Your Guide to International Property

This time last year, we didn’t even know what a credit crunch was. Now, the term laces every property conversation, along with widespread apprehension over just how far its insidious tentacles will stretch. But the year began optimistically, with the European Union’s two newest members, Bulgaria and Romania, expecting to enjoy the boom that this seal of approval brings. As it has turned out, prices for off-plan properties in Bulgaria haven’t soared as expected, says Robin Barrasford, of Barrasford and Bird. Currently, they remain stable. However, the resale market is seeing bigger leaps in value, with demand for resale properties up 70 per cent on last year and sellers making profits of about 45 per cent.

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

Introduction
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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- 15,601* visitors in search of their very own place in the sun
- Exhibitors report high levels of business and high-quality leads
- New, independent advice-led seminar programme an overwhelming success
- 57 countries represented, the broadest selection of any multi-country show
 
A Place in the Sun Live – in association with Moneycorp – held at the NEC Birmingham from 28th-30th September, has been hailed a major success by exhibitors, visitors and organiser Brooklands Group, retaining its status as the biggest and best-attended exhibition of its kind in the UK, if not the world.

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The property market is cooling. Houses are taking longer to sell and going for less. But some areas will thrive in difficult conditions. We get the experts’ top tips for 2008’s hot spots in Auckland and beyond.

You’ll have to go further for Auckland’s best property deals next year, with experts tipping the outlying suburbs to be among the hot spots.

Parts of sometimes-maligned west and south Auckland are among the areas predicted to provide the best value in the cooling market, with little action expected in the central suburbs.

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In a report sure to fuel debate, Bulgaria is listed as the top performing market in the latest Knight Frank Global Price Index. Bulgaria’s prices jumped 30.6 percent in the quarter ended in September, despite “numerous concerns over the level of oversupply” in resort areas, the property company says.

While many industry experts see Bulgaria as over-hyped, Knight Frank’s numbers suggest that the country is dramatically out performing the rest of Europe.

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