Inside Track File for Bankruptcy

The success of Surrey based Inside Track, the agressive off-plan property investment and investment seminar company, has come to a shuddering halt. The news, reported in the Guardian yesterday, will not come as much of a shock to insiders in the industry who felt the company's 'buying off-plan to flip' model of property investment was intrinsically flawed. It was generally felt that such a model works in a rising economic cycle, just about, but comes to grief when economic conditions are less than favourable, as has been proven to be the case. Even where the company claimed property could be let for a profit these claims were often without foundation, leaving many of its clients in large negative cashflow situations.

The company was the leader of a slew of 'property investment clubs' around the UK which promoted the purchase of off-plan city centre apartments claiming to have sourced from developers for reductions of 15-20%. Accusations have recently been made that developers were merely inflating their properties by this amount in order to offer the reductions, thus falsely inflating the market and leaving buyers with properties worth less than they paid for them. So 'successful' were these property investment clubs that they were responsible for up to 30% of all UK apartment sales in 2006, but then the wheels started to come off.

It would appear that, even in the good times, Inside Track's clients were struggling to achieve the profits claimed by the company. You can see an article on one of their 'clients' who ran into trouble here.

The announcement last month that the company was to cancel its controversial 'property seminars', which could cost potential clients anything up to £15,000 if they were to go through the full seminar course, was a sign of things to come.

If you've been burned by Inside Track and want to have a good moan about it you could visit here, it'll give you plenty of opportunity to vent your spleen.

www.OverseasCafe.com

Ryanair - The High Fares Airline

Regular travellers will no doubt be wonderfully happy to hear that our favourite low-cost carrier has once again hiked its rates for luggage and check-in.

The company yesterday confirmed that passengers pre-booking baggage will now have to pay €10 - each way - the charge went from €6 to €9 in January. Those who have the audacity to use the check-in desk rather than Ryanair's online service (booking in on your PC before you travel to the airport) will now pay €5, up from €4. The charges are effective from next Tuesday, May 5. You'll find a full report here.

The airline has said the increases are "aimed at encouraging more people to travel with hand luggage only." It says it will continue raising fees until half its passengers check in online. Of course, once checking in online is the favoured option, the airline will no doubt charge for that as well.

According to a company statement: "Ryanair encourages passengers to avoid these charges altogether by travelling with our 10kg hand luggage allowance and checking in online."

Of course all of this has nothing at all to do with baggage. If this was logically an issue of 'weight' then passengers who are overweight should logically be charged more than those who are not. Don't be surprised if Ryanair do find a way to make extra money in this area though.

The real issue is, of course, the cost of oil. It has been soaring and Ryanair, having made a point of not raising money by charging fuel levies - unlike many other airlines in fairness - has to make up the shortfall somewhere. For those who wish to carry baggage, unfortunately you are the targets at the moment.

www.OverseasCafe.com

Revenue Probes Overseas Property Purchases

It shouldn't come as a shock to very many people that the Revenue have decided they want to find the owners of property abroad so they can check where the funds to buy the property originated and ensure that full payment of Irish taxes has been made on this capital.

Frances O'Rourke in the Irish Times last week reported that an attempt by the Revenue Commissioners to inspect records in Savills HOK's Dublin offices for the names of people who have bought property abroad since 2002 ended when Revenue withdrew its request for information. Savills HOK then withdrew its High Court challenge to the proceedings. You can see the full piece here.

This week the Revenue has announced that it will take a different tack, looking to the Department of Finance to give it the power to access such client lists. Simon Carswell's full Irish Times piece can be found here.

There are two sides to this argument. On one hand it is difficult to argue against the Revenue having access to details of Irish investors purchasing overseas. The Revenue has a legal right to know the source of funds invested abroad by Irish citizens in case the state is at a loss in its tax take. It also has a right to know what income is being made overseas so that it can access any tax it is owed through this avenue.

On the other hand, Irish agents who are forced to give such lists to the Revenue are at a distinct disadvantage. Once such an initiative is launched, those wishing to hide the source of funds or even those who would rather that the Revenue didn't know about their business for less sinister reasons, will simply go overseas and use foreign agents.

The results of this will be twofold, neither of them particularly good. Firstly Irish agents will lose significant business, quite a few will go bust. Whatever you feel about overseas agents, there are many good, conscientious ones out there. They are perfectly entitled to make a living and this initiative could stop them from doing so. Secondly, those Irish investing overseas using foreign agents will be doing so outside any potential regulatory framework in Ireland making it far more likely that they will run into problems while doing so, and far less likely that they will have any recourse should something go wrong.

It is possible that the newly formed National Property Services Regulatory Authority (NPSRA) could be asked to make it obligatory for all companies selling in Ireland to present details of their clients to the Revenue. Unfortunately this would not make it compulsory for agents with no operations in Ireland to furnish such a list and would still leave Irish agents at a significant disadvantage.

Expect this issue to drag on for some time, it is very unlikely that agents will go down without a fight and the Revenue really wants to get its hands on those records.

For a list of advisory articles on taxation issues relating to investing in property overseas click on this link.

www.OverseasCafe.com

Distressed Sales at Property Auctions

Auctions are the order of the day. Where ever you go in the world people are very keen to find properties using them. Are they correct in thinking that they'll pick up some wonderful bargains at them? Sometimes, but it's an awful lot more work than you might initially have entertained.

If you're prepared to put in the work and suffer the frustration involved, however, you might well unearth a gem. Be careful though, the success of auctions is based on people getting competitive and 'not wanting to let that property go for the sake of a few thousand'. And it works. You can see people getting caught up in the whole process and paying way more for properties than they are actually worth.

In this time of economic instability there are property auctions running across the world from Spain and the UK to the US. They are relatively new to the Spanish market, you can see an example here, but in the UK and US they are pretty commonplace. One company specialising in such sales in the UK is Pugh & Co. There is some info on Florida auctions here.

In Ireland we're more used to seeing auctions when people wish to sell 'unique' properties. At one stage a few years ago every property in Ireland seemed to have been 'unique' as most of them seemed to be selling at auction. Not now though, this fad seems to have passed and we're back to having only truly 'unique' properties in our auction rooms, usually sold individually.

In the UK and US the selling of hundreds, if not thousands, of lots at a single auction is far more common-place. Throw in a property slump and the numbers of properties involved rise significantly. That is where we're at today.

There is currently a lot of interest in the Florida market, our mother-site, www.OverseasCafe.com, calculates that it is now top of our search listings, beating France & the UK to the top spot. Most of the interest seems to be in what is termed 'distressed sales', basically people who are selling because they either can't afford to complete a purchase or can't afford to keep up mortgage payments on a property they've already bought.

As they say on Hill Street Blues "Let's be careful out there", just because a property is being sold cheap at an auction does not mean that it is worth the price or that it is value for money. By its very nature much of the property that comes to auction is rubbish. Rich people with high spec properties are far seldom found in need of the cash to pay their mortgages than poor folk, so it is inevitably property belong the latter category that is normally found at auction. Much of it is poorly built, in poor locations and comes with a lot of baggage. If you're going to buy property at auction you need to do an awful lot of ground work to ensure that what you are bidding on is actually worth what you intend to pay for it.

You will often find that properties that are actually worth investing in achieve unrealistic prices at auction because professional investors will know that they are worth money and there will be a lot of interest in them. The professional investors stop bidding once a realistic price has been passed and unfortunate 'mug' investors get caught up in the whole competitive auction process and end up paying over the odds for the property.
________________________________________________

For a listing of property in Florida click here.

For a listing of Florida Estate Agents click here.

For a listing of Exhibitions showcasing Florida Property click here.

Register now to receive our informative newsletter, save searches and tailor your OverseasCafe.com experience to your own needs.

Reclaiming overpaid CGT in Spain

This could be very interesting if you bought property in Spain and sold it for a profit in the last four years. I can hear the cynics say, there aren't too many of those, but, apart from the Costas the rest of Spain was doing fine up to 2007 so there may be some souls out there who made a profit ... and paid 35% Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on it.

Well, God bless the EU, they've said it's not on and those naughty Spaniards shouldn't have been doing this when their own citizens were only paying 15% CGT. So, if you've had to lose a chunk of your capital gain, you may be entitled to claim a chunk of it back from them.

According to law firm Costa, Alvarez, Manglano & Associates, investors who made capital gains by selling Spanish properties could be due tax rebates. Emilio Alvarez says, "Investors could be in line for a 20 per cent tax rebate because foreign non-residents were charged a higher rate than Spanish nationals - and that contravenes the European Community Treaty. Those who sold a home in Spain before changes to the rules last year were charged the Spanish non residents' income tax rate of 35 per cent on any capital gains instead of the Spanish flat rate of 15 perc ent. That means those affected can try and reclaim the difference from the Spanish authorities, plus interest". For more information, go to http://www.spanishtaxreclaim.co.uk

www.OverseasCafe.com
______________________________________

To view properties in Spain: Click Here

To View a List of Spanish Agents: Click Here

To View the most Recent News from Spanish Agents: Click Here

To View the Latest Spanish Property News: Click Here

To See a Listing of Upcoming Spanish Exhibitions: Click Here

To See a Selection of Advice on Purchasing in Spain: Click Here

Register now to receive our informative newsletter, save searches and tailor your OverseasCafe.com experience to your own needs.

Hotel Watch - The Reval, Vilnius

Vilnius has created somewhat of a stir in the Irish market over the past half dozen years or so. There are a good selection of Irish developers and investors involved in the market and, at three hours flying time, it is close enough to be a viable property investment destination. It also has plenty of flight access through Aer Lingus and Air Baltic which is important if you need to visit it on any kind of a regular basis.

The Hotel Reval is a tower block situated beside the river, within about a 15 to 20 minute walk of the old town. If the weather is good and you fancy the walk it is quite a nice one, but taxis are fairly easily available if you need to get somewhere quickly.

Vilnius itself is a beautiful city, the architecture, particularly around its extensive Old Town, is spectacular. It is, however, a summer destination unless you fancy the grimness of snow and freezing conditions that you'll find here in the winter months. I visited in early-April and the weather was a little chilly but dry and sunny.

You can pick rooms up in the Reval for about €80 on the internet which is bearable, and certainly better value than you'll find in, for instance, the Radisson Hotel in the Old Town. The acccommodation is basic business class, nothing to write home about, but the beds are comfortable, the showers are hot and work properly, the hotel is clean, there is satellite TV access, so all in all its got all the basics.

There is also a good breakfast included in the price. The back of the hotel is a building site at the moment and you will be awoken at 8am by the sound of construction, but it is bearable unless you're a very light sleeper.

All in all you'd have to say it is good value for money for a hotel close to the middle of a European capital.

For further information on the hotel visit www.revalhotels.com.

__________________________________________

For a listing of property in Lithuania click here.

For Agents selling property in Lithuania click here.

For advisory articles on Lithuanian Property click here.

For Agent News on Lithuania click here.

For news on the Lithunanian property industry click here.

__________________________________________

www.DiarmaidCondon.com

Palm Springs Dubai - Damac Cancel Project

If you're one of the Irish investors involved in the Palm Springs development which was promoted by Damac in Dubai some years ago you may be interested in some of the following links. These go through the actual decision by Damac to cancel the project, Nakheel's distancing themselves from the Damac decision and investors reaction to the cancellation. There is also a fair amount on what investor's consider a derisory offer from Damac, considering the huge values they consider they should have made on their properties.

http://damaconcovered.wordpress.com/
http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Real_Estate_Property/10202845.html
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d1c7fc18-0117-11dd-a0c5-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
http://www.kippreport.com/article.php?articleid=1105&day=5 http://www.arabianbusiness.com/515293-reason-for-axing-palm-springs-questioned
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/515467
http://www.arabianbusiness.com/515742-damac-hints-at-backtrack-on-palm-springs-axe?ln=en

UPDATE:

No sooner was this posted than the problem seems to have been resolved, or at least there is some hope that it will be. The following has been received from the Investor's group:

"This statement has come from RERA today,they are the Real Estate Regulatory Authority in the Emirates. Mounting media pressure and evidence against Damac have them under pressure to find a solution on their decision and we await good news!

Should this good news not develop The Palm Springs Investors group will proceed with legal action.

Senior Management from Damac have declared now that they will be in contact with a proposal no later than the 21st of April.

FURTHER UPDATE:

On mature reflection the Investors group have decided that this latest piece of news, which they've not received in writing, is merely a ruse by Damac to stop them protesting until after the launch of a new development by the company on April 13th. Hence, they state that their campaign of awareness raising will continue until they receive in writing confirmation that Damac are actually re-assessing their position on this matter.

SUCCESS:

It appears that the pressure put on Damac to change their minds about the cancellation of this project has reaped dividends as the company announced today (Thursday April 10th, 2008) that it would build the project as promised, but with some minor changes to the initial plan. You can read a report on the development here.

It would appear, therefore, that consumer pressure can exert change, even in the mighty Emirate of Dubai.
__________________________________________________

For a selection of property in Dubai click here.

For a list of agents selling property in Dubai click here.

For independent articles on the Dubai property market click here.

For advice on purchasing in Dubai click here.

For news on the Dubai property market click here.

For new releases and product updates from Dubai agents click here.

For a selection of property exhibitions featuring Dubai property click here.

___________________________________________________

www.OverseasCafe.com

Profit from the Pain in Spain

There's a nice piece in today's Independent (English version) about the level of pain being suffered by property owners in Spain. Of course, as we pointed out in a previous post, one person's pain is another's gain, so if you want a holiday home in Spain then the hour most definitely cometh.

The piece quotes Derek Blaney who says; "All the reasons people love to own in Spain are still there. It's two hours from the UK (also 2.5 hours from Ireland but this is a UK paper), the weather is great and it offers good beaches and all the amenities people like. But the market has changed and the people who will benefit most are those who want a holiday home, rather than a pure investment."

This last point is one well made. Spanish coastal property has never been a particularly reliable investment vehicle. Yes, in the early days, some people made lots of money from capital appreciation, but they were lucky. Relying on resort property for rentals is not a way to make money, in fact it is normally a way to lose it. If, however, you want a property for your hols and you particularly like coastal Spain, as many Irish do, then you should probably be keeping an eye on the market. There are bargains to be had.

You'll find the full Independent article here.

www.OverseasCafe.com
______________________________________

To view properties in Spain: Click Here

To View a List of Spanish Agents: Click Here

To View the most Recent News from Spanish Agents: Click Here

To View the Latest Spanish Property News: Click Here

To See a Listing of Upcoming Spanish Exhibitions: Click Here

To See a Selection of Advice on Purchasing in Spain: Click Here

Register now to receive our informative newsletter, save searches and tailor your OverseasCafe.com experience to your own needs.

Follow the Farmers - You'll Not Go Too Far Wrong

There may be an element of Irish society that looks down on farmers and the agriculture industry in general. A tendency, perhaps, to label the industry as being one that attracts only those who aren't qualify to do anything else - and there being a farm in the family, that was where they ended up.

Those active in the overseas property industry would seek to differ ... completely. In this industry farmers are considered to be some of the brightest, most daring, most innovative and, ultimately, most successful investors in the country.

Before any of the rest of us had even considered looking across the seas for alternative investment opportunities, the agricultural community were way ahead of us. You will find that farmers have been the bedrock of nearly every syndicate not launched by the financial institutions, and some launched by them as well. You'll find farmers, along with accountants, to the fore in launching, organising and running small scale, and some larger scale, syndicates right across the country - because they know the value of good quality commercial property.

Many of you will ask, why is this? It's simple - necessity is the mother of invention. The farming community, apart from those with huge farms, haven't been able to make ends meet for nearly 20 years now. Dropping commodity prices allied to rising input prices have meant that most farmers have found it almost impossible to make a living. Ironically, this is at a time when the capital value of these farmers has been soaring, as the price of land has gone through the roof. As I said, the farming community is not slow to harness their skills to sort out such ironies. Thousands of farmers across the country have borrowed substantial amounts of money against their farms, consequently investing it in 'off-farm investments', predominantly overseas property.

You may say, "sure it's easy for them, aren't they sitting on a fortune" but this would be to underestimate the risks they have taken. If their investments don't pay they lose their farms. And whatever Irish farmers will put up with, losing land isn't one of them. The upshot is that farmers tend to do their maths very asiduously before taking that leap of faith. They have a proven track record of being able to spot money-making property opportunities and go for them with gusto.

So the next time you see farmer Pat driving down the road in his brand-new top-of-the-range Toyota 4x4, instead of thinking "he's milking us all dry with his payments from Europe", you might consider "fair dues to him, fortune favours the brave."

________________________________________________________

See what they're all talking about, get the low-down on syndication here.

For a list of general advisory articles on investing abroad click here.

For a list of syndicated investment opportunities click here.

If you want to be updated when syndicated opportunities are loaded on the site simply register (see below), log in and Save the above search. You will then be emailed every time a syndicated investment opportunity is uploaded to the site.

Register now to receive our informative newsletter, save searches and tailor your OverseasCafe.com experience to your own needs.

www.OverseasCafe.com

It's a Buyer's Market - It's Official

Lest we be accused of 'talking down the market' - heaven forbid - we said we'd spread some good news to shake you from your Monday blues. And the news? Well it's not news to everyone and merely looking at things from a different perspective for some others.

It's a buyers market. You know what they say about clouds and silver linings as well as ill winds that blow no good? Well that's where we're at right now, or at least rapidly approaching it in any case. If you're in the market for a property overseas - particularly in the UK, US or Spain - then the world is your oyster - there are thousands of investors and homeowners out there willing to take your hand off from the elbow down, or possibly even the shoulder.

Home repossessions are running at all-time highs and, if you're a potential investor, this is good news. Obviously it's awful news for those having their properties repossessed, but you're refusing to buy the houses isn't going to help them any and if you don't buy them someone else will. The poor misfortunates don't normally own these properties anymore in any case, most of them are being sold by their current owners - cuddly, loveable banks.

If you're looking for auctions and valuations in the UK you could visit or www.eigroup.co.uk or www.netpricehouses.com. For Spain take a look at the Direct Auctions site. If you're in the market for foreclosed property in the US this particular initiative in Florida may be of interest.

If you've got cash and don't have to borrow, or at least don't have to borrow more than 50% of the value, then you are even better off. Once effusive banks are rapidly becoming very reticent to shovel cash out over the counter to buy-to-let investors since their activities in the sub-prime market has shown them to be a complete shower of muppets. So now they're gone into reverse and even those with meticulous credit records are finding it difficult to raise finance. We're returning to the old scenario of banks not being willing to give you money unless you can prove you don't need it.

On the positive side (and this is a very positive post) the Euro is at record highs against a number of currencies, most notably Sterling and the US Dollar, so our purchasing power is significantly better than it was not that long ago. Not only that, if cross currency rates return to their former levels you'll have made a paper profit with no extra effort. Of course there is no guarantee that they will return to these levels, but the potential can add a nice bit of extra spice to your investment in any case.

Warren Buffet very famously said one of the keys to investment is to be 'Fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful' - well others are absolutely bricking it at the moment so the time to strike may well be nigh. Just be wary, re-possessed housing isn't always located in the best areas so be certain you're very sure of the area in which you're proposing to invest. Just because it's cheap or is being sold for 1/3 the price for which it was purchased doesn't necessarily mean it is good value.
____________________________________

For a selection of property from around the world click here.

For a listing of agents selling overseas property click here.

For independent articles on overseas property click here.

For advice on purchasing property overseas click here.

For news on the world of overseas property click here.

For new releases and product updates from agents around the world click here.

For a list of upcoming overseas property exhibitions around the country click here.

www.OverseasCafe.com

Direct from the Developer - MRI Exhibition

Just a quick note to anyone intending to visit the 'Direct from the Developer' show in the Citywest Hotel today and tomorrow, this is an MRI (MacAnthony Realty International) exhibition.

Of course MRI are perfectly entitled to hold such an exhibition, the problem is that, in breach of guidelines issued to them by the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI), the company have 'forgotten' to mention in the advert that this is an MRI exhibition. This particular show is being run by the development arm of the Spanish based company so it is presumable that it will argue it is a different company to the parent MRI company and felt that it wasn't obliged to abide by the same rules.

Dates for upcoming shows can be found here.

If you're looking for a bit of background on MRI take a look at this Ask About Money transcript of an Irish Times report on the company from a couple of months back (we've included the AAM version because if you're not a member of Ireland.com you'll have to pay for the Irish Times version). If you can find it there is also a very interesting BBC documentary on the company and its activities but it is difficult to track down (MRI are heavily into legal threats when anything like this pops up).

If you wish to make a complaint to the ASAI about this matter you can do so here or you can contact the National Consumer Agency here.

www.OverseasCafe.com

More Bleak News for UK Property Owners

The UK's biggest building society Nationwide says house prices are now going up by just 1.1 per cent a year - the slowest pace of growth for 12 years.

The mortgage giant also warns that property values could fall by as much as 5 per cent this year.

And despite the Bank of England cutting the base rate of interest to 5.25 per cent in February, the Nationwide, along with mortgage lenders owned by rivals Halifax and Lloyds TSB, are raising interest rates on some of their most popular deals.

See the full blog here on Sky.

_________________________________

UK Property Links

For a selection of property in the UK click here.

For a list of agents selling property in the UK click here.

For independent articles on overseas property click here.

For advice on purchasing in the UK click here.

For news on the UK property market click here.

For new releases and product updates from UK agents click here.

For a selection of property exhibitions featuring UK property click here.

Register now to receive our informative newsletter, save searches and tailor your OverseasCafe.com experience to your own needs.

www.OverseasCafe.com

Bulgarian Black Sea Project to be Written Off

The Bulgarian property industry has been taking somewhat of a beating lately. Just as it had got some wind in its sails the global economy and economic crises around the world have threatened to conspire against it. The latest tale of woe is the 'writing off' of a 100m project in the Cape Kaliakra region.

The project couldn't sell enough product to ensure its viability, and has been bedeviled with complaints from environmentalists and architects alike, so it had to be condemned to the dustbin.

This ambitious project was the subject of a very high profile launch in January/February 2007 across Ireland and the UK. It was also very heavily promoted in the Middle East, particularly in the UAE, because of the Arabian theme running through the proposed development. The highest profile agent involved was Bulgarian Dreams, a company which has had significant recent troubles with its expulsion from the Association of International Property Professionals (AIPP).

You'll find a full report on the cancelling of this project here. Unfortunately, in the current economic climate, this is not the first, nor will it be the last, time that a project of such magnitude comes crashing to earth.

The project is still being promoted on many agent's websites at time of writing so be sure it is not sold to you as this would suggest that some of them are not even aware that the project has been abandoned.

_____________________________________

Bulgarian Links on OverseasCafe.com:

Bulgarian Property Listing

Bulgarian Property News

Bulgarian Agent News

Bulgarian Property Exhibitions around Ireland

Agents Selling Property in Bulgaria
_____________________________________

For all your overseas property needs visit:

www.OverseasCafe.com

Spain - Can it Get Much Worse?

I know most people reading this blog will not have a lot of sympathy for estate agents, and those who know Spanish estate agents will probably have even less time for them. In our day-to-day running of the site we obviously have to deal with more than our fair share of them and, to be fair to them, they are a much maligned bunch. 90% of agents are decent, law abiding citizens who wish for nothing more than to make sure that their clients get the property they require and in return they expect to make a living from it. Fair enough, isn't that what the most of us want?

The problem for estate agents has been that, it being a largely unregulated industry, there is a magnetic attraction for the Arfur Daley's and Del Boy Trotter's of this world and it therefore meets with its share of calamity.

In any case, we know a lot of overseas agents and you can take our word for it, most of them are very decent people. Consequently we have a level of empathy when we see headlines like "Half of Spanish Agents Shut their Doors in 2007". A report in today's Financial Times isn't likely to fill those trying to sell a property in Spain with much joy either.

The end of the piece says: "Spain’s tourist hotspots have been hardest hit. According to a report by Aguirre Newman, the property consultants, residential estate developments in some parts of the Mediterranean coast now take an average of four years to sell, compared with a few days at the height of the property boom four years ago. About half of the new apartments on the Costa del Sol are sitting unsold, it says."

That's really gotta hurt.

On a lighter note. Here at the website we have a lot of Google alerts set up for various different topics in which we are interested. One of them is obviously Spanish Property. At one stage yesterday two alerts arrived in at the same time showing how two different organisations can have polar opposite opinions on the meaning of recent news:

Spain’s property market headed for a fall
Financial Times - London,England,UK
By Mark Mulligan in Madrid Spain’s residential property market is heading for a hard landing, as tightening credit conditions exacerbate problems of ...

Investors in Spain 'cannot lose out'
Holiday Lettings - Oxford,England,UK
Mr Walker added that Spain offers property investors a mix of accessibility and value for money. Although the strong euro will increase initial costs for ...

Whatever else you'll say about Estate agents, they're a great lot to keep the best side out.

www.OverseasCafe.com

______________________________________

To view properties in Spain: Click Here

To View Spanish Agents: Click Here

To View Latest Spanish News: Click Here

Register now to receive our informative newsletter, save searches and tailor your OverseasCafe.com experience to your own needs.

Free Promotion on OverseasCafe.com

If you are an agent and you want to promote your wares to the highly focussed audience of overseas property visitors you will find on the OverseasCafe.com website then there are a few things you can do to make sure people find you.

Firstly, get listed. It's free and at least you've got a foot in the door. Simply click the Register link and choose to list as an agent. Fill in your details and once you have been passed by Admin that's it, you've got a presence on the site.

Of course a presence on the site isn't everything, because there are hundreds of other agents there as well, you need to promote your Unique Selling Point (USP). To be seen you really need to have content on the site, preferably reasonably regularly. Content can be in the form of press release articles, news, advice or exhibition dates.

Press release articles include information on releases of new product, new phases coming on-line, promotions, price changes, etc. This information can be uploaded to the site directly from your account, simply log-in and click on Articles at the top of the page, then click on Add a News Article. Once the content has been passed by Admin your article will appear live on the site.

You can also present news articles to the site. These could involve details of changes to tax or legal rules, local news that would affect potential property buyers, etc. This information will have to be submitted by email to info@OverseasCafe.com. It will be uploaded with full credit to your company in the News section of the site.

If you have upcoming exhibitions or seminars around Ireland these can be promoted using the Exhibitions link at the top of your page when you are logged into the site. Once passed by Admin your exhibitions will appear live on the site.

Finally, you can upload property to the site for free. When logged in, click on Properties at the top of your screen and then on Add Property. This will allow you to upload your property details singly or in bulk.

All the above facilities are COMPLETELY FREE, but if you want to stand out from the crowd you will need to consider paying for some advertising on the site.

The cheapest method of promotion is to invest in some Premium Properties which appear at the top of all searches on the site. When logged in you can fund your account by following the Purchase Property Clicks link on the Properties page. Once you have funded your account you can change as many of your properties as you wish to Premium Properties (edit the properties and click on the Premium Property option, properties can be allocated and changed as you wish once funds have been assigned to the account). This will bring your properties to the top of any searches conducted on the site improving your visibility greatly. Remember to make the names of your properties representative of what you are selling, this will increase traffic greatly.

If you really want to be seen on the site and wish to brand your company on the Irish market then banner advertising comes highly recommended. Companies with banners on the site receive multiples of the amount of clicks as those who don't proving that, if people can't see your brand very obviously, they are less aware that you exist. When you have a presence they will associate it with other information and properties you have on the site which greatly increases the chance that they will visit your site and ultimately invest in a property or service with your company.

To upload banners to the site, log in and click on the Manage Banner Adverts link half way down your home page. Here you can upload banners to the site and dictate on what parts of the site you wish them to appear. It also allows you to calculate how many days the amount you propose to spend will last on the site for the pages you've specified. It is an extremely flexible system as you get to control exactly how much you spend and where you spend it.

When you are considering banner ads on the site remember that the more focussed they are the better they will perform. We recommend three step GIF adverts (these flash three consecutive banners of information to the potential audience, you can see examples of these on the site). These adverts can introduce the company and its logo on the first banner, a specific product or property on the second banner and the sales pitch on the third banner. It is a very efficient method of promoting your message to the highly focussed audience you will find on OverseasCafe.com.

You can also choose a package option, where we will suggest a range of ways in which your product can be promoted on the site and in its monthly newsletters. For full details of the packages available simply email info@OverseasCafe.com and we will forward details to you.

If you've problems with any of the above please feel free to contact info@OverseasCafe.com and we'll be glad to help you in any way we can.

www.OverseasCafe.com

UK Apartments

The era of the 'Buy-to-Let Investment Club' (BLIC) phenomenon that swept Britain over the past decade seems, along with the bumper property price rises seen over that period, to be riding off into the sunset.

These clubs offered 'clients' access to significant discounts on standard rates for buy-to-let properties across the UK. The properties were very often in city centre regeneration areas and were predominantly apartment units.

At one stage such clubs were estimated to be responsible for up to ¼ of all apartment purchases in the UK. These clubs typically negotiate bulk discounts of up to 15% for their members on large developments across the UK. The properties are then either 'flipped' on to other buyers or rented out with the rental covering the cost of the mortgage. So the theory went in any case. Unfortunately the proliferation of such clubs produced a false apartment market in the UK, which now appears to be in the process of collapsing. Many apartment owners across the UK are in serious trouble with no-one wanting to buy the units and no renters available to stay in them either.

The announcement by Inside Track, one of the largest of these clubs, that it is to discontinue its seminars, for which clients were charged anything up to £14,000, may well be the death knell of this spate of such 'bulk investment opportunities'. Many will not lament their passing.

Below are two interesting articles on the subject.

This Is Money, MoneyWeek

_________________________________

UK Property Links

For a selection of property in the UK click here.

For a list of agents selling property in the UK click here.

For independent articles on overseas property click here.

For advice on purchasing in the UK click here.

For news on the UK property market click here.

For new releases and product updates from UK agents click here.

For a selection of property exhibitions featuring UK property click here.

Register now to receive our informative newsletter, save searches and tailor your OverseasCafe.com experience to your own needs.

www.OverseasCafe.com

French Leaseback - The Perfect Investment?

If you're new to investment in property you may, at some stage, have come across French Leaseback property. Many will also have considered it the best thing since sliced bread (which brings up the obvious query 'what was the best thing before sliced bread?').

Anyway, guaranteed rental for up to 11 years, index linked and your VAT returned, sure it couldn't get any better, could it?

Unfortunately, as with many things in this world, it's not quite as clearcut as this and you should do a lot of investigation before you invest your hard earned cash in a French Leaseback development. As a start you might read this article on the pros and cons of investment in one of Ireland's favourite investment classes. It will at least outline some of the things you should keep in mind when considering such an investment.

For further links to French property on the site please see below:

Property in France

French Property Advice

News relating to French Property

French Real Estate Agent News

Selection of French Property Agents

Register now to receive our informative newsletter, save searches and tailor your OverseasCafe.com experience to your own needs.

www.OverseasCafe.com

Free Property Listings for Everyone

If you have an overseas property, or are an overseas property agent, then you'll be delighted to hear that you can list your property for free on the OverseasCafe.com website.

If you haven't already done so, click here and register as either a user or an agent, whichever is appropriate, it only takes a minute or so. If you are a normal user with more than one property to sell you'll have to register as an agent as normal users are only allowed to list a single property at any time.

Registration is completely free and will also allow you to tailor the website to deliver the information you want using Saved Searches. Agents can input all the information relating to the company which will be available for browsers to view on the site once it has been authorised by admin.

Agents can list 'normal' properties for free on the site. If you want your properties to be more easily visible to browsers you have the option of investing in 'Premium Properties' which will bring your properties to the top of any list on which they appear. For further information email advertising@OverseasCafe.com and we'll be more than happy to help you set up your account.

Normal users can also list a property for free on the site. When logged in simply click on the 'Properties' link on the toolbar at the top of your page where you will find a link to upload your property to the site. It couldn't be simpler.

It is a good idea to include pictures with any properties you load on to the site as these grab attention far more often and more quickly than those with no photos.

To see a full list of properties on the site click here.

For a full agent listing on the site click here.

Register now to receive our informative newsletter, save searches and tailor your OverseasCafe.com experience to your own needs.

www.OverseasCafe.com

Syndicated Property Investment - Tread Warily

Syndicates, a new way to invest? Well not really, syndicates have been around for decades, but only recently has it become a common vehicle for the 'ordinary investor'. Before this it was a vehicle only applicable in the realms of the Bill Gates' and Warren Buffet's of this world. By an ordinary investor we mean those with 50-100k to invest. OK, so it's not buttons but in terms of property it is not an astronomical amount of money.

The proliferation of syndicates in Ireland over the past five years or so has meant that, as with anything else available in bulk, quality has suffered. Indeed, an investor I met recently visited a seminar by a company purporting to have lined up several properties in Germany for an upcoming syndicate. Unfortunately for the company, the owner of one of the properties was Irish, was present at the seminar and swore blind he had no intention of selling the property in question seeing as he had only bought it six months previously. What are the chances?

It just goes to show, if you are getting involved in a syndicate you need to know that the guys with whom you are getting involved aren't going to pull the wool over your eyes. It is now, more than ever, extremely important to do a certain amount of due diligence on the company, their products and the property they are claiming as part of their proposed fund.

For a full advisory piece on the pros and cons of investing in syndicated property investments have a look at this article.

For a list of general advisory articles on investing abroad click here.

For a list of syndicated investment opportunities click here. If you want to be updated when syndicated opportunities are loaded on the site log in and Save the above search. You will then be emailed every time a syndicated investment opportunity is uploaded to the site.

Register now to receive our informative newsletter, save searches and tailor your OverseasCafe.com experience to your own needs.

www.OverseasCafe.com

Declare that Overseas Property - Or Else!!!

If you're one of the many Irish who emptied their matresses to buy property in Spain back in the mid to late nineties then be afraid, be very afraid.

There was a short, but very interesting, piece by Ian Kehoe on the front of the Sunday Business Post yesterday (March 16th) about the revenue stepping up its investigations into property owned by Irish citizens overseas. It claims that it has received the names of thousands of Irish citizens (directly from the Irish agents as far as we're aware but this isn't stated in the piece). It says it is predominantly targetting Spain and France at the moment but there is no doubt that this will be spread out to cover all the usual suspects such as Portugal, Hungary, Bulgaria, etc. before too long.

In light of the recent rise in co-operation between countries, particularly those in the EU - with relation to taxation, banking and asset ownership - the question at this stage is not whether the Revenue will find out about undeclared money invested in overseas property, it's merely a question of when. If you've got a property overseas and haven't declared it, or more importantly the money with which it was purchased, now might be a good time to bite the bullet and make a voluntary declaration. You'll be treated far more favourably and save yourself all the extra taxes and penalties you'll incur between here and the time your purchase is investigated.

The Revenue is going for the jugular, it's not overly interested in the rental income achieved by the properties in question (although you can be sure it will ask for a declaration on this) what it is specifically targetting is the capital used to fund the initial purchase and where exactly this came from. If it hasn't been declared in Ireland, then bingo, it's hit paydirt.

The article can be found here but it will move to the archive at the end of the week.

Register now to receive our informative newsletter, save searches and tailor your OverseasCafe.com experience to your own needs.

www.OverseasCafe.com