In all, the recent report found that house prices have remained fairly flat while London has been helping to increase the national average. In fact, approximately thirteen percent of the national average in sales is due to sales in the capital city. As such, even a slight increase in house prices in London is likely to have a significant impact on the national average, which may create an misleading figures when looking at national statistics. Nonetheless, the recent fall in world stock markets has helped make Eurozone house prices in London a relatively safe bet for investors. Some additional highlights from the report include:

•    House prices in the UK increased by 0.2 percent between August and September of this year, which further increased the amount of stabilization in prices throughout the country
•    House prices in the UK reached £176,553 in September, which is -1.6 percent lower when compared to September of last year
•    The national picture does not accurately represent the diverging trend between the North and South portions of England, as house prices in London have increased by 2.5 percent over the past year while failing -5.2 percent in the North West
•    While house prices grew in London at about the same pace as the rest of the UK in September, they have outpaced the national trend over the year
•    August saw 52,410 new mortgage approvals compared to just 49,644 in July, which represents the highest level seen since May 2010

“In recent months the gulf between asking prices and selling prices has widened as sellers, on average, have been in denial about the true market value of their homes based on the economic realities. This is most keenly observable in the difference between the Rightmove Asking price surveys and the Land Registry data,” said Robert Bartlett, who is Chesterton Humberts’ CEO, in a recent WorldPropertyChannel.com article.  “In addition, buyers appear willing to wait longer at present, without much urgency to make offers or conclude a purchase.”
Bartlett expects to see asking prices fall during the winter, which is traditionally a less active time for home buyers. When the stamp duty relief ends in March, however, he expects to see a major increase in activity. Nonetheless, experts caution that additional steps may be necessary to ensure the housing market continues to stabilize.

“Three years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, credit conditions remain a significant obstacle to improvements in the housing market,” said Douglas McWilliams, who is the Chief Executive of CEBR. “Small improvement in mortgage lending activity will not let the Bank of England off the hook. Another round of quantitative easing is now not only expected, but it is becoming increasingly necessary.”

While the purchase includes 29 neighborhood shopping centers, three of which are located in Ontario, the 24 Jean Coutu leasings represent half of the portfolio’s net income. Other tenants included in the portfolio are Shoppers Drug Mart, IGA, a bank and Dollarama. The leasings have an average remaining lease term of 7.2 years. According to Homburg REIT officials, the company hopes to attract new tenants to the shopping centers, most of which are found in the Greater Montreal area.

“With this deal we continue to grow our footprint in Montreal and Quebec and get access to more high-quality tenants,” Jim Beckerleg, who is the CEO of Homburg Canada Real Estate Investment Trust, is reported as saying in a recent montrealgazette.com article.

In order to purchase the shopping centers, Homburg REIT will assume $74.6 million of existing mortgages as well as $40.3 million of equity. The company is also planning to sell its multi-residential Atlantic region portfolio for $65 million as part of its move away from investing in the residential sector.

“The residential sector is no longer part of our strategy,” said Beckerleg. “We’ll continue to focus on the retail and office sectors of the commercial market.”

After repaying the mortgages on the Atlantic region portfolio, which features 1,261 residential units within 29 properties and 42 buildings, the company will see net proceeds of $37 million. After completing its transactions, REIT’s total Canadian portfolio will include 8 million square feet of commercial leasable space in Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic Canada and the West. Some of the company’s best-known assets include Alexis Nihon Plaza, CN Central Station, Calgary’s Scotia Centre and Centre Lav.

“No matter where you choose to live in Ecuador, there is no better place on earth to discover the simple abundance of health, tranquility, adventure, and beauty,” says expat Patricia Farmer. “We chose Bahía de Caraquez on the coast to begin our Ecuador adventure. There are plenty of amenities, including a hospital, restaurants, and frequent expat get-togethers.”

In determining its rankings, International Living analyzed 37 data points within 8 different categories. These categories included:

•    Real Estate – considers how easy it was to purchase real estate at a low price. Weight: 15%
•    Special Benefits – considers government provisions such as public transport, health care, entertainment, airfares, utilities, property rights for foreign residents, duty-free imports and property tax rates. Weight: 20%
•    Cost of Living – based on statistics provided by the Indexes of Living Costs Abroad, Quarter Allowances, and Hardship Differentials as well as first-hand experiences of the editors of International Living. Weight: 20%
•    Culture – focuses on things such as education as a percentage of GDP, literacy rates and the number of UNESCO sites per square kilometer. Subjective ratings on cultural and recreational offerings were also taken into consideration. Weight: 10%
•    Health Care – considers the cost of a typical visit to a doctor as well as the type of coverage provided by health insurance. Other factors include the number of people per doctor, the percentage of the population that can access safe water, the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people, life expectancy rates, infant mortality rates and public health expenditure as a percentage of the country’s GDP. Weight: 20%
•    Infrastructure – focuses on things such as the length of railways, navigable waterways and paved highways in comparison to the country’s population and size. Other factors, such as the number of motor vehicles, airports, Internet service providers, telephones and cell phones per capita are also taken into consideration. Weight: 5%
•    Safety and Stability – considers the amount of unrest within the country, which is mostly measured by Interpol data and U.S. State Department statistics. Other factors such as political rights and civil rights granted by the government coupled with reports from expatriates living in the country are also considered. Weight: 5%
•    Climate – favors those countries with moderate rain fall, temperate weather throughout the year and little risk of natural disaster.

After Ecuador, Mexico was selected as the second most desirable location for retirees. Panama grabbed the number three position, while Spain took fourth and New Zealand took fifth.

“Investment performance in the rapidly growing countries will be volatile, due to the waves of liquidity that wash over these less mature markets,” said Jacques Gordon, who is the Global Strategist at LaSalle, in a recent Reuters article. “Growth strategies that take advantage of rapid urbanization and a burgeoning middle class will be most successful.”

Gordon went on to add that selective residential developments in China’s second-tier cities are likely to provide the best opportunities. In those areas that are experiencing low growth, such as the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom, LaSalle predicts that real estate investments could receive a boost from the low interest rates as well as the increased flow of equity capital and debt.

“While investor appetite for risk starts to grow once again, value-add and opportunistic investing will be more attractive in the States, with core investing showing the most signs for improvement,” said William Maher, who is the head of U.S. strategy for LaSalle.

Maher went on to forecast that that the United States transaction volume is likely to reach between $150 billion and $200 billion by the end of next year. The most attractive core opportunities are likely to be in the healthcare, technology and entertainment sectors, which could potentially outpace the national average. In Europe, on the other hand, those who are seeking higher returns should set their sights upon those banks that are taking steps to reduce their exposure to property. Further recommendations include focusing on central London and retail offices while avoiding those regions that are outside of the UK’s South East. Offices in France should also provide good returns, as well as retail and logistics and France and Germany.

UBS

UBS maintains that the world economy is on track toward a recovery, citing the fact that it grew an estimated 4.1 percent in 2010. The bank predicts that global growth will slow down a bit in 2011 to 3.7% and then pick up slightly to 3.8% in 2012, with Japan having the slowest growth rate in 2011. The bank also predicts a slow down in emerging economies.

“The lingering constraints of the credit crisis and balance sheet repair, combined with a less-pronounced inventory contribution, suggest that the world economy is unlikely to reduce much of the spare capacity built up during the recession,” said the bank in the article.

Bank of America-Merrill Lynch

Bank of America-Merrill Lynch states that the gap between advanced and emerging economies will be a significant factor next year.

“While economic fundamentals are positive in most emerging markets, banking and real estate crises have created deep and persistent output gaps in the Big Three – the U.S., Japan and Europe. We expect trend-like growth in most economies in the year ahead. Such growth is essential to avoiding overheating in the emerging markets, but it means a very slow healing process in the Big Three,” the bank said in the article.

Due to the gap, the bank predicts an ongoing policy split. Furthermore, the bank predicts that the unbalanced global economy will create several risks including trade and currency tensions, premature policy exit and commodity and asset market bubbles.

Deutsche Bank

Deutsche Bank predicts that the global economy will bounce back and predicts a growth of nearly 4% in 2011, with slightly faster growth in 2010.

“This overall pattern combines two very different pictures: one for economies that have been hit hard by the effects of deflating real estate bubbles and sovereign debt crises and a second for those that suffered more modestly and indirectly from spillovers as global activity declined.”

The bank also predicted that global inflation will pick up modestly, but will continue to be at or below average in Europe, the United States and Japan while remaining elevated in emerging markets. Overall, the bank predicts a 6% global inflation rate in these markets.

Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley believes external imbalances are shrinking as surplus countries engage in the transition from being export-led to consumption-led while deficit countries tend to move in the other direction.

“Reflation: During the rebalancing process, the G3 central banks will likely keep policy very expansionary, which should support the ongoing reflation of the global economy and financial markets. Many emerging market central banks will likely raise rates, but won’t be overly aggressive.”

The bank also foresees reconciliation as governments address the needs of bondholders versus stakeholders.

The method used to calculate home price data in Spain is one of the primary causes of the discrepancy. Rather than gathering the data based on actual sale prices, the formula utilizes the appraisals that have been made by private companies. In a slow market, appraisals are heavily dependent upon asking prices, which results in a great deal of variety in estimated home values.

According to the Ministry of Public Works, the price per square meter on the homes currently for sale dropped by 11% since its peak in 2007. On the other hand, Tinsa, which is a large Spanish appraisal firm, has shown an 18% drop during this same time period. Numerous other firms have placed the drop at somewhere between 20% and 30%.

“We don’t have an accurate measure, that’s the bottom line,” said Jose Garcia Montalvo, who is the chairman of economics and business at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.

The discrepancies between these figures are a matter of concern for investors, particularly after the bailout in Greece and the anticipated rescue of Ireland both failed to produce results. As such, investors are concerned about the possibility of the crisis spreading to other countries throughout Europe. While Portugal is the country that has garnered the most concern, investors are worried about Spain as well.

According to a study conducted by Luis Garicano, who is a professor at the London School of Economics, the housing boom that took place in Spain pushed housing prices up by more than 100%. In fact, two-thirds of the housing units built in Europe between 1999 and 2007 were built in Spain. As housing prices start to decline, it has been difficulty for experts to truly gauge where the value of these homes currently stands. This also means that banks are unable to determine the amount of potential losses they are looking at on their balance sheets.

“It could mean that banks will suffer high loan-loss provisions for many quarters yet,” said Andrew Lim, who is a European banking analyst with Matrix Corporate Capital in London.

About the Author: Brian Kinkade is a broker and team lead with Brokers Guild – Cherry Creek Ltd, one of Denver’s fastest growing full service Denver real estate firm. Brian’s team of Internet savvy agents service the Denver Metro area while specializing in Denver luxury homes, Colorado equestrain property and International real estate.

Last year, the Fall Business Conference was held in Denver, Colorado. This year, the annual event is slated to be held in Seattle, Washington at the Edgewater Hotel, which is located right on the water. Called “Connecting Continents,” participants will learn more about Asian markets as well as international market risks and opportunities. Participants will also learn about foreign investment in Seattle while also learning practical tips that can be applied toward their businesses immediately.

With so many great resources available to participants, there are many reasons to consider attending the FIABCI-USA Fall Business Conference this year. First of all, you will undoubtedly expand your business network. Even better, you will make connections with professionals from around the world as you learn new ideas and practices that you can use to improve your business. With the knowledge you gain at the FIABCI-USA Fall Business Conference, you will set yourself apart from the competition as you demonstrate a broader understanding and reach within your industry.

In addition to learning from the expertise of others, you will also have the opportunity to share your knowledge with other participants. As you break down into internationally-focused groups, you will get plenty of opportunities to get to know other participants. At the same time, the groups are large enough to provide you with the opportunity to meet with a wide variety of individuals with different types of expertise to share with you. Whether you are interested in the international market or you need to make some legal connections, you are certain to find the connections you are looking for when you attend the FIABCU-USA Fall Business Conference.

In addition to helping you expand your professional network, attending the FIABCU-USA Fall Business Conference will provide you with plenty of opportunity to make lifelong friends. As you enjoy the camaraderie of your peers, you are almost guaranteed to meet someone who you connect with. Hopefully, some of these professional relationships will ultimately translate into lifelong friendships that you will be grateful for finding.

Overall U.K. house prices in the second quarter increased by 1.9 percent quarter-on-quarter. This resulted in an annual growth rate of 9.5 percent, up from 8.8 percent recorded in the first quarter of 2010.

According to Nationwide’s quarterly index, the South West of the country showed the strongest regional growth, with prices up by a seasonally adjusted 3.0 percent, and up 12.5 percent annually.  London had the strongest growth overall.  Its prices increased 13.2 percent in the second quarter. Growth in northern and midland regions was weaker than in the southern regions.

Indicators point to an increase in the number of properties for sale while the level of demand remains stable. “This would in part help to explain the recent slowdown observed in the rate of house price inflation,” said Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide’s Chief Economist.

These predictions are being made after the market experienced better than expected activity during the first quarter, a time during which the market is traditionally quiet. At the same time, Jones Lange LaSalle cautions that there was also a 75% increase during the first quarter of 2008, at which time volumes managed to reach €20 billion.

When comparing the first quarter of 2010 to the last quarter of 2009, transactions are actually down by 15%. Nonetheless, analysts are confident the market is in a good position for the remainder of the year. This is particularly true in the UK, where the transaction volume of €7.8 billion accounted for more than one-third of all transactions and remained consistent with figures from the previous quarter. Three other countries, France, Germany and Sweden, followed closely behind, with each experiencing an increase in activity when compared to the previous year.

“The first quarter of the year is typically one of the slowest quarters; investors do not have the urgency to press on and close deals as they do toward the end of the year. Typically the first quarter is some 20 to 30% below the fourth quarter, so we do not read a 15% decrease as a sign of a slowing market,” said Richard Bloxam, who is the Director of EMEA Capital Markets with Jones Lang LaSalle, in a Property Wire article. “We expect investment activity to increase throughout the year. Already a number of transactions over €100 million and portfolio deals are under offer in the market. We estimate that direct commercial European real estate transaction volumes will reach at least €90 billion for the full year. This will be around 30% higher than 2009.”

Nigel Roberts, who is the Chairman of EMEA Research with Jones Lang LaSalle agrees, saying there is a growing amount of investor interest in obtaining quality real estate.

“This has clearly been demonstrated by movement in prime office yields when compressed in the majority of the European markets in the first quarter of 2010,” said Roberts. “London prime yields moved in by 50 basis points and continental European markets between 10 to 50 basis points with only a handful of markets remaining stable. Whilst economic recovery still remains fragile, business confidence is generally rising and with improved credit conditions the demand for real estate from core investors is driving down yields. In the short term interest rates sill offer positive cash flow opportunities for leveraged buyers but longer term investors will be looking for improving fundamentals translating into stronger rental markets.”

Residential property prices in Australia increased by 11.3 percent after the country’s modest 3.8 percent peak-to-trough falls in 2008. According to the latest published information from RP Data and Riskmark International, the best performing city was Darwin with prices up 17.9%. Adelaide was the worst, recording just a 5.7% increase.

The volume of mortgages last year rose 10 to 12 percent and is expected to grow 4 to 5 percent this year, according to Mark Hewitt, general manager sales and operations, of Australian Finance Group. Investors now represent about 34 percent of all mortgages arranged by AGF, up from 25 percent a year ago. For example, two out of every five mortgages arranged in NSW were for investment properties.

Hewitt said investors looked to property as a ‘safe bet’ to offset the volatility in the share market and general uncertainties surrounding other forms of investment. Investors have been coming back since the middle of last year to take advantage of a tight rental market.

Ordinary families are waiting instead of upgrading. In comparison, property investors, able to take a long term view, are hoping to ride a new upward cycle in property values.