June Top of the Props

PR Log (Press Release) – Jul 11, 2009 – After three months at the top of the chart, the USA was edged into second place in June's Top of the Props chart by Spain. Other European countries also ranked highly in June, suggesting that buyers are returning to the tried and tested markets for property investment purposes, so let's take a look at France...

Our Top of the Props chart provides a monthly pop chart snapshot of the most popular countries on the site and last month, properties in the USA triumphed, attracting the most interest from visitors to the site.

France

France nabbed third place in June's chart. Like the vast majority of countries around the world, the French property market has been affected by the global economic crisis.

Previously one of the markets that attracted the most interest from overseas tourists and buyers, especially those from the UK, that flood slowed to a trickle as the credit crunch took hold.

The weakness of the pound against the euro was just one of the factors putting off British buyers.

But, despite the woeful economic outlook, France does offer some excellent buying opportunities right now. The lower prices could mean that you could snap up far more house for your money than you would have been able to at the height of the boom.

Buyers will also have more room to negotiate with sellers and incentives are being offered to shift some developments.

Signs are hinting at a market recovery which could see prices rising - so if you take a longer term look at the investment you could realize a good capital growth in the future.

As France is such a popular tourist spot, rental returns on your investment also look set to be strong- especially as many British people are foregoing far flung destinations for holidays closer to home this year.

If the seller is a British citizen, you could perhaps look at purchasing using pound sterling rather than euro to avoid the poor exchange rate. If this isn't a goer with your vendor, don't despair- the pound is picking up and, with UK interest rates staying low, it should rise further in the not too distant future.

USA

USA came second in June's chart. Nuwireinvestor.com and Housingwire look at which regions are performing the best and which could be a sold bet for investment.

The US real estate market improved in the first quarter of 2009, declining at a slower rate of 3.4 per cent. The region of the country that performed best during this period was the South.

The Southern region of the United States posted the strongest quarter-over-quarter price returns in a new quarterly housing market report launched Wednesday by Clear Capital.

The bad news: The region still posted an overall decline of 1.7 per cent. But the (relatively) good news is the South posted the smallest overall decline of the four regions, according to Clear Capital's report.

The South also posted half the decline of the national rate, 3.4 per cent.

The data and solution provider for real estate asset valuation, investment and risk assessment launched the new report as a way to track pricing conditions in real time.

Birmingham and Cleveland had the top rolling quarter-over quarter price gains of 8.9 per cent and 6.7 per cent respectively, while Phoenix and Las Vegas posted the greatest losses at -17 per cent and -15.5 per cent.

All US regions showed a seasonal improvement in the rate of price declines during the spring selling season, with the Midwest and the South regions posting the greatest lift after a weak home price season in the winter.

Certain local markets showed isolated success stories. A segment of the Cleveland market, for example, posted the first quarter-over-quarter gain since its downturn started in mid-2005. This signals "very specific investment activity" in the area, according to Clear Capital.

"It's a relief to see some local stabilization this month in at least a few of the worst hit markets," said Clear Capital President Kevin Marshall in the report. "We expect to see this type of recovery on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis as savvy investors are taking a more surgical approach to due diligence and looking at micro-markets very carefully."

Other movers and shakers

Spain reigned supreme in June's chart. Portugal had to be content with fourth place, followed by Italy and the UAE. Turkey and Brazil took eighth and ninth places respectively, whilst Egypt and Cyprus completed the chart, at number nine and ten.

For more information on properties in Spain and the property market in general, please visit http://spain.themovechannel.com/

-ENDS-

Notes to editors:

TheMoveChannel.com is a property website that was founded in 1999 as an online resource for buying, selling and learning about property. It now receives as many as 300,000 visits per month and advertises over 50,000 properties in nearly 90 countries, which are listed by over 500 partner organisations.

For further information, please contact:

Dan Johnson
Managing Director
www.themovechannel.com
0207 952 7650