Posts from — September 2007

Like the water traffic (you are fined £100 if caught speeding), time passes slowly in Venice - and that includes property transactions, says Sebastiano Doria, from Views on Venice, Savills’ associate in the city: “Venice is a sort of Sleeping Beauty. Spend one week here and you become very relaxed. You lose contact with the reality of the rest of the western world.”

The property market is “inefficient, with many estate agents but mainly one-man bands who don’t speak English”, he adds. “Short-let apartments, with websites to advertise them and management services, are hardly a new concept elsewhere, but no one was doing it in Venice before us.” One client, the CEO of a British bank, is trying to complete on a property eight months on because the vendor is demanding he pay 50 per cent in cash.

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Why Argentina?
With one of the most iconic capital cities in the world in Buenos Aires, and great potential as a centre for the tourist trade in South America, Argentina has much to offer both travellers and overseas property buyers. The conflicts of the past, and the military leaderships that flourished in the 20th Century, have created a somewhat split society, with a rich upper class acting in many ways like old colonial powers, and a poorer working population. Democracy returned most recently to the country in 1976, and with economic reforms over recent years, conditions for much of the population are beginning to improve.

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When investors think of sale and leaseback, Scotland is not a destination that automatically comes to mind.However, Dublin-based property firm Sale and Leaseback has launched a fractional ownership scheme onto the market at a castle holiday village in Ayrshire, west Scotland.

The Brunston Castle Holiday Resort is a scheme of three-bedroom bungalows in a rural setting in the Girvan valley area of the Ayrshire countryside, 15 minutes’ drive from the coast and 25 minutes’ drive from Prestwick airport.

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