Views of the courses
In a modern world of property investment where global purchases are an everyday occurence there needs to be a definitive strategy in order to not lose your money but also to maximise your profits. Number one on the list of must consider when looking for investment or great golf property has to be. A stable currency! Many investors looking to foreign markets have made the mistake of losing all of their profit margins and more to currency fluctuations by investing in newer markets such as Asia, Africa and South America to name but a few. The moral of the story has to be invest in markets that have a history of a stable currency and even if you do not make the extra 10% return take the 30% that is guaranteed!
Number two on my list of priorities is the political climate in any country as well as the neighbours. It is prudent when investing in such countries who are prone to currency fluctuations, to only invest if you have a very short term investment stategy! Let us take for instance South Africa as a case scenario many Hollywood celebrities have driven property investment in South Africa by publicity and word of mouth. People are now discovering that this is perhaps the most beautiful region in the world due to the fact that you can traverse from rainforest to desert, mountain to Scottish valley on your average hour drive. You can see more plant species here than most countries on earth, as well as the incredible diversity of nature at its best. The publicity of hosting the world cup will no doubt, also make it a more appealing destination for property investors and buyers from around the world! However there is no escaping the crime problems here which are out of control despite whatever the ANC have to say about the matter, this is not about to go away if you know the real reasons for the violence and instablity and the history behind it. Not the BBC completely distorted political versions who have used image rather than substance in their over optimistic portrait of the rainbow nation as it is now dubbed. It will be many decades before this country is stable. Currency fluctuations and many other issues like corruption which is almost indemic has a large impact on the stability of any country. Aids has also devastated the country within the last twenty years and this also has a huge economic impact. Aids has grown from Zero in the mid eighties to 11% of every indigenous african over the age of two according to official figures. The government here have always refused to acknowledge aids as a problem at all, so one would suspect the figure is much higher! Added to the general tolerance of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and the fact that the country has been bankrupted by his personal greed. I would suggest that this is not the kind of region to invest money in whatsoever, unless you only need a cheap holiday home! Many who have already invested over the last ten years have lost out!
The Middle east is yet another example where I would suggest that political factors could cause damage to a long term investment strategy as the Saudi goverment for one are struggling to surpress the activities of hardline elements and so are many their neighbours even as far up as Turkey which could still go either way politically at present.
Investment in the region should be strictly short term only ie less than three year periods. Egypt again is another prime example of attracting a lot of new investment. Again I say from my own experience that this country in the next few years could go badly wrong and short tem investment is the only prudent option.
The legal systems in many countries added to the restrictions on property purchases and sales like the lack of rights by foreigners to invest in properties in certain locations have a huge impact on already tenuous profit margins for the investor. So the buying process and the cost of this must be golden rule number three when looking for the perfect investment properties aorund the globe. Two examples of how investors have lost out in recent times are the land grab issues in central Spain and the location issue in Turkey as well.
Taxation, taxation, taxation, perhaps one of the most important factors in property investment full stop! When considering investment anywhere the end cost is always one of the most important factors so do a lot of careful research in to the tax issues prior to investing in a particular region. A very good example of the difference this makes to an investor is Cyprus. This has been a particular goldmine to property speculators in the last ten years, obviously with carefully chosen properties. Not only has Cyprus had one of the worlds most stable economies in the last eight years even during the global recession but they also have a double taxation treaty with many countries around the world and registering as a limited company here means you only pay taxes of 10% on your profits. An investor who has aorund 5 million Euros they would wish to increase. They then decide to buy some well placed investment property in Cyprus. The cost of the mortgages should they need one, would be around 3 - 5 % at a fixed rate, lovely. No tax to pay in your own country on earnings in Cyprus, great. The lawyers fees are then around 0.5% of the gross property transaction this in itself is not an expensive fee to pay! After paying your fees to register as a limited company around 1200 Euros through a registered lawyer you will only ever be liable for 10% tax on the profits of any properties you sell. You are totally exempt from taxes on your first three sold properties and you may permanently keep your money here if you wish. Prudently chosen, your houses here you will see a minimum of a 20% - 40 rise in value of good location property from the start of construction to completion this can vary in timescale from 4 - 18 months this particularly includes golf property. Add this on to established rental yiedls of 7 - 8 % per annum and you can see why some smart people have been making some easy cash here. Added to this a really easy buying process.
Rule number five! How to get the best agent and top property for your money. There are many property investment sites on the net with properties from countries all over the world and many are highly respectable and no doubt professional. Personally I would opt for the specialist ones on the ground for the following reasons. In property sales many websites feature thousands of properties and like any financial institution there objective is to sell any property, whereas the specialist portals on the ground are in the thick of it and can give you the most relevant up to date advice as well as selling you only specialist top investment, including golf property. Developers in most countries will forward an agent property stating that this is a top investment property or its in a great location and various other sales pitches. This is where the right advice can make a crucial difference to the bulge in your wallet.
What useful tips can help find the best agents on the web?
Do type in the relevant query in to google for example ( Cyprus investment property ) or
( Cyprus golf property ) this will bring up the most relevant websites.
Websites with millions of properties are best avoided as they are not doing their homework.
Avoid incomplete or badly working sites and brand new ones, you can find this out by typing in ( page rank checker ) in to any search engine and type the name of a website in to see the page rank! 2 to five are acceptable sites as google in particular rate these sites as experts in their fields particularly for property.
Look throught the first 8 or so results in Search engines for the top websites as the best are not always number one.
Please contact David ( totally free ) for impartial advice or just to chat about your ambitions
http://www.1cyprusproperty.com
http://www.1cyprusproperty.com/
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
