Your Guide to International Property

If nothing else, a new residential tower going up in Dallas is in esteemed architectural company. The Museum Tower, a 42-story condominium project, is part of the city’s rapidly growing Arts District, which includes the work of four Pritzker Prize-winning architects: the Renzo Piano-designed Nasher Sculpture Center; the Meyerson Symphony Center designed by I.M. Pei, the Winspear Opera House planned by Sir Norman Foster and Rem Koolhaas’ Wyly Theater. [Read more →]

The RICS house price balance declined at the fastest pace since July 2005 but limited supply is still propping up the market, says RICS’ UK Housing Market Survey.

Surveyors reported that house price growth remained negative for the third month in succession.

22.2% more Chartered Surveyors reported a fall than a rise in house prices, down from 14.9  in September -  the fastest decline in sentiment since July 2005 when 30.9%Chartered Surveyors reported a fall than a rise.
However, new instructions declined for the fifth consecutive month. 17% more Chartered Surveyors reported a fall than a rise in new instructions to sell property. 

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The average price for U.K. farmland is rising at the fastest rate in 30 years, according to Knight Frank, the property company. Values jumped 33.2 percent in 2007, hitting £4,178 per acre in the third quarter (€5,798), compared to £3,137 a year earlier (€4,353).

Demand is being driven by “lifestyle purchasers”—who want a taste of the rural quality of life more than the opportunity to work the land—and foreign buyers, according to Knight Frank. Fifteen percent of all U.K. farmland is now bought by overseas buyers—primarily from Ireland, northern Europe and Russia, the company’s research shows.

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BuyAssociation.co.uk property editor Paul Collins predicts the best countries for overseas property in 2008.

Predicting the next big markets for overseas property buyers is becoming increasingly difficult as time moves on, as there are now few developed countries where British buyers have not started to pick up property and develop or improve it. With the increasing influence of low-cost airlines on how we decide on and take our holidays, along with the demise of the traditional package holiday, owning a holiday home is more and more the norm for the general public.

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Favourite of American retirees seeking tax breaks, and now, of fugitive canoeists from the UK looking to miraculously come back to life, property in Panama has been gaining attention from the UK property press for some time now. The large numbers of multinational companies located in the city, along with the position at the hub of the trade world, make Panama’s property market an attractive emigration and investment destination. New properties are springing up all of the time, and there are now retirement developments appearing out in the countryside as well, giving an extra dimension to investing and living there. As for living in anonymity, you may be better now to lay your hat elsewhere…