New Development One of Finest Investment Opportunities in Florida

Azure Overseas is now marketing the Village at Town Center Development in the resort area of Orlando. The development offers 2 bedroom luxury condominiums just minutes from Disney World from the 70% discounted price of £40k. The resort-development also boasts an impressive array of facilities including: swimming pool, club house, state-of-the-art health and fitness centre, volleyball, basketball and tennis courts.

As an investment the main points of the development are as follows:

• 70% below its peak selling price
• Net Yields 10% currently being achieved
• Tenants already in place (91% occupancy)
• On-site management & letting team in place
• 1, 2 & 3 bedroom units in private gated community
• Minutes away from Walt Disney World and Universal Studios
• Potential to generate over 100% on capital invested, excluding rentals

What is missing from the main points is the fact that the properties can be rented residentially or to tourists; Florida uses a zonal rental system, with owners of property in residential zones unable to rent to tourists and vice-versa. Having said that, this development being just a few minutes from Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter it should do sufficiently well on holiday lets alone; giving the owner(s) some use of it themselves.

For anyone that can't already see that this is a bargain from the low price and location, the properties are being sold at 50% below their build replacement cost. This has become the yard-stick for buying discounted properties in America.

This is undoubtedly one of the finest opportunities in the Florida property market right now, and that is saying something. Right now it is almost impossible to find an expert or analyst who will advise against investing in Florida property, and, as anyone that knows overseas property will know, that is also saying something. It is little wonder though; prices are currently low, yields are therefore high, and Florida has a strong and proven growth cycle.

Turkish Property Sales Increasing, Set to Continue Growing

Conti, one of the largest mortgage brokers for foreign property purchases has revealed that it issued twice the quotes for mortgages on Turkish property in May than in April.

The firm said that this huge growth followed steady growth over the last year, which it put down to the strong Euro highlighting the better value for money Turkey offered as a tourism destination and in property purchases.

Clare Nessling, Conti's operations director, says: "These factors, combined with low interest rates and some bargain property prices, have made Turkey increasingly attractive, as well as more affordable, for UK buyers. Property purchase costs and taxes there tend to be lower than other popular hotspots. Accessibility is important too and the country has a wide choice of airports which are well served by flights from the UK. Bodrum, for example, is only half an hour's drive from the international airport."

While Conti pointed out the steady growth in demand for Turkish mortgages over the last year, looking back to June last year, we can see that Conti then released data revealing a 143% growth in Turkish mortgage quotes in the previous two months, and a 65% increase comparing the opening 5 months of 2009 to the closing 5 months of 2008.

This is a very positive sign for Turkey, especially at a time when overseas property sales in the lower-budget category -- which Turkish property falls into -- are on the increase.

Of course, with the pound now strengthening against the Euro, Turkey will have to compete with Eurozone destinations.

This shouldn't be a problem though, Turkish property sales accelerated rapidly between 2005 and the second half of 2008 when the crunch went global, so it is a safe bet that Turkey will see strong sales again as part of the natural progression of recovery in overseas property demand. In fact if anything, the downturn will prove to have done Turkish property a favour, by increasing its status as a global property destination.

Repossessed US Properties to be Plentiful Until 2013

US foreclosure tracking agency RealtyTrac has told the US real estate press that it will be at least 2013 before the repossession problem is back under control. This is ultimately very bad news for the US housing market, and for homeowners, but the silver-lining for property investors is that there will be plenty more bargain US properties coming onto the market in the coming years.

The statements were made by a Rick Sharga of RealtyTrac in a conference with the National Association of Real Estate Editors, in which he talked about the so-called "shadow inventory". Sharga said that of the 3.5 million homes repossessed in 2009 only about 20% of those were listed for sale, as the banks were overwhelmed by the sheer volume and speed at which the problem escalated.

Needless to say the shadow inventory was huge coming into 2010, and there have been hundreds of thousands of homes repossessed already in 2010. The fact that over 370,000 homes were repossessed this March alone compared to RealtyTrac gives us an idea of the size of the current shadow inventory.

As time progresses the channels to bring these homes to market are getting better. However, the banks and lenders will always give up the best properties for first refusal in their own ranks before listing it to outside investors, and this will therefore always slowdown the process of these homes coming to market.

One thing that is not slowing down is demand to buy these properties as confidence in the international recovery brings increasing numbers of property investors.

Arguably, repossessed property in America is one of the top property investments on the global market right now. Many of the properties are being sold for up to 50% below their replacement build cost, which makes them a no-brainer if we dare call any property investment that after such a catastrophic crash.

In fact, replacement build cost has become the way of measuring the discount being offered by repossessed and other below-market-value properties for sale. As people started buying property again, people would hear that a property was being offered at 20% below market value, and they would soon find out that it was 20% below the peak market value, not the current market value. In the fast-paced world of repossessed sales, replacement build cost is a good measure of current value, with no time to do a proper valuation.

On this measure, a property being sold for 40% below its replacement build cost is most likely at least 20% below its current market value, and could be up to 50% or even 100% below its current market value, depending on the quality of the property, and the neighbourhood etc.

Most repossessed properties are being sold at such low prices that their being a bargain is undeniable. The question then becomes, is it going to regain its former value, and when it comes to America, that is unquestionable in most places. So then the only thing stopping people is their financial situation, or lack of confidence. So, now that both of these things are improving, so the number of potential investors in repossessed US property is also on the rise.