At the moment (07-10-2008) where is the best place to invest overseas?

Re: At the moment where is the best place to invest overseas?

Gecko said:
I've been hearing alot about Panama and Abi Dhabi, but am unsure at this moment.

What's the word on the grapevine?
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dont know much about abu dhabi but you cant give away property in neighbouring dubai right now and it was tipped as the hottest bet in town for the last number of years
 
Re: At the moment where is the best place to invest overseas?

irish_bob said:
dont know much about abu dhabi but you cant give away property in neighbouring dubai right now and it was tipped as the hottest bet in town for the last number of years
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On what basis do you make this comment on Dubai? A mate of mine lives in Dubai and he claims that his property has increased in value for 35% in the past 9 months!
 
Re: At the moment where is the best place to invest overseas?

Steve, increases in 'value' and asking prices are not necessarily in line with achievable sale prices. Viewed from the sidelines I've always seen Dubai property rather like the Dutch 'Tulip Bulb Bubble', a sort of financial pass the parcel, though in this case you don't want to be the one holding it when the music stops, which I think it it is about to. Just who is going to be renting these tens of thousands of apartments ?. Not the lowly paid workers manning the theme parks, leisure facilities, shopping malls etc. Makes the UK's aims of reducing carbon emissions ludicrous, when you think of those millions of aircons going full blast, never mind the 'snowdomes'. For goodness sake, if you can afford to holiday in Dubai you can afford real skiing.

The fable of the Emperor's new clothes is alive and well (for the moment) in Dubai.
 
Re: At the moment where is the best place to invest overseas?

Steve D said:
On what basis do you make this comment on Dubai? A mate of mine lives in Dubai and he claims that his property has increased in value for 35% in the past 9 months!
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ive been trying to sell an appartment in sports city dubai for 12 months now , im looking to get exactly what i paid for it at the start of 2006 and i am getting zero interest
oil is starting to head south so dubai will really suffer in the coming months
 
Re: At the moment where is the best place to invest overseas?

BigRog said:
Steve, increases in 'value' and asking prices are not necessarily in line with achievable sale prices.
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Yes, I realise this but I know for a fact that there was a lot of demand for these properties earlier this year and they were selling like hotcakes! I am not surprised if the bubble has burst there by now but I have not found any evidence of it going pop yet.
 
Re: At the moment where is the best place to invest overseas?

Good to see there are some Ponzi schemes left still in the world to entice foolish money IMO


Re: At the moment where is the best place to invest overseas?
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Short answer - no where. Wait to 2010, let this credit crunch unwind.
 
Re: At the moment where is the best place to invest overseas?

MichaelDes said:
Good to see there are some Ponzi schemes left still in the world to entice foolish money IMO



Short answer - no where. Wait to 2010, let this credit crunch unwind.
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you speak da truth amigo
 
Re: At the moment where is the best place to invest overseas?

I think if you are sharp enough there are plenty of great bargains available overseas because of the current climate.

If you can find developers that have already built their developments but are having trouble shifting them, they are likely to be very short of cashflow, and Im sure there is a lot of scope for huge discounts

I had a buyer recently, a very wealthy one mind you who has been picking up Villas in the States for massive knockdowns. One purchased in Naples Florida a few weeks ago for 600K that was previously for sale for 2.5mil.

The angle would be that once things recover (if they do) then buying places at knockdown prices should give a good scope for increases in the long term. Many developers will need cash now, because their lines of credit have diminished or been cut off

Of course location location location, so then if it is in a rentable area your yield increases significantly when there is a big discount involved.

To put it into action you wouldn't be going to agents but looking to hit developers directly on site, sitting down and making a cash offer
 
Re: At the moment where is the best place to invest overseas?




Anyone with cash and loads of it can absolutely clean up at the moment. There are some awesome opportunities out there. I.e.-

[broken link removed]
Barratt offers 43% discount on multiple house purchase

1 October, 2008
By Sophie Griffiths

Investors buying five or more units offered massive discount by housebuilder feeling the squeeze



For the rest of us reliant on mortgages to fund their properties, there is little 'Value' out there especially as mortgage and finance costs are rising too fast.

The typical yield of 5% found in many overseas locations means that you will lose too much over the years due to negative cash flow.

Anything with a yield below 7% represent an overvalued property in my opinion.

I believe that for the value investor out there like myself, certain shares or commodities are far better long term investments. Look at the P/E of certain markets. screaming buys. Russia is on a P/E of 4-5, ubelievably cheap.

Property has lost its biggest positive attribute with this credit crunch - Leverage. The days of leverage are over. Increasing costs & lack of capital means leveraging a property is not what it was.

The next 10 years will be a decade of poor returns from property globally.
 
Re: At the moment where is the best place to invest overseas?

ringledman said:
I believe that for the value investor out there like myself, certain shares or commodities are far better long term investments. Look at the P/E of certain markets. screaming buys. Russia is on a P/E of 4-5, ubelievably cheap.
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I agree, but its hard to invest in places that your ordinary Joe The Plumber knows nothing about.
The P/E of the iseq is only 5.1. Would you load into it today?

If you are investing long-term, theres still lots of time to wait for the volatility to ease.
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=^VIX#chart4:symbol=^vix;range=5y;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on;source=undefined

Also keep an eye on the LIBOR and EURIBOR 3-month rates easing back. Business can't expand and get going again until they get access to cheaper credit.
http://www.bnb.bg/bnb/home.nsf/vWeb...4BEAC2256B5700441B6C?OpenDocument&count=-1&EN
 
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Re: At the moment where is the best place to invest overseas?



I wouldn't buy into individual shares in these markets without a fuller knowledge from within the country but buying a fund yes. Russia's Neptune can be bought easily through Fidelity for low fees.

The ISEQ may be on a low P/E but as with many Western countries earnings are going to fall hard and thus these P/E won't look so good in a year or two.

The emerging markets have been hit much harder in terms of share price falls and their future earnings look far, far, better.
 
Where next for overseas property investment

Hi everyone. I'm new to AAM but am very impressed - excellent forum! I know this is a bit of a broad question but just out of interest I was curious as to where people think the smart money should be heading in terms of overseas property investment. There are lots of posts elsewhere nailing the lid on the coffin of Dubai, Bulgaria etc. Are there any leading lights for capital appreciation and/or decent yields?
 
Re: Where next for overseas property investment



For starters, anyone looking to make some money from property has to be looking at a long-term plan; the credit issues with banks worldwide have put paid to any short-term investment possibilities. Be prepared to stay in for four to five years minimum.
My best bet would be the UK, particularly the southern half. Anyone with spare cash can buy now at bargain levels, and the population in that area is set to keep rising. People have to live somewhere, and the UK hasn't had over-supply problems anything like the scale we've seen here.
The USA is a buyers paradise right now, but has hidden isues like property taxes etc that can trap the unwary foreign buyer. With the dollar low though, good rentable properties are worth a punt, especially in places like Manhattan or downtown Boston.
Some of the much-touted places in the past few years are best avoided, like all of Bulgaria, Warsaw, and France. However cities like Budapest are well situated in the middle of Europe, at the hub of road and rail transport networks, and can only improve from the current low base. Where earlier investors are panicking and dumping stock, some opportunities will be found but only in better areas.
Anyone who ever desired a holiday home in the sun should consider buying now. Spain and Portugal are "on the floor", and bargains are to be found if a buyer has the money. You can pay an awful lot less than the brochure prices if you know where to look or if you do your research. If you really want a holiday home in Ireland you can almost get one for nothing right now, but beware of buying in an estate where the rest of the properties may be empty for years, or may be let to some unsavoury tenants by desparate developers with banks on their backs. Only buy a one-off house, or buy in a mature development. Even the latter can be a risk, where a lot of owners are overstretched and have to sell, you can find yourself in a ghost-town quite easily.
As a rule of thumb, if you can buy a rentable property in a good location anywhere that has stable government, at a price well below the cost of the land and the construction, you are probably doing ok. This is happening in a lot nof places now, particularly in Spain and the USA but also in cities like Budapest and some southern English cities.
All of this doesn't mean that people will return to property investment though; there is a quirk of human nature that dictates that people only rush to buy when prices are high and rising, and that they continue to run away long after prices have dropped below sensible levels.
 
Re: At the moment where is the best place to invest overseas?

The Philippines could be worth a little research. I live in Abu Dhabi and was considering investing here but I feel there is too much risk involved as the price you have to pay is very high. prices for a 2 or 3 bed apartment wouldn't be that disimilar to Dublin prices 12 or 18months and the higher prices go the further they have to fall.

You can buy alot in the Philippines for your money and the Philippines is classified as one of the 10 emerging nations. There are 90million people in the Philippines and 9 million of those are presently working abroad. I'm only at the early stages of research but from what i've heard i'm sure it's worth doing further homwork on. I'm sure if you were prepared to sit it out for 4 -5 yrs you could make a handsome return on any investment.
 
Re: At the moment where is the best place to invest overseas?

Woodsman said:
Looking for safe overseas investment. Why not cross the Shannon and buy woodland in Leitrim? .
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Because it's way too expensive. You can buy woodland anywhere in europe for a fraction of the over-inflated prices sought in Leitrim.
I've heard all the arguments about Leitrim being the best place in Europe to grow trees, but most of them are not strictly accurate. Land at eight to ten grand an acre is around ten times too expensive for forestry use.
Instead of having a hundred acres of forestry in Leitrim, get yourself a thousand acres somewhere else for the same money, and be closer to your eventual markets.
 
I would agree with Lollix that the UK is currently worthy of consideration for investment, prices are easing and there is currently a lot of repossessed stock, admittedly much of it of dubious quality, now on the market. You'll need to know what you're doing in this market though, a lot of very poor quality product hits the market in a cyclical downturn so you'll need to either be on the ground or have someone you trust there to sort through the debris for you.

I'd also agree that it is worth looking at the US, but I think it is too early to consider Manhattan, it is still vastly overpriced. I'd look at other cities such as Boston and Chicago. Again, you really need to know what you're doing, poor areas of these cities are coughing up large amounts of foreclosed property, but you wouldn't want to buy most of it.

In an environment such as that in which we are currently operating I'd be inclined to give exotic locations a miss for a while, they will suffer most from cash shortages and lack of belief in the market.
 
Re: At the moment where is the best place to invest overseas?



land in leitrim and in particular forrestry land is nowhere near 10 grand an acre at the present time , thats about the price of land anywhere at the moment on average , farm land , that is
land in leitrim for forrestry right now would be closer to 5 k an acre
 
Best place to invest is in certain areas of UK and USA - well it will be in 6 months or so once the property crash bottoms out.

Problem right now is getting credit. Im gonna buy in UK at auction in 6 months.
 
Re: At the moment where is the best place to invest overseas?


Supe, not sure where you are looking but prices arent nearly as high as Dublin. Im building studios at 88K and 100sq/m two beds at 170K. construction costs are about 1/3 of Irish prices and it should show in the sales price
Obviously since im building there Id be an advocate of investing in the area, but most of my buyers however have been from asia and the middle east. Seems Irish and English buyers are concerned with the distance away as the main issue
 
Re: At the moment where is the best place to invest overseas?

GDE; Sorry, i'm not exactly clear on what you are saying. Are you saying you are selling 2 beds in Abu Dhabi for 170,000 euro? if so where are they located as I would be very interested in knowing more.
 
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