The news is full of potential consequences following the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Financial Armageddon is upon us yet again it would seem. Even BBC Radio 5 live thought it would make “how the Lehman Brothers collapse affects you” the subject of their morning phone in. Actually most of callers wanted to make the rather obvious point that the clever and top talented people so deserving of their massive bonuses perhaps weren’t so talented after all. I think we all knew this and my theory that only the 2G’s can bring a successful business down, Greed and Government finds more proof.
Anyhow, how will the current financial meltdown affect our market? Well, if anything we have seen a steady increase in enquiries and sales, there is clearly a lot of cash out there looking for good homes (pardon the pun) and property as always looks a safe bet if you need to park some money until confidence returns to the financial markets.
So where’s hot (I know another awful pun)? The Euro zone is a bit cool, although we are seeing an increase in interest in heavily discounted property in Spain which even the most cynical amongst us are beginning to wonder if this once king of overseas property ownership is coming back to life. We are pretty much on the phone all day here and have contact with quite a few professional property investors and they are on the look out for discounted properties in countries like North Cyprus, City Centre property Prague, Warsaw, Berlin and the bottom of the market bargains which abound in Florida.
I believe the collapse of banks like Lehman Brothers will, if anything, lead to a boost in cash looking for overseas property investments. But at the same time as our banking industry entrenches itself into ever darkening lending rooms the “Lifestyle Buyer” will increasingly get finance from within the country they are purchasing, slightly more complicated but competitive and safe. This may also help explain why the Spanish Property Market is awakening as the Spanish lenders have not got in involved with toxic mortgages and it's business as usual.
On the whole, I’m optimistic and can see the next few years being an exciting time for the Overseas Property Market.