Knight Frank Global House Price Index

What about Romania too? Just sold the first apartment I ever bought out here this evening for a 30% gain over 2 years plus I had rental out of it over that period equating to 25% of the purchase price. I'm a happy chappy. ;)
 
Always good to hear of a happy experience Ancutza! Where in Romania did you buy? Do you reckon there's still potential there or are you getting out for this very reason?
 
I bought in the northwest of the country. I sold this apartment as it is in one of the old style blocks although the apartment itself was nicely done-up. In my opinion it wasn't going to appreciate any further. There are now too many new-builds on the go so time to divest myself, I'm afraid, and look at something else.
 
portugal -1.2% and spain +9.7%. Surprised at that. Thought Portugal was more bouyant and Spain with thousands of unsold properties.
 
Spain +9.7% seems unlikely from word on the street
I would use the Index for general knowledge purposes and not any basis for investing
 
Is there maybe a coincidence that the same company have invested heavily (or rather sent their clients money to) in Latvia, Bulgaria and Ireland?

Or maybe that countries they've been unable to gain a foothold in fail to register (Russia, Croatia, Montenegro and possibly Romania). Very odd and not entirely indicative or true.
 
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but surely when you read this about Latvia, Bulgaria etc. There is more scope for improvement in the countries that didn't have a massive rise last year. If you're looking for a long term investment surely you want a country that has bottomed out & looks like it's going to bounce back?

Could you not look at it from the viewpoint that these countries have already had their boom & have even maybe peaked ? My point being that if you're aiming for the top of that list, you've missed the boat.

It always baffles me too when they can base property increases on demand for new property, pushed mainly by foreign investment. Who can tell what these properties are worth till someone tries to sell ? The increases seem to be based on people (mostly Irish ) buying like mad on the strength of the figures like these that agents throw at them.

Mind you I thought Ireland had hit it's peak too & it amazes me how it still seems to be going up, in spite of David Mc Williams predictions
 
almo might have a valid point there. afaik this company have spent a good few million in recent months 'buying' into the irish property market and by of course irish auctioneers are selling bulgarian property. cant speak for latvia.
 
Thanks cuchulainn, I'm glad someone else knows a little about this group. Knight Frank push themselves as srvants to the stars, they were banging on a couple of years ago about how they were getting gazillions in commissions from Roman Abramovich for sorting out his English properties, it turned out less than true and even less so when they fouled up a deal by trying to squeeze more money out of an already signed deal.

They bought the vultures that are HOK and are invested heavily into 2 developers in Bulgaria, very much vested interest there I'd have to think.
 
cuchulainn said:
portugal -1.2% and spain +9.7%. Surprised at that. Thought Portugal was more bouyant and Spain with thousands of unsold properties.
Click to expand...

The opposite is true in fact; Spain was always more popular with the British/German/Swedish market than Portugal -- warmer winters than the atlantic coast primarily. Most of the unsold property in Spain is in the overdevelped areas like Alicante, but surplus stock in other areas is gradually being bought up. As always of course, poorly located properties are slower to shift.

A lot of hype around planning issues in the Costa del Sol has somewhat clouded the issue over here, but the reports I am getting on the ground is of very strong sales to Spanish people mostly (their economy is booming and they are playing the "equity release" game with a vengance). The nervousness about demolitions etc (mostly completely unfounded) is not affecting Spanish buyers, who know the real deal. The spaniards from Madrid and the north like to have a place on the south coast, and now they can afford it and are buying strongly. In addition, property in the cities like Madrid has done very well in the past two years.

Another interesting snippet, of interest to anyone who bought in Budapest in the Madach project (one of the best to ever hit the Irish market through the ordinary retail channels in my view). A site across the road in Kiraly street was bought a few years ago by a major Spanish developer, and is currently about 50% built. It sold quickly off plan to Spaniards in Spain, at about 20 to 30% more than the Madach project, and it is not anywhere as nice a project.
 
By the way, I agree with previous posters that this Knight Frank index has weakneses in it, and looks to be driven from a selling point of view.
 
FK has a full page add for bulgarian property in the Sunday Times Home supplement this weekend.
 
After all that, is there anyone out there other than Colliers International who give truly independent property market reports.
 
But don't Colliers sell and develop (at least advise on both) so it's not independent. The only way you can figure out is by getting out there and not just depending on paid for informercials or hearsay. If a place is being plugged to death, with lots of adverts and so on, then it means there's lots of money behind it, which means that they need to sell and there's enough of a major league mark up to afford such lovelieness. Ever heard of Samara, Voronezh, Ulyanovsk? Well, in Russia they're large towns/cities experiencing great rates in rental returns and a low buy in. But the spoils go to those who are there or know the place.
 
All of these indices that are published by commercial companies have their own agenda e.g. profits. The only independent indices in my opinion are compiled by the government bodies in various countries, such as the Land Registry in the UK [broken link removed] (make sure it has 'gov' in the UK otherwise it may be a commercial site using the same name) or official statistics offices of various countries eg in the UK this is

Most of these departments abroad have English language versions so it's easy for people to check them out.
 
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