Time To Invest In The Global Real Estate Market?

Where To Buy Global Property?

First Published Date: May 04, 2009

It cannot have escaped anyone’s attention that much of the world is at the moment in the grip of a financial crisis that has hit all sectors hard, but none more so than the real estate market. The fact that the crisis is global has meant that even the good old standby of moving into the next country to invest has lost some of its appeal as an idea, as it is just as likely if not more so, to see your investment fail to some up to the standards you had hoped to reach. In light of this, it becomes a matter of looking further afield. While this is the most internationally damaging property crisis most of us have ever seen, there are some countries that have weathered the storm a good deal better than others – and are presenting opportunities for the real estate investor to spread their wings.

Take any of the world’s heavyweight economies, and right now they are doing a pretty good impersonation of a defeated heavyweight boxer – slumped on the canvas with a bloody nose and black eyes. Some, like Canada, have fairly superficial damage compared to others, which have been pummelled to the extent where they are barely recognizable. Meanwhile, some of the less heralded countries are doing just fine, because they did not fall into the trap of building an economy on unsustainable lending, nor have they been closely linked with the countries who did. And these countries are the ones where it may well be worth having a throw of the real estate dice. Their economies are stable, prices are lower than in the more bloated economies, and the countries themselves are beginning to carry some real weight in the financial world.

The truth of the matter is that, a few decades ago, people would have laughed long and hard at the idea that Poland or the Czech Republic would be worthwhile sites for real estate investment. Right now, judging by the Polish Prime Minister’s recent jibe at UK Premier Gordon Brown, the laughing is going in the opposite direction. Poland as a nation declined to move towards a credit-based economy and as a result is doing just fine. Real estate opportunities are popping up all the time and this seems likely to continue with unemployment on the way down.

Alternatively, you may want to invest somewhere warmer. The opportunities on offer in the North of Africa now might be just the thing for you. Like Poland and the Czech Republic, Morocco has thrived while more illustrious near neighbours have taken a beating. Property prices are on the rise there, but are still well below what you would pay in a bigger economy, and Western investors are getting in there with its proximity to Europe making it a beacon for the region’s tourist industry. The coastlines of this African paradise are breathtaking, and just the kind of thing that would look perfect on a property portfolio. Dare you take the plunge? It could be the best decision you ever make.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the realestateexpedition.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on May 4, 2009.

Which City Has the Most Skyscrapers?

Is It Hong Kong or New York?

First Published Date: June 15, 2009

Very few subjects on the topic of architecture divide opinion as much as sky scrapers. For many, a sky scraper is a demonstration of the art of structural engineering taken to its ultimate level – both literally and metaphorically. For others, there is an impression that the presence of sky scrapers on a skyline is as much a demonstration of an absence of imagination as anything else. As children, we look upon a sky scraper in wonder. How could anything be that tall? How could anything man-made reach that high? It is hard to avoid being impressed even as you get older. So many sky scrapers are still built today because people continue to be amazed by what structural engineers can do.

Where there is scope to impress, there is also competition. This fact, whether it occurs to people or does not, has inspired human behaviour in countless and varied ways. Witness the space race. Witness dance-offs. And, naturally, witness sky scrapers. These buildings exist, in no small part, because someone did it first, and someone else wants to beat them. City authorities and private companies are certainly not above asking aloud the question “How tall was the one they built? OK, let’s make ours one foot bigger!”. The concept of competitive ambition collided with the practice of architecture, and the sky scraper was what resulted. In terms of advertising a holiday destination or a business city, one of the most powerful images any advertiser can use is a picture of the city’s skyline. If that skyline is dominated by sky scrapers, the city is deemed successful and interesting. People will want to visit a place with a lot of sky scrapers, even if they are not quite sure why.

This has led to an interesting (if you like this kind of thing) dispute over the question of which city has the most sky scrapers. Believe it or not, this is the source of no little controversy, with figures from the website Emporis (considered experts on the topic of building) suggesting that Hong Kong is at the top of the tree with more than seven thousand buildings and counting. However, if you could one sky scraper as being a building from its own unique platform, then New York’s 5,000+ total will be more than Hong Kong’s.

The source of the controversy is that, for counting purposes, some will use the number of towers that reach a certain height (150 meters, as often as not) as the number of sky scrapers. Others will only count one skyscraper even if multiple towers of sufficient height spring from the one platform on the ground. So some will say that New York has the most sky scrapers, some will argue that it is Hong Kong. Others still will point out that Dubai is building the world’s largest sky scraper, and will argue that this is at least as important, as it is more groundbreaking. Then still others will argue that sky scrapers are a blot on the landscape and should not be encouraged. This is the nature of debate.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the realestateexpedition.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on June 15, 2009.

Cities With The Most Skyscrapers

Is New York, Hong Kong, or Dubai Has The Most Skyscrapers?

First Published Date: July 1, 2013 ADawnJournal.com

When it comes to building a skyscraper that will impress the world and stick in the minds of people, there is nothing like height that comes into consideration. And it’s no wonder that the topic “Which city has the most skyscrapers?” will always be a debated one. A skyscraper demonstrates the art of structural engineering taken to its ultimate zenith, literally and metaphorically. And there is no straightforward answer to the above question.

The cities with the most skyscrapers reward depends on how you look at the definition of skyscraper and various other factors. For example, if you consider a building at least 115 feet (35 meters or 12 stories) tall, Hong Kong stays on top of the list with close to 8000 buildings. However, if you consider one skyscraper as being a building from its own unique platform, then New York City’s close to 6000 total will be more than Hong Kong. If you follow strict rules on height and consider skyscrapers only above 300 meters (980 feet or 80 floors), Dubai, Shenzhen, New York City stay on top of the list.

So some will use certain heights to count skyscrapers, and others will only count one skyscraper even if multiple towers of sufficient height spring from the one platform on the ground. And the answers can always be argued upon whether if it’s Hong Kong, New York, or Dubai based on how you look at it.

Sources:
http://www.emporis.com/statistics/most-skyscraper-cities-worldwide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_with_the_most_skyscrapers#Cities

What is a Mortgage Default?

Defaulting on a Mortgage

First Published Date : June 25, 2010 ADawnJournal.com

There are few phrases or words more chilling for the holder of a mortgage than “default notice”. While the appearance of those words at the top of a letter are never what anyone wants to see, they hold a special dread and fear for the mortgage holder because of the genuine fear that the bank’s next step will be to take possession of their house. This fear comes about – with good reason – because the money lent in a mortgage is considered a “secured loan” – that is to say that it is given strictly on the basis that collateral is provided. “Collateral”, for the purposes of a loan, essentially means security. If you don’t pay the loan, then the bank have something of equal value that they can reclaim from you.

It is never desirable to default on a mortgage. The payments can be difficult to keep up, that much is undeniable. A mortgage is, in a lot of ways, the most challenging kind of borrowing that an account holder can take out. Although the longer term of the borrowing and the frequently lower interest rates (available because the loan is secured) lowers monthly payments, the fact that they are stretched out over a long term can mean that there is some doubt in the mind of the borrower over whether the conditions will always exist that make it possible to meet monthly payments. Therefore, especially in the early to middle period of the term of the loan, there will be some recurrent dread of one day defaulting on the mortgage. It is for this reason also that many people who are in a position to do so pay off their mortgage early.

If you default on your mortgage it does not mean that the house you have secured it on will be repossessed. In actual fact, banks tend to prefer not to go that far. It is up to you as a borrower to keep in contact with the bank and stay true to your intention of paying monthly payments at a sustainable rate. If you have already made a substantial dent in the principal of your mortgage, the bank may well be willing to restructure a loan for the remainder, over a longer term so as to allow smaller, affordable monthly payments. How long the term will be depends on factors such as your continuing earning potential and how much is left to pay off. Although you may not be able to stick to the original term, a difference of a few years may be all it takes to make that monthly payment manageable.

Aside from this method, you may have the opportunity to remortgage with a different lender – paying off your old mortgage with a loan that covers the remaining principal and interest, although the earlier you decide on this the better – missed payments and particularly expired default notices will put black marks on your credit file, making it harder to get a decent remortgaging deal, if you can get one at all.

Commercial Real Estate Loans in Canada

Commercial Property Loans in Canada

First Published Date : July 28, 2010 ADawnJournal.com

The commercial property market in any country plays a major part in its economy, being the point where retail and investment banking meet. There is a lot of encouragement given by any government in the issue of keeping commercial properties running and finding a way for them to keep up with debt repayments so as to avoid the worrying eventuality of a commercial property closing down – thus depriving the economy of the tax dollars from the property and business itself, and the banks of important money from mortgage repayments. It is a lose-lose-lose situation when one takes into account the owner of the business going bust. Yet there is a very real situation emerging at present which suggests that commercial property loans will need to be looked at very closely in the coming year.

Commercial loans are unlike residential mortgages in that the latter are self-amortizing, and as long as the resident has a well-chosen mortgage their payments will shrink in real terms as the life of the mortgage runs down. At a given point with a commercial loan, the payments may well begin to increase, having been agreed on the basis that profits from business will rise year-on-year. Depending on the nature of the loan, the case may well be that the borrower needs to look at refinancing the loan or repaying it in full. There are billions of dollars’ worth of commercial property loan coming due for refinancing or repayment this year – and several companies who are in no position to meet either of these conditions.

At present, the government and the banks are working together to find the best way of ensuring that the mortgage deals hanging in the balance are restructured in a way that leaves no-one too seriously out of pocket. Although the properties which are bought with commercial real estate loans represent an asset that can be repossessed and re-sold, there is still a large level of reluctance to borrow among the general and business public, raising the spectre of commercial properties remaining vacant for the time being. This leaves the banks with assets of limited worth, the government with a reduced level of tax income from these sources, and civic authorities with the problem of empty properties on their high streets – not encouraging for trade, and considered to be injurious to civic pride and all the things which flow from that.

As we were in a recession with a global reach, there are no short cuts where business and commercial real estate financing is concerned. Foreign investment is no more likely than domestic, as Canada is in better shape than most economies worldwide. In order to keep businesses open and trading, some level of agreement needs to be made between the government and private finance so that the best outcome for everyone is achievable. Anyone looking for a commercial real estate loan at the present time may well be in an advantageous position, as there will be breaks available while the government seeks to encourage lending. Everyone is holding their breath at the moment waiting to see how this recession has had its play coming out of recession. Some proactive conduct on the businessperson’s part at this moment might well be sensible.