Property Archives - GUJRAT INDIA

Malta Property Overview

Malta property boom

Residential construction levels and the price of property in Malta boomed between 2003 and 2004, recording price increases of 20.3% and 13.3% respectively, after a 2003 referendum voted in favour of Malta joining the European Union on 1 January 2004.

Located in southern Europe just off the coast of Sicily, properties in Malta, which comprises an archipelago of seven islands, with a population of 400,000 inhabitants, have long appealed to overseas nationals. This is not just because of the Malta’s intense Mediterranean climate, but also owed to the country’s tax-efficient status; Maltese residents enjoy one of the lowest levels of income tax in Europe.

Demand for property in Malta

But international demand for homes in Malta, which primarily comes from the UK and Scandinavia, has waned over the past year or so. This is particularly the case with “British buyers” largely due to “the fall in the UK pound’s value” against the euro and Maltese lira, says Paul Hay of Malta Homes. The decline in sterling’s worth has significantly increased the cost of buying property in Malta.

Although property prices have fallen, the downturn has been nowhere near as drastic as most other European markets,” adds Hay. However, domestic demand for homes in Malta has been “surprisingly resilient”, says James Vassallo, senior manager, Tigne Point property development.

Vassallo continues: “Reduced interest rates have encouraged fence sitters to engage [in housing transactions] and have made those occasional bargains that much more attractive.”

Malta property prices start to stabilise

Although housing values are still falling in some areas, they have already stabilised in other regions, mainly because most Malta property owners are not so highly leveraged through borrowed money, as say those residing in the UK.

Despite the short-term market slowdown, the Malta property sector could find itself flying high in the medium to long-term, buoyed by growing tourism levels and an ever-increasing number of low-budget airlines.

Malta homes flying high

In 2008, EasyJet, Ryanair and Scandinavian Airlines, all either introduced or increased its direct routes from the UK and Sweden to Malta.

Vassallo adds: “The increased air traffic is certainly good for the island especially in these trying times. Malta is strategically placed between the west and east and the growing importance of North Africa. It appeals to businesses looking to relocate to the Med and over the years business travel has constantly grown.”

Rental investment properties in Malta

While there may have been a fall in foreign demand for Malta homes to buy, Hay says that greater tourism levels are increasing the requirements for holiday homes in Malta to rent.

“From a holiday letting point of view, 2009 appears to be looking healthy, when taking into account the global economic situation, says Hay. “In fact Air Malta recorded one of its most successful flight occupancies for the first quarter of 2009 for some years.”

Vassallo says that some of the best rental returns, albeit it at relatively low yields – approximately 4% – an be achieved by buying property in Sliema, property in St Julians, property in Valletta and property in St Paul’s Bay.

However, it is worth nothing that any foreigner wishing to lease their Malta home out, would have to register their property with the Hotel and Catering Establishments Board, and it can only be rented out on a short-term lease agreement.

Furthermore, non-nationals can only purchase a single Malta property, and usually only for owner-occupancy purposes, unless they buy property in a ‘Special Designated Area (SDA)’ permitting them to buy property in Tigne Point, property in Portomaso, property in Manoel Island, property in Chambray, and property in Cottoenra.

Malta Properties located in a SDA do not face some of the stringent restraints placed on foreigners otherwise wishing to let their Malta homes.

Residency in Malta

One way to overcome the confines placed on overseas nationals is to become a Maltese resident, which would also offer average earners a genuine opportunity to cut their tax bill.

Malta charges no capital gains tax on property sales after three years of ownership, but any local or overseas income brought into Malta is taxable at a rate of up to 35 per cent. However, residents can take advantage of The Maltese Residence Scheme, which charges a flat tax rate of 15 per cent, subject to a minimum tax liability of EUR4,200 (£3,630).

In order to qualify for residency in Malta, Mark Hollingsworth of Hollingsworth International, explains that an individual would have to own assets worth in the region of at least EUR350,000 (£303,000) or earn an annual income of approximately EUR23,500 (£20,400) outside of Malta.

Foreigners moving to Malta have to “remit a minimum of EUR13,950 (£12,00) plus EUR2,300 (£2,000) for each dependent to the [country’s authorities], not engage in any form of business activities in Malta and either purchase or rent property in Malta. A minimum of EUR116,000 (£100,000) would have to be spent on buying a house or EUR69,000 (£60,000) paid for an apartment, otherwise an annual rent of at least EUR4,150 (£3,600) would have to be spent on leasing a home.”

The process of buying Malta property

Anyone who actually goes ahead with a Malta property purchase should find the buying process pretty straightforward. The legal purchasing system in the country presents a relatively safe buying environment.

Deeds are presented upon completion of the property purchase, while the legally binding contracts are presented in English.

What Market Has the Best Potential For Selling Paphos Or Cyprus Property?

As Cyprus joins the United Kingdom and most of the world’s property and financial markets downward slide, we are beginning to experience the effect of the current crisis. The word in Cyprus until recently was that the problem will not have an effect or very minimal effect on Cyprus. People in the business of finance, property sales, developers and tourism – basically Cyprus’s whole economy – started to feel the ramifications of the crisis. However, no one was ready to admit they were in a bind. These groups knew their prior year’s numbers, stats and budget and to acknowledge the problem was to let on to Cyprus’s problem and would begin the ball rolling on a steep downward slope. All efforts to fix the slumping Cyprus housing market was directed towards Russia, however I will tell you why this shouldn’t be our main and only focus.

At the beginning of 2008 Cypriots finally declared the housing market and business in general was suffering. One year later, the bandwagon of naysayers is now full and everyone in the property business is taking a ride. An earlier start to fix the problem may have had a small beneficial impact on property sales, but since all efforts are solely concentrated on Russian clients many are missing out on Cyprus’s bread and butter – the British market.

All I have heard is how the Russians have replaced the Brits as the main buyers and that all of the sudden I should stop trying to sell homes to the UK market and start working on infiltrating Russia and gaining business from the nouveau riche. Cyprus home owners, builders, developers and agents all made up their minds and decided that the Russians are their saviours, buy their property and set them free. The communist party even won the presidency. This may as well be a fact, but from my experience in Cyprus, I have more Russians contacting me to sell than buy. The problem is that the Russian economy is also beginning to feel the downturn as oil prices plunge in addition to many other countries such as Bulgaria, Spain, Greece and other countries all vying for the same Russian Rouble. It is obvious that the entire globe is feeling the effect.

Dubai is becoming the next favourite place since “That’s where all the real investors are!” The “real investors” are everywhere, and the serious investors already know where to look. If you need clients there is no better place than your own backyard, meaning Cyprus can not abandon their main target market. Yes, the UK is currently struggling; however there are still many more people than any where else with plans of retiring and buying property in Cyprus. Most are waiting to see what is going to happen with the economy and some are just not able to sell their existing homes. Although many companies are abandoning the UK as their primary target, it is a mistake because the two countries share an amicable relationship and Cyprus offers many incentives such as tax breaks that many retirees can not overlook. The size of the British market, the upcoming baby boomers set to retire and history of the British on the island convinces me to continue concentrating my marketing resources there. I will accept the bad times as well as the good and not abandon our favourite market for a new one with no history.

What a Mess – Property Valuations (Cyprus)

This, new for us economic situation, has had numerous side effects, which even us, who are the largest and perhaps the oldest valuation firm in Cyprus, are wondering what next.

In recessionary situations, there is a reduction in demand and a consequential reduction in property values. In countries such as the U.S., the housing market has shown a drop of 40% in terms of real estate values, the U.K. up to 30%, Greece 40% and Spain for the touristic areas 40%. What is interesting however, is that these price reductions meet offers by interested buyers. In Cyprus the situation is quite different however, adding to the whole confusion. Property prices in Cyprus have now reached as a maximum reduction of ±30% and that refers to property in the touristic areas, whereas the residential ones (i.e. where demand is forthcoming primarily from locals) around 20%. This is a relatively low reduction bearing in mind that foreign demand has reduced by 70% and local by 50%, since one would expect price reductions around these percentages.

Having said that and if for example a Cypriot seller reduces the price by 30%, will he find a buyer? The answer is most likely not, at least for the vast majority. So we have the paradox, that property prices are reduced at a lower percentage than demand, whereas at the same time, there are no/very little buyers. This is, perhaps, due to the fact that local Banks (so far at least) have not been as aggressive in debt collection as Banks in other countries, property owners (so far at least) have been able to “stick it out” and forced sales of mortgages take years to materialize. So in this situation what is the value of a property, since there is now demand? Should we expect prices to be reduced to levels of 50% plus? Is this perhaps the today’s correct property prices? What a scary situation, we must say, since whereas the year 2010 has shown signs of a slight recovery, for the first 6 months, the last 3 months have shown a reduction of interest by comparison to the year 2009. If this demand trend continues, perhaps we may see larger discounts/property price reductions. Yet we still see new projects under development, especially in the local demand areas and we attribute this (not certain) to prior commitment of developers, who are under contractual obligations to carry out part exchange projects and another reason, is perhaps the stubbornness of locals to appreciate the situation which has not been experienced over the last 50 years in the real estate market.

There is a school of thought that the only way to recovery is to leave prices to go down as much as possible and wait for the market correction afterward. There is an economist logic in this, but, then, what misery will this approach cause? People will stand to lose their homes and have a shortfall in addition, security value for business people who usually place real estate for mortgage in order to get loans, will worth next to nothing etc etc. For the non performing loans, at the end, the shortfall of the banks will cause them to have huge provisions for recoveries affecting their profitability and security value, increasing their financial future risk. If this happens will foreign investors and depositors (€50 bil. from Russia) trust the local banks (?) and if this happens, will the Government step in to help and with what cash during a crisis? Will Cyprus become another Ireland, Portugal or God forbid Greece? For these reasons we do not share this “cruel” thought (notwithstanding that the Governor of the Central Bank goes the other way), but on the contrary we suggest an exercise of patience by the Banks, in order to give some breathing space to the market to correct itself without relating huge losses and human misery to all. The theory is one thing and practice with its consequential affects is another.

What we are very much worried about, is that delays in loan repayments are charged by local Banks with a 12% interest (thus helping the needy to go under at a faster rate) whereas a recent Cyprus High Court decision (and a decision by the Court of Appeal in the U.K.) justifies the Banks to do so, being part of the contract to grand a loan (the U.K. case referred to interest charge of 22%!!).

In order to add salt on the wound, we have the problem of no title deeds, which even if one offers the property at a discount of say 35%, with the bad publicity that the non titles owning people have, the buyers will not touch them (in some respects quite unjustifiably we must say). So at the end of the day, what is your property worth – nothing or next to nothing?

Not necessarily, since we have noted that locals are quite happy to step into the shoes of the foreign demand in some cases. See recent (2009/2010) sales for holiday home/apartment acquisitions in the Pafos area and that of the Paralimni region.

So and in ending this, otherwise most depressing article, dear readers, there is hope in the near (1½-2½ years) future? (see our previous article on Cyprus attracting Millionaires etc). This is a “God protected” country, we think, since during difficult times, something else happens in the world (mostly misfortunes) which helps us. See the Lebanon civil war, the ex-Yugoslavia war, the Russian era of Metamorphosis etc.

The recent visit by the President of Russia is one positive sign with Cyprus getting off the Russians black list, the Qatar deal is another, as is the Kuwait interest on the gas terminal. At the end and we hope it comes soon, if we find gas/oil in the Cyprus sea economic zone, it will help us most (see what happened in Scotland and Norway). Shall we then seek God’s help to help us in a most difficult situation? Going to church, we say, more often, might help!!!

Gambia Property the Next Big Thing

The Gambia Africa is set to be a great place to invest in real estate and has been staring investors in the face for some years.The Gambian government is totally committed to business development and free enterprise. It has a reputation as a tranquil, secure destination with property conveyanceing and laws based on the British system., low inflation, fiscal stability and one of the lowest crime rates in the world. It seems that Gambia is ripe for investors he Gambia

The Gambia was for many years a British colony and is one of the smallest and safest countries in Africa. Gambia has been a holiday hotspot for Europeans one of the reasons for this is the fact that Gambia is on average only 6 hours away and has the addded benfit of no jet lag.

Tourism is now one of the dynamic sectors of the economy, contributing 16% of the country’s GDP with a 19.2% jump in visitor figures from the previous year.

Construction is already underway and TAF Holdings one of the best known develoers in Gambia are buiding along the coast and in villages nearby. Investors searching for overseas property investments should consider off plan devbelopments in Gambia . This form of investment combined with emerging market prices could make Gambian property very profitabale. There are also a number of inhabitable existing properties that can be had for a very small investment. Construction on a few developments along the coast are almost finished with international investors snapping them up. If you are looking for a good international investment, it’s hard to go wrong in Gambia.

Real estate investors know that good communications are te key to success for any region. After all those who may want to rent or buy your property need to ba able to get there easily. UK overseas property buyers are only a six-hour flight from the UK with no jet-lag,

The Gambia coast offers miles of superb golden beaches and the vibrancy of Bakau, Serrekunda and the capital, Banjul, is as colourfully African as you might imagine.

Language barriers have nver been a problem in Gambia its a fact that the average Gambian can speak up 3 languages some see this as as sign of ethinic harmony.

Construction aimed at investors is underway at the ocean-side village of Brufut in Gambia this investment real estate comes in the form of a modern housing development.

So the secrets out about Gambia an investment property market with huge potential. Investors know where their is demand their is price rises so the time to get in on the action is now .

Tips On Picking "Sleeper" Real Estate Property

Real estate investing is all about perception. Your perception of where the market is going, in conjunction with where it’s actually going. The aim, as always is to buy low and sell high.

You want to buy a cheap tract of dirt and sell it as a high priced piece of developed real estate, after it’s appreciated enough to turn a tidy profit. Selling the property is an art in and of itself.

Buying an initial tract of dirt lends itself to some solid, rational guidelines:

First, look at trend lines for housing prices in your area. While most housing markets are in decline (and the housing markets in Florida and California are adjusting from more than a decade of over-valuation), there are markets where the housing prices are going up. This is a decent leading indicator that there’s a market for expansion.

Second, look for job related news. Home purchases require a steady source of income. New employers moving into a city, or a government branch office opening up are a strong indicator that good, well paying jobs are likely to come up. Where well paying jobs roost, home purchases follow.

Related to this, talk to your local city planning office. Are there recent purchases of “right of ways” to lay down sewer lines? Is the local telephone cable making plans to run out fiber optic lines – a “must have” trend in new home construction. These things point to areas where home growth is immanent. Other big tip offs are school bond issues (found in your local news paper) and new parks being opened up.

Before you look at the land, check out the adjacent commercial real estate usage. Look for “family friendly” or “residential friendly” commercial properties: Houses that are close to grocery and clothes shopping tend to fetch a higher price than ones that are farther away. If there’s a movie theater nearby, or plans for an elementary or middle school, factor that into the size of the homes you build, and what their amenities will be; buyers looking for those features are looking for “mover upper” homes – with a bit more floor space, and two (or three) bedrooms for the kids. Other spots to look for are anchor stores, like Wal-Mart and Best Buy. These companies spend millions on surveys of purchasing patterns before buying a store location; if they’re buying a plot of land, you’ve got about a year to a year and a half window to look into nearby real estate for single family residential and rental residential properties.

You can even flip this on its side – if you can talk to a group of commercial real estate investors, building a shopping center as the nucleus for home development is also a viable combined strategy. This also applies to highly urban areas. Many downtown areas that have been abandoned by businesses can be converted to apartment buildings, and some of the older housing projects are being torn down for mixed-use spaces with combined commercial and residential areas. In particular, you can often get block grants to help with the financing on projects like this, and there are programs from HUD that can help out a great deal with “urban renovations”.

Another source to investigate is the demographics in your area. Look at the US Census figures (and local county figures) for median age, and median birth rate per capita. You want to invest in areas where the population is growing already. High skews in the ’40s and ’50s indicate that you’ve got a bunch of people who are going to retire soon, and retirees are highly prone to selling properties off. Places to watch carefully are most of the urban parts of California, and great swaths of the rural Midwest, where demographic trends have been changing entire towns since the 1950s as the country’s population has shifted to urban areas.

If there’s a local planning council, or urban development council, make it a point to get the minutes of all the meetings from the past year. The city council offices will have them on file as a matter of public record. Also try to get into the next range of meetings as an observer. Discuss with the city and county managers where they see housing and construction trends moving. What you’re looking for is real estate that will be desirable in two to three years; look at road planning atlases, and look for all the data you can find. Also look for real estate that will be scenic – lake front property is as close to a guaranteed bet as you can get in real estate investing, particularly if there’s a lake that’s at the “far end” of a development axis. Likewise, if there’s land that the city council is looking to acquire for parks, buying the adjacent lots now means you’ll be able to sell them later.

Lastly, talk to the professionals in your communities. Talk to architects who can tell you if they’re busy or not. Maintain professional contacts with engineers, bankers and attorneys. They will usually know about projects well before the general public. Also make a habit of reading the local newspaper’s business section. Often times, the first clue that a business may move in to your area is buried at the bottom of a column on page 8.

Using the guidelines suggested above will help you to find “sleeper” raw land properties. These “sleeper” properties are perfect for the buy low, sell high strategy used by successful commercial real estate investors.

Knowledge Protection – Don’t Treat Your Company’s Intellectual Property As Renewable Resources

An idea, by definition, exists primarily in one’s mind, where it remains somewhat secure, but not terribly useful so long as no one else knows. To produce (commercial) value from that idea it must be expressed, and therein, often lies the starting points for many potential problems and challenges for the originators – developers of that idea.

Fundamentally, protecting ownership rights to the products of one’s mind represents a contract of sorts between society, the government, and the individual(s) who created/developed the idea.

But, the risks (threats, vulnerabilities) to ideas (information assets) today, e.g., compromise, theft, misappropriation, infringement, counterfeiting, etc., are asymmetric, change rapidly, and, when they occur, can instantaneously:

. stifle momentum for further development and/or (economic)

commercialization of the idea

. undermine projected transactions, investments, strategic (business) plans, or

competitive positioning, and

. erode (evaporate) the ideas’ value and projected (future) use, profitability, or

anticipated competitive advantages.

In the pre-Internet era, when company’s experienced compromises/losses to their proprietary-sensitive information, and/or trade secrets, etc., a common strategy/practice was to try to contain (compartmentalize) the damages and/or extent of the loss, usually in a business continuity/contingency planning context. Today, however, while such strategies may be viable in limited circumstances, they seldom reflect the reality of the ‘nanosecond speed’ in which valuable information assets can be acquired and disseminated globally to an ever growing array of adversaries, e.g., infringers, competitors, counterfeiters, etc. And, once the asset has been successfully compromised, reliance on containment, in the conventional sense, is seldom a viable option.

Elevating (exacerbating) the probability that a company’s proprietary know how, etc., will be compromised is the widespread availability of ultra-sophisticated and predatorial data mining, scanning, and analysis (competitor intelligence) tools (software programs) which can quickly discern and extract substantive advantages embedded in a company’s information assets and ultimately distribute same to a growing labyrinth of skilled and highly organized information brokers and state and corporate sponsored economic-competitive adversaries globally. This makes a company’s proprietary information assets at risk (vulnerable) 24/7, and at increasingly earlier stages of (their) development and without regard for conventional IP protections.

Thus, while conventional intellectual property enforcement mechanisms (i.e., patents, trademarks, copyrights) remain a much nuanced and country centric requisite for conveying ownership and providing legal standing to address potential disputes and challenges, the reality is they, particularly patents, are reactive, that is, they require consistent self-policing and monitoring by the owner/holder to be even reasonably effective.

Equally important, the assumed deterrent effects of intellectual property (e.g., filing – issuance of a patent, for example, will actually inhibit others from stealing, infringing, counterfeiting, and/or misappropriating) are (a.) conceptually and practically oversold, and (b.) readily/easily outpaced, circumvented, and utterly disregarded by a growing global cadre of ‘legacy free’ players and well organized information brokers, infringers, and counterfeiters.

Legacy free players, as characterized by Thomas Friedman (The World Is Flat) are individuals – organizations (globally) who generally have, for a variety of reasons, little or no cultural – national legacy for respecting private (tangible) property rights, let alone intellectual property rights. Therefore, legacy free players, may well unabashedly engage in theft, misappropriation, and industrial (economic) espionage to acquire others’ ideas, IP, and proprietary know how to advance their position (economically, competitively) and without incurring the upfront (tremendous) costs associated with ‘idea development’ (R&D).

Arguably then, in today’s increasingly predatorial, aggressive, and ‘winner take all’ global business (transaction) environment, conventional forms of intellectual property are rapidly becoming less relevant, perhaps even obsolete, as (a.) the primary ‘tool’ to safeguard a company’s most valuable assets, (b.) ensure the rightful owner receives the economic – competitive advantage benefits from the hard earned and expensive know how they have developed, or (c.) ensure control, use, ownership, and value of their intangible assets and intellectual property that are in play – part of a transaction.

That is, in many transactions (in which a company’s IP and intangible assets are in play – part of a deal) one can assume today, all, or a significant portion of those assets’ value and functional-commercial life cycle will be significantly abbreviated, if not lost altogether (irretrievable).

Unfortunately, the new business reality is that conventional intellectual property enforcements produce little benefit to an organization, other than providing (legal) standing for dispute resolution and/or bringing litigation when challenges arise, which do with growing frequency and consistency. That is not to imply conventional IP protections should not be used. But, any assumption that the issuance of a patent, standing alone, will be sufficient to absolutely deter (inhibit) infringement, product piracy, misappropriation, or theft and allow the rightful owner/holder to sustain unencumbered, unchallenged control, use, value, and ownership rights for the 20 years, is neither a credible, viable, or prudent course of action.

Thus, it’s imperative today that company decision makers (holders, owners of IP and intangible assets, proprietary know how, trade secrets, etc.) practice consistent and effective stewardship, oversight, and management of those assets which includes (a.) monitoring their status, stability, fragility, and sustainability, so that (b.) ownership – IP rights, when necessary, can be aggressively pursued in a timely (real time) manner.

Even in light of the economic fact – business reality that 65+% of the value, sources of revenue, and future wealth creation (sustainability) for most company’s lie in – are directly linked to intangible assets and IP a significant percentage of company’s intangible assets go unrecognized and undervalued. This is especially true when a company’s know how (intellectual capital) has been literally embedded in its products, services, and processes over the course of many years, much like a ‘company culture’ that often goes unnoticed and under-appreciated insofar how it contributes to quality, consistency, and sustainability.

Ultimately, the probability (likelihood) that a company will experience a compromise, breach, or loss to their IP, intangibles, and/or proprietary competitive advantages and know how should not be characterized as merely representing another ‘risk of doing business’. Rather, in the current global business environment, its more closely resembling an inevitability, which, if dismissed or left unchecked by company decision makers, c-suites, boards, and D&O’s, can constitute not only a breach of fiduciary responsibility, but bring about significant and unrecoverable losses.