Many overseas investors still find Spain an appealing destination for buying property, according to an expert.

Estate agent Brad Johnston said that people were continuing to enter the Spanish market at a high rate, both for investment properties and holiday homes for personal use.

This is despite recent fluctuations in the country’s flats market and the current house price boom.

Mr Johnston added that prices were likely to continue growing if an expected five million European move to Spain in the next five years.

This would have the impact of boosting demand and prices in many parts of the country, as well as the value of existing investment properties.

Mr Johnston commented: [There’s] certainly still an interest in Spain.

Cheeeeers!

A developer and two prospective owner-occupiers squared off over a vacant block at 1 Halley Street in Blackburn, with the competition at the Ray White auction proving just enough for the 1342-square-metre allotment to make $2400 more than its reserve. The property, which has been sitting empty for more than 80 years, went to one of the owner-occupiers for $837,400.

The news was not as good for the land release at Sunland Group’s Chancellor estate in Bundoora yesterday, where fewer than half the 13 available allotments sold.

The result was below the sales rates for previous release days this year, although two buyers paid $405,000 for 727-square-metre and 792-square-metre flats.

More than 460 auctions are scheduled for next weekend, nearly a third less than there were for the same time last year and more than 5% below the stock level for 2006.

Environmentally friendly houses and apartments sell more quickly and appeal to new home and apartment buyers.

The market is clearly telling us that people want sustainable places to live. Today we try to build complete laundries so people can dry their shirts on a rack rather than rely on a clothes dryer.

The introduction of the NSW Government’s BASIX certificate, which required new houses to reduce energy and water consumption by about 20 per cent in 2002 and then ramped up the targets to 40 per cent, sped up the building of clean, green energy-efficient homes and flats.

We know that that’s what the market wants and as developers we want to prove to government that we are committed to creating sustainable subdivisions, apartments and retirement living projects.

Keep it going, Keep it Green!

This is the most important plaza to bullfight, it name is Las Ventas and it is in Madrid.

When I have enought money to buy a couple of flats, one of them will be there, with the perfect sightseeing; Las Ventas.

Cheers mates

Hong Kong-based Langham Hotels International (LHI) is all set to foray into the Indian hospitality segment. It has recently tied up with Mumbai-based real estate developer Wadhwa Developers for the same. The hotel chain entered into a management agreement with the developer for a five-star property being developed in Pune. It will introduce its five-star brand Langham Place Hotel for the same. The property located near Koregaon Park, one of the prime locations in Pune, is slated for operations by 2010 end.

The property will consist of around 180 rooms, a coffee shop and a speciality restaurant. It will also house Chuan Spa, the group’s spa brand. The group will also focus on developing an extensive conferencing facility to cater to the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) segment.

Besides this property, LHI also plans to expand its presence in the Indian market. “We’re in discussions with several real estate developers in India, and are considering flats in key cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Goa and Bengaluru,” says Helmut Knipp, Senior Vice President - Development, Langham Hotels International.

Time to invest guys!

Thanks to Spain. Their National Football team has won the Eurocup 2008 playing very very good football.

Every of their players, Villa, Torres, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, all of them have done  one of the best Eurocups I´ve seen ever.

England was out, but We´ve enjoyed a lot with them.

Thanks again. Cheeeeerio

Do I need to do that?

Even if you’ve been coping well to date, the Reserve Bank’s nasty trend of lifting interest rates should indicate it’s time to stop, think and review your borrowings. How would you cope with another rate rise? Another two? A bigger hike next time? Nothing is out of the question as the central bank tries to dampen inflation.

No one likes to think the worst will happen but prudent financial managers ask themselves what would happen if it did and put strategies in place to protect themselves.

When it comes to your home loan, this means building a buffer by getting ahead in your repayments. You can do that by paying more than you need to each month, increasing the frequency of your repayments, sticking in any irregular cash payments you might get (such as that end-of-year bonus or next year’s tax cuts), using a facility such as an offset account where your pay is deposited and reduces the interest on your loan while it’s there, or even refinancing to a loan with a lower interest rate, but maintaining your current repayments.

Sell your flats and start living as a hippie! What else? Nothing else!!!

Flatiron who knows almost everything