The Limpopo Lipadi Game Reserve

Limpopo Lipadi Game Reserve is an interesting investment proposition and many likeminded investors have already commited to its future by buying a sharehold. The reserve offers a unique experience including:

• Wilderness areas, so the journey to the reserve is part of the tour.
• Incredible Bio diversity from Salt pan’s to Swamps, from Grassland to Woodland and river and mountain habitats.

What you may see:

37 fish species, hippos, crocs, more than 400 bird species, white and black rhinos to name but a few.
Botswana has 4 distinct seasons, so you can experience different eco systems with their different inhabitants throughout the year.

Shareholders can get as involved as they like with a say in management issues etc.

Try and educate people when they come, as local knowledge makes for a more enjoyable experience.

There is also fine dining and a spa for those creature comforts.

Additional Information

The people of Botswana are friendly and welcoming and its a very safe, low crime society. As a visitors you are able to stay there for 90 days, but it is possible to get an extended visa.

What are your thoughts on this up and coming property market?

Why not have your say by adding your ‘Comment‘ below this post.

The podcast has been removed as it is now out of date.

Length: 00:22:17

In the last year, the US property has been headline news with doom and gloom and the sub prime market being the feature of many a news story. The US has a diverse property market and should really be treated as 51 different countries with many sub markets within those. The real estate bashing has led to many property investors being put off this real estate giant, but as many savvy investors know when a market is in a downturn its often the right time to buy. It is going to be hard (not impossible) to make significant short term returns in the much talked about areas of California, Las Vegas, New York and Florida. Many investors buy in these areas because they are safe have been marketed well by many organisations, but if everyone buys in these places then supply will outstrip demand. Robert Shemin, an experienced investor who has made his fortune buying and selling real estate tells us that you have to find properties that cash flow and have a market where demand is high. Speculators have been burnt as the properties they buy do not cash flow and they rely solely on capital appreciation.

Both Robert and Danny discussed the following:

The US Gulf Opportunity Zone “Go Zone”

The Go Zone was originally setup after Hurricane Katrina and Rita wiped out entire communities in 2005. It was set to encompass New Orleans primarily, but was extended to the worst affected parishes in the following states: Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida. As there is now a shortage of property to rent for key workers the Gulf Opportunity Zone is well worth looking into.

US government incentives

The US government is offering subsidised land for sale, 50% tax depreciation and a rental program, which will help subsidise any shortfalls in workers wage packets.

Local Demand

Danny uses the example of the local Biloxi property market in Mississippi. Biloxi has grown its casino total from 11 before 2005 to 24 today. As the casinos employ many workers this is creating a strong demand for housing in the area and therefore buying a buy-to-let property in this area seems to have great potential. Many other industries have reinvested in the area including the plant for the airbus military planes.

Eco friendly homes to boot

For those of you who are environmentally aware many of the new houses going up in this area are steel framed (75% recycled steel) with eco-friendly and energy efficient systems.

Strong Pound and Euro

Many UK and European investors are being lured across the pond to get more real estate for their money. The weaker dollar means that investors are now looking at the Go Zone and other areas, as potential long term investments.

What are your thoughts on the US property market?

Have you visited recently and what did you think?

Do you live there and have a grasp of the local market we discuss?

Why not have your say by adding your ‘Comment‘ below this post.

If you want to listen to the full interview, please use one of the link below:

The podcast has been removed as it is now out of date.

Length: 00:30:10

In the last year, Bulgarian property has transitioned from being marketed as an emerging property hotspot to a location which now sits firmly alongside favoured overseas property destinations of old. With record real estate transactions under its belt in 2007, this has prompted investment property analysts to wonder what the future holds for Bulgaria’s real estate marketplace. In this podcast, we discuss the many reasons why Bulgaria continues to garner interest and discuss the kind of Bulgarian property investment opportunities still to be had in prime locations such as capital city, Sofia.

Both James and Libby discussed the following factors that keep Bulgaria rooted on the property map:

Concerns from credit crunch crisis effect

Bulgaria thus far has not been affected by the credit crunch crisis, which is affected many other countries. Its banking system is less tied to the UK and US banks. Bulgaria has many buyers from Russia and Romania, plus the domestic market is booming at present, so less reliance on UK and Irish investors.

Positive effect of EU entry

A increase in US buyers and investors, James believes has come from the EU entry with many expats moving to Bulgaria and working for the likes of Google and Microsoft.

Capital appreciation

Forecasted to keep rising 15-20% per year, with a specific project from Obelisk that could see returns of 145% in 5 years.

Bulgaria better than neighbours

Bulgaria still has a low cost of living and when compared with the likes of Romania seems cheap. It also has much better weather than Romania and Ukraine.

What are your thoughts on Bulgaria?

Have you visited recently and what did you think?

Do you live there and have a grasp of the local market?

Why not have your say by adding your ‘Comment‘ below this post.

If you want to listen to the full interview, please use one of the link below:

The podcast has been removed as it is now out of date.

Length: 00:26:55

Brazil has been on our overseas property investment radar for over 18 months now, but what do you really know about this new property opportunity. In this podcast we discuss the many reasons why you should seriously consider this as not only a great lifestyle location but as a potential investment hotspot. Felipe explains why the ADIT was set up and what advantages it has for the property buyer/investor, whilst Jamie discusses the in and outs of buying property in Brazil and what types of property are available.

Both Felipe and Jamie are agreed that the following factors are placing Brazil on the investment map:

Increase in Foreign Direct Investment
This has be increasing year on year and shows no signs of slowing down.

Experienced developers
Brazil has an established domestic market, so the developers are experienced in building all types of property.

Brazil has large domestic market
A study has shown that by the year 2015, 60,000,000 Brazilians will be middle class and therefore this opens up a huge disposable income, a large proportion of which will be invested into property. This means they are not relying on International investors to buy into the resorts and means that as an investor they will be a large market of people to sell or rent to.

Beaches Culture and People
Brazil has a huge coastline and many stunning beaches. The weather is very temporate. The culture is very laid back and Brazilians are very friendly people.

Jamie has some tips of where to buy in North East Brazil and believes that now that many airports are able to accept low cost flights and mortgages are set to be available soon, that the area is about to become very popular with tourists and property buyers alike.

What are your thoughts on Brazil?

Have you visited recently and what did you think?

Is Brazil a challenger to other hotspots closer to home?

Why not have your say by adding your ‘Comment‘ below this post.

If you want to listen to the full interview, please use one of the link below:

The podcast has been removed as it is now out of date.

Length: 00:32:21

Ask yourself this, when you search for properties online, do you really value the time you spend searching for the ideal property? Nestoria believe the process can be made easier and are working towards intelligent property search engines that learn from their users to help improve the search experience for each and every user, constantly serving up an improved property search offering.

Ed believes that there are 4 critical factors that go into creating a great property search experience:

Comprehensiveness of listings
Does the site have enough properties to give the fullest offering?

User Ability
A clean, fast, simple interface, that is intuative will create user stickiness.
Properties on map and lots of relevant info help to give a user the fuller picture.

Relevancy
Does the user find what they are looking for?

Freshness
Are the properties shown actually for sale, many listings don’t get updated by an agent.

Comprehensiveness or as some in the industry call it “Number of Properties” is the metric measured by much of the industry as a sign of a sites weight, but is it a misnoma. Nestoria have 600,000 properties in their database and yet only 450,000 are actually available to the user with a staggering 25% being duplicate entries and SPAM. Surely this is another case of measuring the wrong metrics?

Ed learnt his trade working for Yahoo! Europe from 1998 to 2003 and gaining huge experience from his time involved in Search development. Witnessing the growth of online search advertising, he saw an opportunity in classifieds and along with some of his ex colleagues decided to setup Lokku Ltd, the owner of the Nestoria brand. In 2005 Google Maps also launched, changing the whole way that properties could be displayed to the customer, a case of right place, right time !

Having successfully entered the UK property search marketplace and bypassed the For Sale by Owner sector stating there is just not enough demand for the service, Spain is the next property search market that the Nestoria guys have decided to pursue .

“People love to complain about estate agents, no-one really wants to sell their own house though”

The difference is, they have set their sights on the Spanish speaking population given its infinitely larger marketplace in comparison to its english speaking counterpart which is also heavily pursued.

Two and half months into the project and Nestoria have listed and mapped most Spanish property on the market and now have the unenviable task of sorting though all the duplicates. This is a mammoth task as in Spain it is standard practice for vendors to use multiple estate agents and thus properties get listed on the market numerous times. Couple this with the fact that new builds make up significant proportion of the Spanish property marketplace and many agents list each unit as a individual listing this translates to property overload and a very bewildered spanish property seeker.

So Nestoria are trying to learn from you the customer to help you get better results when searching and ultimately save you time and money.

What could improve domestic online property search?

Does mapping make your search easier?

How do you find searching for overseas property currently and how could it be improved?

Why not have your say by adding your ‘Comment‘ below this post.

The podcast has been removed as it is now out of date.

Length: 00:21:38

As part of Nubricks second overseas property podcast series, this hour long Spanish podcast contains information that buyers and owners of Spanish Property both need to hear. “Our podcastees are professionals who have an impartial, bird’s eye view of the Spanish property market” explained host Adam Samuel Nubricks resident podcaster. “the Sunday Times resident ‘Spanish Property Doctor’ Mark Stucklin’s wealth of Spanish property knowledge, Kyero.com Martin Dell’s attention to Spanish property search statistical detail and the weight of Aguirre Newmans Wynn Williamson’s market analyst forecasts, combine to offer three unique perspectives on the business of Spanish property and whether Spanish Property will boom or bust in 2007.

Our recent blog on Astroc Mediterraneo’s plummeting stock price, is just part of a rash of press coverage property in Spain has received recently, some of which have chosen to report an overly dire outlook hinting at a spanish property market crash. “People have heard about maybe a property crash in Spain which is not the truth, that was a mis-representation of a stock market adjustment” clarified Mark.

Adam gets the scoop from Martin on a new set of analytics due to launch on Kyero.com soon.“The results are quite surprising. In terms of pure volume of activity Granada is the most popular province” reveals Martin who goes on reveal which provinces are up coming hotspotslosing and locations losing popularity.

This Spanish property podcast touches on all aspects of Spanish property, what conclusions we can draw from online search trends, how improved urban planning is leading to better designed developments responding to demand for example more properties with golf courses and advice for individuals with properties in Spain to sell and what areas prospective buyers should keep their eye on. Wynn hints at an untapped market “garages are very profitable in a lot of major cities like Madrid and Barcelona, even some smaller places like Salamanca and Tarragona”.

Martin is frank “come and take a look for yourself, I think the opportunities are certainly there” with Mark concluding “Spain is not a meltdown market where property is being given away free. When you really boil it down to what do you get, what you get in Spain is a much greater overall package and value than in what they refer to as the emerging markets. I just cannot believe anyone would lose money on good quality property in Spanish coastal areas over 10 years.”

Property in Spain remains the top market for Britons buying abroad. The AIPP (Association of International Property Professionals) International Property Market 2006 Report shows of the nearly £20 billion Britons spent on overseas property in 2006, nearly 1/3rd (31.6%) of overseas properties bought by British buyers in 2006 are in Spain and to further compound the evidence, property research from Scenari Immobiliari Outlook for 2007, revealed Spain enjoyed the highest increase in real estate turnover in Europe last year, showing a growth of eight per cent in 2006, compared with 3.9 per cent in Europe as a whole.

If you agree or disagree with any of the comments made by Adam, Mark, Martin or Wynn, why not have your say by clicking the ‘Comments‘ link under the title of this post.

If you want to listen to the full interview, please use one of the link below:

The podcast has been removed as it is now out of date.

Length: 01:05:32

Update 04/06/07: Wynn Williamson would like to amend his comments on time to sell units in Spain. He actually meant time to sell out a whole development.

Dominic explains that buyers are governed by push and pull factors. The topic of many a retirement discussion, weather in the UK, crime, escalating house prices and burgoening costs of living are strong drivers for people to buy a home abroad. As searching for information on the web is a mainstream pasttime these days, buyers can make an informed decision about buying an overseas property that suits their needs. Golf, the outdoor lifestyle and subsequent health benefits are a draw for many and people are much more comfortable with the idea of owning or living in a foreign country.

Retirement property can be a dual purpose choice, using it for part of the year and then renting it out to holiday/travel makers. This will help towards maintenance and other costs associated with a property. Chris explains the results of a recent Saga poll, which made for interesting reading:

Out of a sample of approximately 1000 people, 1/3rd considering buying abroad and over 1/2 of those wanted to move abroad permanently. They did however have lots of concerns with legal issues being top of the agenda.

We discussed the main countries that retirement buyers were looking in with Spain unsuprisingly top of the list with Portugal, France, Cyprus, Australia, Cape Verde and the Caribbean also being popular. When selecting a location abroad, research into your personal requirements for health are important, Dominic stated that it is important to remember that the care system standards in some of these countries are not the same as in the UK. Chris added that the standard practice with any property purchase abroad, buyers should seek independent legal advice and research indepth the place they are interested in. Visiting an area at different times of the year can give you an idea of what a place is really like and is it what you are looking for in a low season.

Chris and Dominic left us with the following important points:

Create or update your will. Each country will have different ways of dealing with inheritance issues so you may need more than one will.

Talk to a financial advisor to discuss your financial planning to make sure you can fund your retirement and have realistic expectations about your intended lifestyle.

Talk to residents who already live there to get an unbiased opinion.

Think about your needs long term. In early retirement you may want different things in life, so you may need to make a second move further along the line.

Take out a necessary health plan, which will cater to your needs, as you grow older.

If you agree or disagree with any of the comments made by Adam, Chris or Dominic, why not have your say by clicking the ‘Comments‘ link under the title of this post.

The podcast has been removed as it is now out of date.

In Series Two, we want to get to grips with the reality of being an overseas property buyer and look beyond the marketing hype. Our first podcast in this series revisits the theme of Fly to Let, which takes the concept of buy to let and takes it beyond domestic borders to see if the growing trend for overseas property investment is all its cracked up to be.

In podcast 23, Adam Samuel is once again joined by Matt Havercroft, Editor of A Place in the Sun magazine and Peter Conradi, Property Editor of the Sunday Times and author of Fly to Let Guide to discuss the truth behind the phenomenon of Fly to Let and in reality how worthwhile an investment in overseas property really is. Matt and Peter describe the reasons why Fly to Let has become so popular; from low cost airlines, buyers becoming more adventurous and rising house prices in the UK. Peter explains that the fly to let investor is not just one type of person, anyone from retired couple with plenty of money to first time buyers are taking the plunge.

The potential to make easy lucrative returns has been a marketing cornerstone of overseas property however creating a successful Fly to Let property is a little more complicated in reality and the following useful points were made:

Doing your research is key, Matt states “Research is King”, pointing out that many buyers simply don’t take into consideration which target market they are aiming to attract for rental purposes whilst Peter believes correctly targeting your property towards the right local rental sector is fundamental, offering the thought that city property has potential to attract not only the blue chip rental pool and/or affluent locals. To see how a Fly to Let investment stacks up in reality, both felt, that buyers need to be realistic about the rental returns achievable and fully investigate actual rental periods and pricing taking into account all of the property costs from maintenance, rental service charges and ongoing mortgage and tax charges.

Adam felt it was important to ask the question “Do many investors really see cash flowing property?”. Matt explained that in his experience some investors had done very well but others have not taken all factors into consideration and their expectations have not been realistic.

We discussed the different types of markets available for buy to let, namely the traditional summer and ski holidays and covered the pros and cons between them including countries further afield such as Thailand and Egypt. This lead nicely onto the impact of people buying fly to let property on the environment and what effect green taxes on flights would have on people ‘s decision to travel abroad and the value of building eco friendly property overseas.

If you agree or disagree with any of the comments made by Adam, Matt or Peter, why not have your say by clicking the ‘Comments‘ link under the title of this post.

The podcast has been removed as it is now out of date.

Length: 00:32:57

Paul explains that in 2001 Morocco’s new King Mohammed VI announced the ‘Azure Plan and Vision 2010’ which intends to increase the tourist numbers into the country from 2 million to 10 million within 10 years.

Paul states that the average property price currently for new properties that Saffron Villas promotes is £100,000 to £125,000, however the market caters for the £50,000 budget as well as luxury multi-million pound properties. There are a variety of types of property available in the Azure Plan including apartments and villas. If you wanted an original property outside of the Azure Plan then riad’s are available in the historical medinas, however they come complete with problematic title deeds!

Buying a new build property in Morocco is straight forward and similar to European countries. Mortgages are easy to get hold of subject to status, loans of up to 70% are very common and interest rates range from 5.5% to 6.5%. We also discussed the taxes for buying and selling property in Morocco.

So what about the future of Morocco? Paul offered the following hot tips… Marrakesh is gaining in popularity and will see an increase in property development to satisfy demand. This city is a fabulous mix of the traditional and modern; it retains its charm, has skiing 1 hour 30 minutes away, currently has 3 golf courses and 7 more have recently received planning permission.

The Taghazout resort will be available for purchase options later in 2007, which is set to be extremely popular. It is located in the Agadir region where there are stretches of clean, clear coast meeting the Atlantic Ocean, perfect for water sports enthusiasts.

The podcast has been removed as it is now out of date.

The way we search for property is changing on a daily basis with new tools and information to make the process easier and faster for the consumer. Since early 2006, Zillow.com has grown from strength to strength utilising up to 10 years of historical housing data to empower Americans to make informed decisions about buying a home by profiling the sales history of their own and surrounding homes and future real estate purchases.

The founders of Zillow have already had a history of market revolution by changing the way we buy travel in form of Expedia.com. Post Expedia and in the process of buying homes in the Seattle area, Lloyd Fink and Richard Barton whilst doing their own property research found that there was a real gap in the market places to offer real estate consumers in-depth buying information about homes in the US.

Company spokesperson Amy Bohutinsky explains Zillow’s aim is to build a web page for every home in America containing a wealth of historical, financial and descriptive property information, designed to assist the average US home buyer and is driven by the overriding consumer need to value their homes worth in past, present and future.

Zillow currently displays information for about 70 million homes out of a calculated 85 million single family homes in US. Amy goes on to explain that Zillow is trying to make real estate investors smarter by giving them more information, including data that only large institutions were previously able to access. Zillow acknowledges that most people will still use a real estate broker or estate agent as they are known here in the UK, for their local knowledge and to oversee the transaction for them. However, rather than relying on a single not necessarily independent information source Zillow users will be better informed when making their home buying decision, perhaps the greatest ever asset purchase in their lifetime.

Earlier this month Zillow took the bold step of allowing both real estate agents and homeowners to add/modify the details of homes for sale layered on top of existing numerical data. In addition ‘Make Me Move’ is an interesting property market twist whereby homeowners can anonymously post an offer price that just might “make me move” and moves Zillow into the realms of social networking space.

There are many that will say Zillow is just another real estate listings website but to give you the low down on some of Zillow’s website visitor stats, you can get an idea of what this real estate newcomer is already achieving.

86% of US citizens own a home with 54% set to buy or sell a home now or within the next 2 years.

The information profiles of 30 million homes have been looked up on Zillow.com in the last 10 months and this has been by users physically typing in the address of the home they are looking for data on. Real estate enthusiasts have enticed by heavily marketed devices such as Zillow’s first tool ‘Zestimates’ which we are reminded by Amy are just that, an estimate. Based on an algorithm developed by Zillow, despite a median margin for error of about 7.2% is still an impressive feat when you take into account they haven’t ever visited the home.

Already in the week and a half since its launch on December 6th, 8000 recorded entries have been made for their new “Make Me Move” service, in addition to 11,000 homes for sale being listed.

Without advertising, Zillow currently receives about 3,500,000 monthly website visits, 60% of which are repeat visits from consumers who are actively in the market looking to buy and sell real estate.

The podcast has been removed as it is now out of date.

Length: 00:23:15

This is the last in our podcast series for 2006 but rest assured we will be back in 2007 when the Nubricks Property Podcast Series continues with a line up that includes a profile on Morocco property with a leading specialist and we also get the real story on property in Dubai so why not sign up for reminders via our newsletter here.