Spanish theme park is set to open sooner

The new Paramount theme park in Murcia is apparently scheduled to open a year earlier than originally planned. It had been scheduled to open in 2015 but construction plans have been brought forward due to increased interest from foreign investors and the anticipated opening of the new international airport in Murcia. The completion of the airport which will have capacity for 3 million passengers a year, including many who currently use the airport at Alicante was vital in securing this theme park. The theme park will be huge as it will include several Disney type worlds and six, four and five-star resorts as well is a 15,000 seat auditorium.

It's now expected that work will begin early in 2012 and will be completed by 2014. The new airport is due to open in spring 2012, and should ensure that Murcia is well and truly on the tourist map. Estate agents are already experiencing increased interest from those seeking to buy property due to the enhanced rental opportunities which will be available in the near future.

Foreign investors who have taken an interest in the theme park include the Russian billionaire and casino operator Oleg Boyko, who visited Murcia earlier on in the year to assess the areas potential. Another €1.3 billion are needed to complete the Paramount theme park, but there are to be several international roadshows in the UK, the UAE and China later on in the year, and it's anticipated that these should raise the necessary funds to complete the park and the attached retail complexes. The completion of this project will also coincide with a new high-speed AVE rail link to Murcia.

View property for sale in Spain

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Campaigning for September Elections

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood group, which has formed the Freedom and Justice Party, is campaigning hard ahead of September’s elections as it hopes to win up to half the parliamentary seats. It is basing its campaign on a plan to trim the country’s deficit which would bring foreign investors back into Egypt.

Before the uprising in February, the Brotherhood was one of the largest opposition groups. Its leader, Khairat el-Shater is quoted as saying “It’s always better for any country to build on the basis of investment and not loans.”

Interest payments on public debt account for 22% of spending, up from 20% last year. It is the third largest bill, after wages and subsidies. In fact Egypt’s spending on debt costs more than the combined costs of health care, education and housing. The average yield on public debt is estimated to increase from 10.7% last year to 12.5%.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928, and after decades of suppression is now speaking out about its views on governing the country. The group is well aware that some foreign investors may be put off by a government that has a large Muslim Brotherhood representation, and they want to reassure investors that they are business owners and professionals.

Egypt is already taking steps to cut international borrowing, and has turned down a $3 billion loan from the IMF, preferring instead to get finance from domestic borrowing and aid from Arab countries. The UAE has already pledged $3 billion of support for Egypt. The economy in Egypt is expected to expand by 3.2% this year, and although this is the lowest rate for about a decade, it is still better than many western countries.

View Egypt property for sale

Florida Property Market Continues to Show Signs of Improvement

The Florida property market continues to show signs of life, as sales of condominiums in Miami have increased by 46% over the last year, and sales of family homes have improved by 20%.

In May, sales of condominiums increased by 1.1% on April while house sales increased by a respectable 5.4%, according to a report from Miami’s Association of Realtors. An incredible 60% of closed sales were cash transactions, while international sales accounted for 60% of this figure. International sales accounted for 90% of new construction sales.

It’s not just Miami that is seeing a turnaround in the market, as sales throughout the whole state have increased. Condo sales have increased by 17%, while single family home sales have increased by 3%.

According to Jack Levine, chairman of the National Association of Realtors, the performance of the housing market in Miami is exceeding expectations, with sales now at their highest levels since the boom years.

At the moment there is just a 7.4 month’s supply of housing, as both international and American buyers take advantage of bargain prices. However the high number of foreclosures and short sales is continuing to have an effect on the market, as 57% of all closed sales during April were distressed in some way.

The good news is that prices seem to be gradually recovering in Miami, as even though prices for single family homes in May were 8% lower than a year ago, they had increased by 7% from the previous month. Condominium prices were 1% lower compared with a year earlier, but had increased by 7.4 compared with April.

View property for sale in America including in Orlando and the rest of Florida.

Liguria Proving Alluring to Foreigners

Competition for homes in Liguria, Tuscany and Umbria is currently fierce and is driving property prices up as homeowners search for the perfect Italian holiday home.

Apparently Germans are spending around €300,000, and 76% of British buyers are looking at property in the €300,000-€500,000 price range. However the Russian buyers are willing to spend the most, at around €900,000 for that perfect property.

Property values in the country have held up rather well during the global economic downturn, and 61% of local estate agents expect the market to get even better over the next couple of years.

Buyers are increasingly willing to pay up to €17,000 a square metre for properties in popular Ligurian towns such as Santa Margarita Ligure. This might indicate that foreign buyers are now choosing to purchase property in smaller towns and villages rather than the major cities.

The attractions of Liguria are easy to see as it has achieved a record number of Blue Flag beaches, and in fact in 2011 was awarded the most blue flags out of all the regions in Italy. The region is also bordered by the Ligurian Sea, the Alps and the Apennines and is home to the famous seaside resorts of Portofino and Cinque Terre.

This location means that it has a mild climate year-round and is pleasant to visit even in the dead of winter. Temperatures in winter time are generally between seven and 10°C, while summer temperatures tend to be between 23 and 24°C. Liguria also has the distinction of being the birthplace of pesto.

View property for sale in Italy

Portuguese Property Bargains on the Way

According to a leading currency exchange firm, the election of the social Democrat government in Portugal will bring about a new era of austerity in the country which should see property prices falling even further. The coalition government in the country is due to implement the austerity package being demanded by the EU in return for their £70 million bailout.

While this might seem reasonable enough, the Prime Minister, Pedro Passos Coelho has promised that his government will make even more cuts, with the idea being that deficit reduction targets will be met ahead of time, attracting investors back into the country. Cuts include selling off public services, higher health care costs and a reduction in unfair dismissal compensation.

It's expected that all this will have a negative effect on Portugal property prices as households will have less money to spend, but should prove attractive to foreign investors, especially those looking to buy property in popular destinations such as the Algarve.

Although Portugal has a similar deficit crisis to that of Greece and Ireland, it is slightly different in that the property market here has had very little effect on these problems. There has been far less re-mortgaging and high loan to value ratio loans available to the Portuguese, and in fact the country exhibited one of the most stable rates of loan default during the worst of the economic crisis. At the height of the boom in 2007 the non-performing loan barometer was just 4%, and this figure decreased to 3% last year.

South Africans Choosing Smaller Homes

People trying to sell South African homes currently have to discount prices by between nine and 12% in order to achieve a sale, according to Lew Geffen, chairman of Sotheby's International Realty in South Africa. He feels the most likely cause is the recent apprehension over elections, long school holidays and an increasing aversion to take on more debt.

Levels of household debt in South Africa are still at high levels, and with food, fuel and electricity costs forecast to rise, buyers are choosing not to take on such large mortgages, even if they can. The majority of South African households have an annual income of around R192K which puts them firmly into the lower income property buying market. This means they can comfortably afford homes costing up to R1.4 million.

As a result there has been increasing demand for smaller high-density housing in metropolitan areas. The affordability of homes has improved since 2007 and 2008, but people are definitely becoming more interested in keeping the costs of homeownership down, and are mindful about the prospect of interest rate rises by the end of the year.

There are also signs that banks will not lend on properties whose price is overinflated, so anyone asking an unrealistic price is less likely to achieve a sale. In general homebuyers are not particularly motivated to move at the moment, and are more likely to do so if they think they are getting a bargain. The market was bolstered to a certain extent by the effects of the 2010 FISA World Cup and the interest rate cuts late last year, but now these influences have run their course.

Moroccan Property Market has Sustainable Growth

According to CB Richard Ellis the property market in Morocco has sustainable growth for a number of years to come and the managing director, Karim Beqqali, feels the country has been successful in attracting a large amount of investment into holiday homes.

The property market in Morocco has been affected in the past by the global economic downturn, and this had a severe impact on the second home market which had previously been buoyant.

However it has been largely untouched by the recent unrest in parts of the Middle East with most analysts feeling it's far enough away to be unaffected by these problems.

Good economic growth in Morocco has resulted in a healthy local market, and a rapidly expanding middle-class is giving greater impetus not only to the residential property market but also the commercial property market.

Morocco plans to promote coastal tourism through six new coastal resorts which are collectively called the Azur Plan. These results will eventually create more than 100,000 beds of which 73,000 will be hotel beds.

The plan was implemented before the global economic crisis, and since then some international developers have had to transfer projects to local operators.

At the moment Marrakesh is the primary tourist destination in Morocco and the city has managed to attract many world-class hotel brands and has over 5.5 million overnight stays year. However the property markets within the other three major cities of Tangiers, Casablanca and Rabat have also experienced strong growth in recent years.

There are no restrictions for overseas buyers and Morocco is easily accessible from a number of major European cities. Prices have declined slightly in the wake of the economic crisis, but now seem to have stabilised.

View Morocco property for sale