Property in Charente Maritime the jewel in crowing region of Poitou Charentes where the promise of long hot summer days by the coast have made it a popular second home destination for Parisiens, Brits, and Irish alike. With winter chills a distant memory, the property market in Charente Maritime has received notable interest from Parisien buyers in recent weeks. Chic fashionable resorts have attracted French films stars such as Juliette Binoche, Jean Reno and Gerard Depardieu, who among the celebrities said to have bought property here.

Residence La Palmyre offers the perfect vacation base from which to explore the Arvert Peninsula. A secluded location of natural beauty opposite the Gironde estuary on the French Atlantic Coast, life at Residence La Palmyre puts you a stone’s throw from one of France’s most stunning coastlines. Stretching from La Rochelle down to Bordeaux, 30km of maritime pine and oak forests meet the rugged Atlantic ocean.

Continue reading ‘Residence La Palmyre leaseback investment in Charente Maritime’

£40 UK flights to Malaysia are finally set to be reality from September 2008, when low-cost asian airline Air Asia X delayed its cheap flights service due to problems sourcing the right aircraft.

Now with an order for 15 aircraft, owner of low-cost Asian airline AirAsia Tony Fernandes told the Telegraph “We are looking at operating Malaysia-UK services by September 2008 at the latest, and the first quarter of 2008 at the earliest,”.

The long-haul arm of Air Asia, Malaysia’s low-cost fares airline, Air Asia X takes it’s inspiration from easyJet.

With cheap flights and a quick turnaround time it is hoped that air asia x will revolutionise air travel to Asia using the easyJet low-cost model to offer cheap long haul flights. Through the advent of cut-price short-haul European travel, the ‘easyJet effect’ has changed the fortunes of thousands of European destinations transforming them not only into tourism but property hotspots. Rising interest in Malaysian property coinciding with improved access to the country should have a positive effect on Malaysia property sales.

Air Asia X ticketing and booking will be conducted through the AirAsia.com website though whether air asia x routes will operate from London or Manchester is still to be confirmed.

TGV Est Européen Improves Access to Undiscovered Eastern France

From June 10th the new TGV Est Européen high-speed line slashes journey times to the east of France cutting French journey times by as much as half. The new train line will link Paris Gare de l’Est to 33 towns and cities throughout the east of France to the west of Germany as well as to destinations in Switzerland and Luxembourg. Crossing France east to west becomes much easier eliminating the need to change at Paris. Continue reading ‘New TGV Est Train Halves Travel Time to East France’

Nubricks is delighted to welcome author, Nicola Christie, as our new guest blogger. Like us, Nicola is fascinated by overseas property and is an experienced freelance writer whose work is commissioned by and published in a variety of print and online publications.

Currently relocating back to the UK after 8 years of living abroad in Hong Kong and North Cyprus, Nicola works as a consultant for developers and agents, advising them on selecting and marketing properties in emerging growth areas. She also specialises in identifying key trends and investor movement in emerging overseas property markets and from next week we are excited to have such a talented guest blogging here at Nubricks.com. Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to Nicola Christie!

Macau’s gross gaming revenues total 18 billion patacas in first quarter
● Macau is a small special administrative region in China well-known as offshore financial centre / tax-haven
● Biggest attraction is gambling industry and 25 casinos, vistors from mainland China, tourists from Hong Kong and Taipei (Taiwan).
● Most popular game baccarat generates 2/3 of gaming gross receipts.
● Macau highest-volume gambling centre in the world overtaking Las Vegas in 2006, gross revenues of 55.88 billion patacas posted and total of 21.9 million tourists.
● Gaming revenues rose 8.6 percent in the first quarter of 2007 whilst visitors to Macau rose 21.4% to 6.3 million.
● 25 million Macau visitors expected this year, rising spending power of citizens and increased China tourism appeal

Unaffordable house prices in New Zealand leading to falling homeownership levels
● 2 reports reveal high density regions in New Zeland face severe housing shortage
● Households making $70,000 a year are being locked out of home ownership will lead to falling ownership and big increase in lifetime young family and the elderly renters increasing rental property demand
● Auckland city needs 55,000 new houses and flats over next decade. New-house building stifled by high development costs and council consent delays.
● Government plan for home affordability bill to force developers to build proportion of low-cost homes in new estates to ease Auckland’s housing shortage based on success of Britain’s shared-equity affordable housing-schemes.
● Worries that low cost homes might cheapen new estates and subsidised by buyers of higher-priced property. More work should be done to help people into existing homes with quality rental property standards and tighten eviction laws.
● Auckland city’s property market based on greed, provision of alternative investment vehicles needed for mom and pop investors pushing up prices.
● Call to look at spending habits on new cars, designer coffee and overseas trips in favour of saving to buy a home.

Malaysia lures the second-home set
● Low interest rates, less government red tape, scrapped capital gains tax to entice wealthy foreigners.
● ‘Malaysia My Second Home Program’ to attract retirees now without prior approval by foreign buyer panel and can now buy multiple properties. Application process still ‘painful’.
● Malaysia’s property index up almost 1/3 in 2007
● Property much cheaper than Singapore or Hong Kong with 6.75% interest rate lowest in South East Asia.
● $100 billion directly invested in Asian real estate in 2006. Foreign investors from the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, China, Korea and Singapore.
● Market for high end properties with big Malaysian real estate developers selling larger proportion of homes to foreigners.
● Malaysia has growing social problems as economic growth widens gap between the haves and have-nots.
● Motorbike bag-snatching thieves and rising spate of burglaries and carjackings means Malaysia is now considered not as safe as it once was.

Continue reading ‘International Property Headlines’

Property investors look East
● Investors heading to Russia, Ukraine and Balkan countries (Bulgaria and Romania) as competitive Czech market may lead to conservative yields
● CB Richard Ellis annual European investment report showed investment market turnover doubled this year for Central and Eastern Europe. Czech Republic’s turnover up 46%, Russia rapid rise of 1,016 % in transaction levels and Romania saw a 768% increase
● Local property development opportunities scarce with increased competition among developers
● Prague-based developers looking to foreign markets with joint-venture partners in Ukraine, Croatia, Romania and Slovakia to explore local investment opportunities.
● Regional markets opportunities growing in Brno, South Moravia, Plzeň, West Bohemia, Ostrava, North Moravia, and other smaller cities.

Continue reading ‘European Property Headlines’

Buy a bungalow in Galashiels, make a Scottish property fortune
● Property boom in Scotland as prices rise double the rate of UK in last quarter
● Average house price in Edinburgh over £205,189, an 11% increase making it most expensive place to buy.
● Edinburgh “halo” effect in Dalkeith, strong city buyer interest causing 35% plus housing inflation. Rail links benefical to areas like Fife where Lochgelly property price breached £100,000 barrier but still most affordable town in Britain. Scottish Border town of Galashiels experiencing ripple effect as buyers travel further for larger semi-rural property
● Average price of a property in Scotland £138,655 behind the UK average of £192,314.
● Strongest growth for bungalows followed by detached homes then flats.
● Call for stamp duty raise from current £125,000 threshold to give first-time buyers first rung property ladder opportunity.
● Prospect of more expensive mortgages may halt boom, expected May interest rate rise to 5.5% followed by 5.75% summer increase after prices rose above the government’s inflation target last week.

UK is a top global buy-to-let location
● New study based on buying costs, rental yields and capital growth reveals UK second-best place to invest in buy-to-let property globally.
● Poland top with 165% return on cash investment followed by the UK (63%), Bulgaria (54%), France (51%) and Turkey (45%).
● UK offers investors continued strong sustainable housing market growth with low investment risk, low purchasing costs and self-management option.
● Demand for rental property from unsuccessful first-time buyers strong basis for buy to let investment coupled with housing shortage driving house prices up by 8-10% in 2007/8.
6 major UK house price indices show 9.8% average annual growth as at Feb 2007 result of supply and demand imbalance.
● Investors should take long-term view for strong capital gains despite low yields.
Continue reading ‘UK Property Headlines’