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Local Real Estate Listings Used In Online Scam

Local Real Estate Listings Used In Online Scam
People are taking information from realtor websites and using them in a scam.  Realtor Karen Berberick with Northwood Realty Services realized her listing had been hijacked among others in her office when she started getting calls that one of the homes for sale on Brownsville Road was now for rent on Craigslist.

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India’s Real Estate Market Revolution 2008

India Realty

Romance, melodrama, action, mystery, twist… All elements that one connects with a typical Hindi movie can easily be used as adjectives to describe the ‘India property’ of the ‘real estate’ in India’.

To justify, let’s club together last week’s happenings in the sector. The week has been a dampening one for real estate, as the dark clouds (with minimal silver lining) of global slowdown cast their shadow on the real estate sector as well. The reason is quite obvious – there was the thumping end of those glorious days of low-interest rates. The all-time low and lucky figure of around ‘7’ per cent changed to scary double digits, oscillating from 13 per cent to even 20 per cent in some cases.   

 Reality wee(a)k

On November 12, 2008, CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) released a report, via Press Trust of India (PTI), claiming that real estate projects in India are getting delayed due to paucity of funds, even as developers struggle to cope with decline in sales volume across residential, office and retail verticals. The report said that the real estate-investment market in India continued to remain subdued amid economic worries.

 On November 14, The Times of India reported that Finance Minister P Chidambaram had assured real estate developers that the government will impress upon banks to accelerate lending to realty, which is facing one of the worst slowdown in recent times. A delegation of builders under the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (Credai) had met Chidambaram to complain against banks’ reluctance to disburse loans to real estate companies.

 The very next day, on November 15, an Economic Times story urged people to invest in the real estate sector claiming that investing in real estate is a good idea to hedge `  against inflation. It talked about the benefits of the India property, real estate funds, and real estate investment trusts (REIT).

 Realty years

Property dealers’/agents’ signboards at every nook and corner of the country, and inclusion of some of the Indian realtors in the world’s ‘billionaires list’, prove that realty, as a business, has always been lucrative and profitable.

The India property, in the recent past, has witnessed a revolution. According to a Cushman & Wakefield research, the sector has seen a growth rate of up to 30-35 per cent, and is estimated to be worth US$15 billion. If experts are to be believed, it is expected to grow at about 30 per cent annually over the next decade, attracting foreign investments worth US$30 billion.

However, in the last couple of years, realty has been affected adversely because of the rise in interest rates, which went up from seven per cent to around 12 per cent, as Reserve Bank of India (RBI) thought that price rise in realty could create a bubble. Additionally, the bank tightened the provisioning norms, making loans to the sector costlier, and when the inflation rate shot up, it constricted liquidity to keep price rise under check.

 Such steep rise in the interest rates and tightened liquidity severely affected affordability and, in turn, brought down buying/investment in real estate.

 Future reality

Nevertheless, the bad news will not be that bad for long, as the situation seems to be turning around, albeit gradually. On November 15, while the national dailies carried India property advisories, some of them also had news that banks are cutting housing-loan interest rates. Moreover, RBI’s policy is also expected to alter, or so assured the finance minister, thereby making at least the residential real estate affordable.

 Almost 80 per cent of real estate developed in India is residential space (the rest comprising offices, shopping malls, hotels and hospitals), and five per cent of the country’s GDP is contributed to by the housing sector. According to the Tenth Five Year Plan, there is a shortage of about 22.4 million dwelling units. Thus, over the next 10 to 15 years, 80 to 90 million houses will have to be constructed, and easier availability of finance will facilitate the process. Housing Skyline of India 2007-08, a study by research firm Indicus Analytics, says that there will be a demand for over 24.3 million new dwelling units for self-living in urban India alone by 2015. Consequently, this segment is likely to throw up huge investment opportunities. In fact, an estimated US$25 billion investment will be required over the next five years in urban housing, says a Merrill Lynch report.

On the commercial side, the IT and ITES sector alone is estimated to require 150 million square feet of office space across urban India in the next couple of years; hence, there too lies tremendous opportunity and scope.

 The ground real(i)ty

The India real estate sector supports more than 250 other ancillary industries including that of construction materials like cement, steel, paint and electrical. A study by rating agency ICRA says that in terms of direct, indirect and induced effects in all sectors of the economy, the construction industry ranks number three among the 14 major sectors. The study says that the sector has capacity to generate income as high as five times of the present level, and if the economy grows at a considerable pace, in the next decade the sector can create about three million new jobs.

At investinnest.com, a leading property seller globally based in india, uk, dubai, usa etc..we have ties up with top builders of delhi like emaarmgf, dlf, unitech, omaxe mantra  etc…we give necessary advise to the investor about the property where they can take good return as investors, no matter how far away you are currently located. 

For More Information about India property — visit: http://www.investinnest.com/

With the Current Stock and Credit Market Crises, Investment in Real Estate Will Make Even More Sense in the Future

With the current financial crisis pervading stock markets in the global ecomony, real estate once again should be looked at as a serious, long-term investment strategy that can help investors further diversify their investment portfolios in the future. The reality is that the current stock market malaise that has decimated so many long-standing financial institutions and subsequently stock investments and 401Ks is not the only major stock market troubles we have seen in recent times. Arguably, there have been as many as three “bubbles.”

The dot-com bubble and decline of the stock market helped push investors into other markets where money was cheap and regulations loose. Because of lax oversight and inaction, the housing bubble was allowed to form. The oil market represents a bubble to many as the cost of a barrel of Brent crude went from $100 per barrel in February 2008, to a high of $145 per barrel by July 2008. Brent crude is now trading under $60 per barrel.

Going forward, there are two very real concerns for investors. First, many may be looking at the performance of stock investments over the past eight years and calculating what their true return from those investments has been. Second, many will be asking if their investments can sustain another severe market imbalance in the future. In effect, they are wondering as to where the ‘Fourth Bubble” will come from.

All of this gives credence again to having an even broader diversification of investment portfolios. As a result, real estate should once again be seriously looked at as part of an investor’s diversification strategy for several reasons.

First, property valuations have fallen considerably from market highs. Prices in some markets have dipped to 2004 levels. In some instances, prices have dipped to 2003 levels.

Second, real estate has intrinsic value. Unlike stocks and financial-related investments that can see depreciation in their worth down to zero, real estate has inherent value down to the land and will not experience a wholesale collapse in its value to zero.

Third, real estate is real. It can be seen and touched, and managed closely by the owner.

Fourth, real estate has certain tax benefits that can contribute to the overall performance of the property as an investment.

Fifth, a successful rental property as an investment presents an opportunity to create a revenue stream and/or create equity in the home as the renter indirectly is contributing to payment of the principal over time. Regardless of the market and whether appreciation or positive-cash flow rental income is preferred by the investor, the principal is being paid down on the property.

Lastly, based on proposals floated by President-elect Obama, we should expect additional legislation that puts guidelines, regulations and accountability in this industry that ensures proper lending practices and reduces the risk for rampant speculation that has battered the markets in recent times.

Of course, there are certainly risks to holding real estate as an investment in your portfolio. For instance, there may be unexpected property repairs, assessments, or other extraordinary costs that the investor has to incur. So, an investor has to look at real estate also as a business with income and regular and extraordinary expenses.

For those investors that are looking for a simpler way to be diversify without the additional headache, a REIT may be a logical avenue to investigate. A Real Estate Investment Trust is a company that invests in income-generating properties to drive returns for its investors. The income-generating properties may be apartment buildings, industrial and commercial properties. REITs allow smaller investors the ability to invest in larger real estate operations that they wouldn’t be able to otherwise. REITs also should be able to show their overall historical performance to investors.

Again, investors are faced with the question of how to protect and grow their assets in the future. The stock market’s high level of volatility in recent years has many investors questioning the percentage concentration of their portfolios in stocks and similar investments. As a result, the pressure to further diversify those portfolios will mean that other asset categories will have increasingly greater appeal and should be considered for investment.

Overall, real estate presents a great opportunity once again for the long-term investor as outlined above. In addition, the incoming administration has put forth numerous proposals to improve transparency, implement sound business and ethical practices to the industry with the singular purpose to eliminate the probability of a similar crisis ever occurring in the future. All of this will work to give investors options once again for a safer, more consistent and calculable return in the coming years.

Executive Q&A: Rob Zache, commercial real estate developer

Executive Q&A: Rob Zache, commercial real estate developer
Ordinarily, commercial real estate development thrives as aquiet business, at least on its surface.

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Franchises: Ready-made businesses have appeal in down economy

Franchises: Ready-made businesses have appeal in down economy
MIAMI – After being unemployed for a year, Pauline Hamian ditched the résumé and bought herself a job.The former Burger King employee had no luck finding a job after being part of a corporate restructuring in 2008. While at an outplacement…

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Real Estate Bubbles That Keep Floating High

Property values are on the rope in the US, UK and many other countries – and as house values slip there is little homeowners can do as their investment keeps sliding – but wait and hope that their economies recover, and boost buyers confidence enough to get the property markets going again.

But there are some areas where the property bubble just hasn’t burst yet, and they’re such niche markets that they might just withstand current economic woes seen elsewhere.

Real estate watchers will know that top end London prices rose sharply in the last three years, but less well reported has been how New York’s Manhattan has fared. While London prices are falling in many boroughs, one or two are still showing slight increases on their 2007 values, but overall London prices are expected to dip this year.

And while New York real estate prices could drop too this year, Manhattan could see gains in property prices.

Suprising given that New York real estate prices dropped by four per cent in 2007, and yet, like London, pockets of an area that is seeing property price reductions can see good inflation for existing homeowners hoping their property portfolio will continue to perform well.

In fact, when looking at the real estate markets for the two leading financial centres of New York and London, there seems to be a breakaway section of the property market that behaves differently from other areas in the city where the super rich don’t favour, and are small enclaves.

Monaco, a financial centre as it is a tax haven, and only a square mile in sze, is another enclave of the wealthy that sees property behave quite differently from neighbouring areas on the French Riveria such as Nice, Cannes and St. Tropez.

‘We often hear politicians comment that the rich are getting richer’, comments a UK based property company who sells property in Monaco, ‘And not only are the rich getting richer they have a micro economic property bubble in Manhattan, London and Monaco where the number of properties being sold and their prices are completely independent, and seperate from the rest of Europe and the U.S.’

Monaco property prices rose by over fifteen per cent in 2007, and in Manhattan seventeen per cent – but astonishingly apartments in Monaco priced at 10 million Euros and above (around US$ 15 million) acheived a price hike of over twenty five per cent.

Part of Monaco’s price increases in recent years, and for the medium term future too, is that new housing being built is for locals, and a strong new supply of openly available apartments is unlikely to happen for a decade – and with strong demand and little supply it suggests further price rises are likely for 2008.

British citizens have moved to Monaco in high numbers in recent years and as UK taxes show no sign of falling this large group is expected to swell further in 2008.

Previously a relatively small group of Monaco residents, the number of British people living in Monaco has doubled in the last two years since 2005, with some 3000 now claiming residency in Monaco.

Time will tell if London and Manhattan’s top properties also continue to rise in the year ahead, pushing the markets for the super rich still further away from other real estate trends, and creating enclaves that belong to the wealthy.