Open trade and international standards have helped to increase competitiveness, with international trade barriers eased by new laws and regulations. Inward foreign investment has been encouraged.

Cairo, the capital, the Arab World’s largest and Africa’s most populous city could reap the benefits.

With its mix of historical and modern cultural sights, including the Pyramids, the Sphinx, Saladin’s Citadel and the Old City, Cairo is nicknamed “The City of A Thousand Minarets”. Located on the banks and islands of the River Nile in the north of Egypt, the oldest part of the city is east of the river, and the city gradually spreads west, taking in agricultural lands next to the Nile.

While eastern Cairo is filled with hundreds of ancient mosques, the western part is dominated by government buildings and modern architecture.

Egypt has some compelling economic factors:

• Free EU trade agreement signed and in place
• Increasing real GPD growth 7.2% pa in 2007
• GDP forecast at 7.5% in 2008
• Inflation dropped from 18.1% in 2004 to 3.1% in 2006
• Steady annual growth in tourism: a growing market for investment

With an excellent climate to boot, look out for more developments coming soon in Egypt.

Egypt looks good for future opportunities is a post from: PROPERTYHOUSE.org

Technorati Tags: Cairo property, Egypt, Old City Cairo, The City of A Thousand Minarets

Interest rates are low – yes, like they are in the US and the UK, but inflation is stable and employment levels are rising better than ever before. Brazil is the most stable country in South America and produces over 40 per cent of Latin America’s GDP; it is now in ninth position for purchasing power in the world. Add to that political stability, infrastructure investment, an abundance of natural resources, booming tourism and an enviable climate, and it is easy to see why the country is doing so well.

Such good indicators have encouraged foreigners to invest in the country. Investors from the US have already begun to invest in the Brazilian property market as property in their own country proved too risky. Now Europeans are beginning to follow suit.

With domestic wealth increasing, the demand for property is growing at its fastest rate ever in the country, with more and more Brazilians getting on their own property ladder. Developers are struggling to keep up with demand. Foreigners getting in on the act now – still early adopters – should see the value of their property rise considerably in the coming years.

Here are some key economic facts about Brazil:

· It is one of the four BRIC nations expected to become world economic superpowers in the future (along with Russia, India and Chima)

· It is self-sufficient in natural resources

· It has a trade surplus and the third highest economic growth in the world (behind China and India)

· There is 64 per cent projected growth of the middle classes

· Cost of living is a quarter of that in UK/ Europe

More on Brazil and its developments to come soon.

Brazil is ripe for investment is a post from: PROPERTYHOUSE.org

Technorati Tags: Brazil, Brazil for Investments, BRIC

Top of the pile is PANAMA. It has a strong economy, a favourable tax regime, and businesses are attracted by its offshore banking facilities. This makes it attractive for property investors, who can choose between offices, beachside resorts, and hotel occupancy deals. By the way in the UK, if you are taking coals to Newcastle – you might be interested in Cheap accommodation Newcastle

In second place is Kuala Lumpur in MALAYSIA. It’s a booming city, with property that’s still affordable, and can be reached fairly easily by budget airlines (always a key factor in property prices for UK investors).

Next comes Brazil. It’s a vast country, so it’s best to narrow it down to the north-eastern city area of Natal, with clean air and much untouched space, as well as a warm year-round climate and miles of sandy beaches. Also, the city of Sao Paulo has high demand for quality accommodation in a large and growing city.

In fourth place is the High Tatras mountain region of Slovakia with winter sports in winter, and golfing, walking and other nature-related activities in the summer.

Coming next is the United States, tipped because property prices could be about to bottom out. In Florida, apartments are going for 54 per cent less than launch price, and offer an instant six per cent return.

Sixth in the list is the UK. Again, here, property prices might soon bottom out, and for overseas investors the weak pound will make property look attractive. To overseas investors, property in the UK looks to be 54 per cent cheaper than 12 months ago.

Property hotspots for 2009 is a post from: PROPERTYHOUSE.org

Technorati Tags: hotspot property, X hotspot property 2009

A new project, Modransky Haj in Prague gives property investors a chance to become part of the Eastern European property market. With a good record in recent years of capital growth and rental income, Prague is well positioned to ride out the global credit crunch and give investors a good return.

Developers Quinlan are introducing a new residential project called Modranský Háj in Prague. The project offers a combination of modern, well-designed residential accommodation in an exceptional location not far from the centre of Prague – yet with nature on its doorstep.

The development will consist of homes on small streets among landscaped squares and low-rise houses. The whole project will be built  with an infrastructure which creates a practical and comfortable living environment. Modransky Haj is situated just next to a large forest ‘Modranska rokle – Cholupice’ which brings ideal conditions for family living.

Mod?anský Háj will offer excellent build quality, well-designed dwellings, private garages and terraces, balconies or gardens with many opportunities for free time activities in safe and private surroundings.

The development is located in area Prague 12, just 15 minutes from the centre of Prague, but with a forest right next door. The whole development is surrounded by greenery and paved sidewalks, there will be a children`s playground as well as retail services. Prague 12 will be a popular district in Prague thanks to its location near the Vltava river, woodlands, golf courses and its easy access to the main highways.

Financing

• Reservation fee of 50,000 CZK plus VAT
• 15% of the purchase price at signing of future purchase agreement
• 85% of the purchase price at signing of purchase contract

Apartments
selection from 1kk (studio) to 3kk (2 bedrooms)
choice between balcony, terrace or garden
cellar and underground parking with each unit

Gallery Houses
3kk (2 bedrooms with one en-suite)
choice of private garden or roof terrace
cellar and underground parking with each unit

Villa Houses
2kk (1 bedroom) with private one car garage, terrace and/or garden
4kk (3 bedrooms with one en-suite), private two-car garage, storage room and garden

Semi-detached Houses
5kk (4 bedrooms with one en-suite)
two car garage with spacious storage room
private garden facing directly to the woodlands

See www.europeanpropertypurchases.com for more information on Modransky Haj in Prague

Modransky Haj in Prague offers a great opportunity is a post from: PROPERTYHOUSE.org

Technorati Tags: czech republic, Modransky Haj, prague

The number of British tourists visiting Lanzarote continues to rise. Despite collapsing airlines, a weak pound and falling disposable incomes.  As new figures just released by the Spanish airport authority AENA reveal a 7.9% year on year growth of holidaymakers from the UK visiting the Island of Fire during August.

In total 571,851 British tourists have visited Lanzarote during the first eight months of 2008, a trend which if extended across the rest of the year will represent the islands best performance in the UK market place since 2003.

Lanzarote is now also firmly established as the most popular destination in the whole of Spain with Irish holiday makers.  With over 200,000 tourists from Eire expected to visit the island during the course of this year.

As a result on-going demand for good quality holiday rental property in Lanzarote is increasing – not least as owners benefit from a year round rental calendar too thanks Lanzarote´s clement climate – as temperatures rarely fall below 20C even in the depths of winter.

As elsewhere in Europe property prices on Lanzarote have started to fall in recent months – enabling investors to get a foot on the property ladder for as little as €65,000 (around £52,000).

Investing in Lanzarote

So where are the hottest spots on the island for overseas investors?

Tourism on Lanzarote took off in Puerto del Carmen – a former fishing village called La Tiñosa which today is Lanzarote´s most popular resort.  Particularly amongst British and Irish visitors – who are drawn by the excellent beaches and wide selection of bars and restaurants.

Apartment complexes predominate in Puerto del Carmen – with only two main hotels servicing the resort.  In recent years many of these complexes have undergone extensive renovation – and the island tourist authorities are now pressing ahead with plans to pedestrianise the main Avenida de Las Playas in the heart of the resort.  In order to further enhance Puerto del Carmen´s appeal as a holiday destination.  A long awaited new golf course will also be opening just outside the resort by the end of this year too.

The Bitacora Apartments in the heart of Puerto del Carmen are a good example of a revitalised complex.  Featuring 72 one and two bed apartments in attractive and well maintained grounds with good communal facilities and pool – all just five minutes walk from the resorts main beach.

The apartments have been refurbished to a high standard – featuring brand new kitchens, appliances, furnishings and additional extras such as broadband connections and satellite TV.  Prices at the Bitacora start start from €99,000 for a one bed apartment.

Just ten minutes away from Puerto del Carmen lies the emerging resort of Matagorda, which is especially popular with Irish tourists.  Dut to its tranquil atmosphere, good quality beaches and minimal transfer time from the islands airport.

The recently refurbished Matagorda Bay complex is generating plenty of interest amongst overseas investors – as it is the only fully renovated sea view complex offering apartments for sale in the whole of the resort.

As a result around 70% of the units here have already been snapped up by buyers impressed with the quality of the communal facilities and the high spec of the renovation. Which has been handled by one of the island’s leading developers.

Key features include ergonomically designed, stylish modern interiors, flat screen TV´s and wireless internet connection. Top quality fixtures, fittings and furnishings are also included in the prices – which start from €99,950 for a studio apartment and €119,950 for a one bedroom apartment.

British Tourism To Lanzarote Continues To Rise is a post from: PROPERTYHOUSE.org

Technorati Tags: Investing in Lanzarote, Matagorda Bay, Puerto del Carmen, Tourists Visiting Lanzarote

Prague

Capital city Prague is a wonderful place, with buildings hundreds of years old remaining untouched by the wars that have run through the country. The River Vltava separates the medieval town on the east bank from the steep bank on the west with cobbled streets, museums, cathedral and royal palace. Now these beautiful buildings are being joined by new developments as old Communist blocks are torn down.

Prague for Investors

Demand from foreign investors for property has steadily increased, and Prague has become attraction for investors, not only because of its tourist attraction for a second home, but also for its rental possibilities. Prices in Prague have almost doubled in the last two or three years, so now investors are looking further afield for bargains.

The district of Beroun is in the south-west part of Central Bohemia near to Prague. It has excellent links to the capital by road and rail. The beautiful region has varied landscape and can boast of the prestigious golf course near Karlstejn Castle. Only 25km from Prague, but with a country feel, the region is expected to boom in the next few years, with the overspill of Prague workers looking for commuter areas. Beroun fits the bill. Companies such as Lidl, Hypernova, Skoda, Kia Motors, Best Western Hotels, Kaufland, Delvita, Billa, Ceskomoravsky Cement, Kostal, Tipsport, Linde Frigera and Hornschuh all have a presence in Beroun and there is also an Ikea store close by on the D5 highway. Beroun is one of the fastest growing regions in the Czech Republic with property prices conservatively estimated to be rising at 15% per annum.

The Mill at Janska

A new development just 2km east of Beroun is The Mill at Janska. Only a short walk from local amenities including shops, schools, railway and bus stations, restaurants and several factories it is perfect for rentals to the local market.

This is a conversion project from an old mill. The development will consist of 24 units (16 studio apartments, seven one-bedroom apartments and one two-bedroom apartment), all including fully fitted kitchens, bathrooms and floor covering in the purchase price, as is one parking space per apartment. Each unit is offered with an optional two-year 6% rental guarantee, assuring you of a rental income each month. The minimum deposit required is just 50,000 CZK exchange of contracts—this is just £1,600 at the current exchange rate. The Mill is due for completion at the end of March 2009 and tenants are already lined up to move in to the property—showing just how high demand is for these modern properties in the area. The beautiful high ceilings and fantastic views of the stunning countryside in Beroun makes this project in particular a sought after investment.

Prices for studio apartments start at around £45,000, and can be bought for a total capital outlay of just over £7,000.

These won’t last long.

Czech Republic gives excellent value for property investment is a post from: PROPERTYHOUSE.org

Technorati Tags: czech republic, prague, The Mill at Janska

The Eighteenth Dynasty (1550-1292 BC) were the biggest property developers of ancient Egypt. They kicked off the New Kingdom, ancient Egypt’s ‘Golden Age’, and successfully reversed the property slump of the preceding Second Intermediate Period. So cheer up, things are bound to improve, they always have. Two of the Dynasty’s most prolific developers were Queen Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, her stepson and nephew (work that one out!) Let’s try. Thutmose III was the son of Thutmose II by his ‘secondary’ wife, Iset. When Thutmose Senior died, Thutmose Junior was too young to rule, so Thutmose Senior’s ‘primary’ wife, Hatshepsut became Pharaoh. Thutmose Jr wanted to become Pharaoh, so, to bolster his Royal claim, married Hatshepsut’s (and his father’s) daughter Neferure. Hopefully readers in Norfolk and Kentucky are following this. I still don’t get the aunt bit.

Anyway, the upturn in the New Kingdom economy gave Hatshepsut the pharonic clout and slave-power she needed for some serious building projects. In an early example of Girl Power, she resolved to out-build all of Egypt’s previous tomb-builders and earn herself a place in construction history. Hatshepsut’s personal Trump Tower is the mortuary temple complex at Deir el-Bahri. Pedants might point out that, unlike Trump Tower, Hatshepsut’s complex was built for dead people. Well, yes, technically they were all dead, but they believed they were immortal, so let’s not split hairs.

The focus of the complex is the awe-inspiring Djeser-Djeseru (Holy of Holies,) Hatshepsut’s Temple. It’s not known how many architects tendered for the project, but the contract went, unsurprisingly, to Hatshepsut’s lover, Senemut. Senemut’s design included a vast number of royal and non-royal tombs. It was common practice, in the New Kingdom, to move mummies around from time to time, and from tomb to tomb, and here’s where the timeshare and fractional ownership come in.

Hatshepsut’s first tomb was built when she was still Great Royal Wife of Thutmose II, but when she became Pharaoh, she knew she’d need a bigger tomb, so built a new one, now known as KV20. She then dug up her father Thutmose I from his tomb (KV38) and put his mummy in a Grandad-flat in tomb KV20. When she died, Thutmose III moved his Grandad back to KV38 and moved Auntie Hatshepsut’s mummy into the tomb of her wet-nurse, Sitre-Re (KV60.) Further confusion about Hatshepsut’s whereabouts followed when an ivory box was found in the Royal Mummy Cache at DB320. The box contained a mummified liver, and was inscribed ‘Hatshepsut.’ Fractional ownership indeed.

Tomb-looting was a problem even back then. In about 1000 BC, 153 priests had to move the mummies of forty Pharaohs, including Thutmose III, to a safer, new tomb in the complex. We know it took 153 priests, because they’re all in there too. Hatshepsut’s mummy finally turned up, DNA-verified, in 2006, on the third floor of Cairo Museum, which suggests, in addition to her many building accomplishments, a great love of travel.

A Brief History of Timeshare III: Ancient Egypt is a post from: PROPERTYHOUSE.org

Technorati Tags: ancient egypt, Hatshepsut's Temple, necropolis

Well, it might have been. In the first century AD, the Bay of Naples was the Florida of the Roman empire. Battle-weary generals and overworked senators would flock from Rome to this tourist hotspot for its entertainment (feeding Christians to lions,) watersports (pushing Chrisitians off galleys) and nightlife (pushing Christians off galleys, at night.) We know all this thanks to the Pliny family. The Plinys had a place across the bay at Misenum, and spent most summers there. Pliny the Youger was a great letter-writer, and his surviving letters give a detailed account of life, business, architecture and even garden-design in one of the world’s first purpose-built holiday resorts.

What about the earth-tremors? Well, yes, they did occur every couple of years, but the worst that tended to happen was a few roof-tiles falling off and killing a slave, so nobody paid them much attention. Property development continued apace and more and more luxury villas went up beside the shimmering sunkissed sands and the shimmering sunkissed volcano. Then, in AD 62, disaster.

No, not the one you’re thinking of – an earthquake. Half of Pompeii was seriously damaged, including the vast townhouse of Julia Felix. Julia Felix wasn’t a folk singer, she was a property heiress, who responded to the natural disaster with history’s first fractional ownership scheme. Problem #1 she couldn’t afford all the repairs on her house. Problem #2 there were lots of wealthy but suddenly homeless Pompeiians. Solution: Julia repaired the least-damaged part of her house, divided it into apartments and sold them. With the proceeds, she gradually transformed her former house (it was very big) into a condominium complex, complete with shops, taverns, more apartments and public baths. You can visit the House of Julia Felix today, and some of Julia’s promotional material has survived in the form of an inscription, which boasts that her shared swimming pool is “good enough for Venus.”

OK, now for the one you’re thinking of – the eruption of Vesuvius on 24th August AD 79. The runaway success of Julia Felix Towers™ was cut short, as those who could, er, ran away. Just about everything else in Pompeii was cut short that day, including the House of the Faun, the House of the Vettii and the Villa of Mysteries. Whilst there’s no hard evidence to suggest that these magnificent villas were timeshare properties, there’s none to suggest that they weren’t, and that’s good enough for me. What we do know is that they were decorated with extremely rude murals. So rude, in fact, that King Francis I of Naples had them removed in 1819 to a secret room at the National Museum, to be viewed only by “people of mature age and respected morals”. If that applies to you, go see.

Next time – Pyramid-selling in ancient Egypt

A Brief History of Timeshare II: Pompeii is a post from: PROPERTYHOUSE.org

Technorati Tags: bay of naples, pompeii, vesuvius

1. Cave-Share

The Lascaux caves can be found in the Dordogne department of France, and contain beautiful and elaborate wall-paintings from the Upper Paleolithic era (about 16,000 years ago.) The Lascaux cave-system contains several chambers, including The Great Hall of the Bulls, the Lateral Passage, the Shaft of the Dead Man, the Chamber of Engravings, the Painted Gallery, and the Chamber of Felines.

This immediately suggests a condominium arrangement, whereby individual owner-occupiers were at liberty to paint bulls or cats on their walls, whilst general responsibility for access, draughts, cold running water and bats would have fallen to a housing association. It is only a short step from here to realise that these luxury appartments, set in a breathtaking location in a highly-sought-after part of France, would quickly have attracted the interest of the Paleolithic leisure industry.

Little is known about the timeshare agents of this period, though it’s reasonable to assume that there would have been good and bad ones, as there are today. A good agent would have had no trouble finding buyers for The Great Hall of the Bulls or The Painted Gallery, though The Shaft of the Dead Man might possibly have required a harder sell. Here’s where the bad guys come in. Prospective clients would be lured to a cave-share promotion with free stone axes, and would then innocently hand over their hard-earned sabre-tooth-tiger, er, sabre-teeth, in return for a draughty, damp cave in an unfashionable part of the complex. With a dead man in it.

Some prehistoric human remains found at the Hönne caves in Germany show signs of violence and even cannibalism. This strongly suggests a Holiday Club hotel promotion which went badly wrong. Today’s hapless victims of promotional scams often find that they’ve parted with thousands of pounds for non-existent timeshares. At the promotion, they are subject to aggressive sales techniques, and then find that they are, for whatever reason, unable to obtain legal redress. Cro-Magnon man was more direct in his response. If he discovered he’d been ripped off, he simply ate the promoter.

Frequently, timeshare properties turn out to be very different from the way they are described at the promotion. Gorham’s Cave, on the South side of the Rock of Gibraltar, is today only a few metres from the sea. When it was occupied by Neanderthal man 28,000 years ago, however, it was about 5 kilometres inland. This is a classic case of non-disclosure of crucial information regarding a timeshare property. Imagine how the owners must have kicked themselves as they saw the sea-level rise over 28 millennia.

Next time … Villa-share in the Roman era.

A Brief History of Time (-share) is a post from: PROPERTYHOUSE.org

Technorati Tags: Dordogne, history of time