The ECB and Housing - a problem that needs to be cooled

The ECB announced today, their decision to hold European rates steady at 3%. With regards to housing ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet stated in the press conference that housing was "a real problem that has to be cooled" Trichet described housing as a dynamic element of the overall European economy, even if it wasn't "so much of a problem in Germany, but it's changing." Trichet stated that the ECB's priority was to cool down "abnormal behavoir". Click here for the press conference. His comments on housing are 41 minutes into the webcast

What's really happening in Turkey

So far this morning, we spoke with 2 of our developer friends in the Republic of Turkey to try to find out what is really going on over there. Our close friend Tacettin Nalban (aka Charlie) of Charlie's Real Estate (here's his Skype ID) described what was happening as stupid and reminded us that only a small percentage of Turkish people actually approve or endorse terrorism in any form. Charlie pleaded with us to remember London's 7/7 as an example; and that the majority of Londoners disapproved of what happened and that it's basically the same in Turkey right now.
Charlie also wanted us to mention that he's got beautiful seaside properties in the resort town of Kusadasi, a few miles east of Izmir, Turkey's third biggest city. Prices start around £70,000 and if anyone's interested email us and we'll be happy to provide more information.
We also spoke with our friends over at FSBO Turkey this morning, who skyped us from Mersin, another resort town in the south of the country (not far from Cyprus). FSBO Turkey were also saddened by this weekends events, but reminded us that "this shit happens some times" and that terroism is a "global problem." We had planned to speak with FSBO Turkey earlier today but are a little bit bogged down after the long holiday weekend here in London. Hopefully we will be able to catch up with them tomorrow or sometime soon to get a better idea as to what's really happening right now in Turkey.

Thoughts on Yahoo Real Estate

Yahoo! yesterday launched their re-vamped real estate site; now featuring mortgage rate information and Zillow integration.
We assume with the Zillow partnership, Yahoo Real Estate wouldn't be making any international expansion plans anytime soon, or for that matter any ventures into the commercial property market; being that Zillow is completely focused on the US housing market. Nevertheless, we did email Vivek Gupta Senior Manager at Yahoo! Real Estate to find if they're prepared to tell us what's happening and will keep you posted if we get a response
Yahoo! Search blog: Searching for Mortgage Rates and Real Estate

UPDATE -
Dustin from Rain City Guide is hosting some really good questions for Yahoo! Real Estate; and we managed to get one in on their plans for international expansion. Here are the questions, hopefully he will have an answer soon which we will post or link to here.

1) Do you have any plans to go international?
2) Do you have any plans for adding RSS based real estate searches in the future? How about an RSS feeds for mortgage rate information?
3) What can you tell us about the relationship between Yahoo and Prudential?
4) Who do you see as your biggest competition/threat? Mainstream portals (Microsoft, Google), the new players (Trulia) or is it the brokers themselves, many of whom are integrated web searches into their own site?
5) Do you have any plans to include real estate blogs in your real estate headlines?
6) Can a non-prudential Realtor use this resource to promote their personal brand or listings?
7) If so, what are the requirements Brokers or MLS’ must meet to be included in Yahoo results?

Lessons from Australia - the problem is not yet over

With average house prices doubling from 1996 to 2003, Australia experienced one of the strongest housing market bull runs in recent history.
Four interest rate increases during 2002 and 2003 took the wind out of housing, but the resulting slowdown was remarkably modest by historical standards. But even though the market is clearly contracting, the Reserve Bank of Australia resumed tightening interest rates with increases in May and August of this year.
According to economists, Mike Buchanan and Michael Vaknin, of Goldman Sachs, the housing market in Australia peaked right as the country began to benefit from the global commodity boom. Company profits have surged, allowing businesses to pay and hire more while propelling a bull run in equities that has almost doubled the main share index since 2003.

Since more than half of adult Australians own shares, the strong [equity] market has bolstered personal wealth and cushioned the blow from a flat housing market. The boon also led to a windfall of tax receipts that allowed the government to slash taxes, eliminate net debt and still run sizable budget surpluses

This article examines the differnces between the current Austraila bust and the pending US downturn:

There, a string of budget deficits has lifted the U.S. national debt to $8.5 trillion - 13 times Australia's annual economic output.
"The global commodity boom came just as the housing market was tipping over and saved Australia from a likely recession," said Su-Lin Ong, senior economist at RBC Capital Markets. "What will save the U.S. as their housing market turns? Consumers are in debt up to their eyeballs and fiscal policy is maxed out."

Of course, the problem is not yet over for Australian consumers. What happens if the commodity market nosedives in the near future? Entirely different topic for an entirely different forum

Australia market correction: property prices fall 40% in Sydney

UPDATED
We've changed our original title "Australia market crash" to Australia market correction. Even though prices are falling rapidly in Sydney, it seems like the opposite is happening in Perth. According to this article in The Herald:

The nation's mining boom city, Perth, continued to post extraordinary price increases for established homes.
June quarter prices in the West Australian capital jumped 11.9 per cent since the March quarter and are up a whopping 35.4 per cent over the past year.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said June quarter prices were up across all state and territory capitals, pushing the overall house price index up 3.1 per cent after a 1.1 per cent rise in the previous quarter.

Just proves the point that in most cases, real estate markets are extremely localized

A three bedroom house in Sydney's St Clair sold for just $260,000 at the weekend - down about 42 per cent from its last sale at $450,000 in 2003 in a further sign of the depressed state of the Sydney property market.
The Herald checked 16 properties in south-western and western suburbs listed at the weekend and found 60 per cent had prices or had attracted offers at a discount to their last sale price.
Increasing petrol prices appear to be compounding the impact of repeated interest rate rises on properties in Sydney's outlying suburbs by driving prices down.
Lethbridge Park, near Penrith, recorded the second highest fall, when a townhouse that sold for $257,000 in 2003 was resold by mortgagees for $156,500, reflecting a roughly 40 per cent fall.
At Heckenberg, a four-bedroom house that sold for $330,000 in 2003 resold at $255,000 in another mortgagee sale. Four of the seven registered buyers put in bids before the Adaminaby Street house sold at an approximate 22 per cent discount to the property-boom price.
Given it has been 16 years since the last recession, long-time estate agents fear the fate of a generation of owners who had not experienced having a loan when times were tough.

"There was a wave of people punting on the expectation of constant price rises until well into 2004, even after the three interest rate rises of late 2003. There has been significant price deflation and many now have negative equity in their homes. There are some sad stories. But we have to show the sellers the comparable sales and say honestly this is where the market is realistically at."

[via theage.com.au]

Hometrack reports UK house price rise 4% in August

Hometrack said house prices rose 3.9 percent in August compared with a year earlier, the highest rise since September 2004 when they rose 4.6 percent; a sign the Bank of England's surprise interest rate hike this month has not yet hit market sentiment.
But Hometrack's director of research, Richard Donnell believes that: "talk of further rate rises, is set to have a clear impact on market sentiment and levels of market activity.
The result will be less upward pressure on house prices over the autumn and slower house price growth."
[viaReuters]

Extate launches "version 2" - introduces natural language search

Artemi Krymski, founder of property search engine extate.com emailed us this afternoon about the "new extate" version 2, with some cool new features; including a much expanded database of UK estate agents and more information on the search results page including price per sq ft, lease expiry dates etc.
One interesting development is extate's "natural language search" functionality, which I guess functions more like a "regular" search engine (i.e google, or yahoo)
For example, we typed in "flats for rent in chelsea" in extate's search box and got 185 organic results. When we tried the same search in zoomf.com we got a list of propertys for sale in chelsea. Nestoria also had problems and invited us to "try some of our most popular London property searches" and after about 3 or 4 pages ononemap instructed us to "type the postcode".
"Traditional" property search engines like rightmove.co.uk and finaproperty.com all have the option on their home page to search for either "lets" or "sales" and most of the new players seem to be going in that direction. Extate is venturing into a bold new direction and it will be intertesting to see how or if consumers react to it.
extate: the property & real estate search engine
related post

Introducing the "inter-generational" debt that never dies

Recent research from Abbey indicates that first-time buyers take it for granted that they will get parental assistance in order to get onto the property ladder. Not only do many live at home for a considerable time in order to save money, but parents are also expected to give generously from their savings to help out financially, and even lend a hand when moving in.
But in a radical new "inter-generational" mortgage, parents can take some comfort (and pay-back) by handing down their home loans onto their children:

In a revolutionary move, homeowners would never need to repay a single penny of their mortgage before they die. Instead, the debt will be passed to their offspring, allowing them to slash the amount of inheritance tax they would have to pay.
One expert yesterday nicknamed the new mortgages as 'the debt that never dies' as the loans can continue to be passed on through the generations.

Building society, Kent Reliance is apparantley launching an 'inter-generational mortgage.' Kent Reliance CEO Mike Lazenby was quoted as saying: 'We thought about calling it the Death Bed Mortgage but we thought that would be a bit morbid. It could be the loan that never gets repaid.'

more via immobilienblasen

Part 2: Brits on the move - to Australia

To follow yesterday's post on British migration, Hitwise is reporting that Australia tops the UK's travel search destinations with "flights to Australia" as the number one search term last week:

• Whilst searches for many popular destinations declined last week, searches for "flights to australia", "flights to tenerife", and "flights to turkey" all increased. Searches for "flights to Australia" were no doubt buoyed by the cricket matches over the weekend and anticipation of the Ashes tour.
• New York was hard hit, with searches for "flights to new york" moving from position 5 among the most searched-for flight destinations to position 10. Searches for "flights to new york" also experienced the largest week-on-week decline in share of searches, down 56% week-on-week and 4% year-on-year.

Hitwise UK

Paris - homelessness "embarrasing"

In Paris between 2,000 and 5,000 people are estimated to sleep on the streets every night. Médecins du Monde, an aid charity, began distributing up to 300 tents last December to provide winter shelter and to raise attention for the problem. By July city officials counted more than 450 tents in encampments around the city, many of them near the Seine and around public parks. Confronted by public pressure over the embarrassing eye-sore of these tents, particularly during the peak tourist season, the city announced in mid-August a €7m ($8.9m) emergency-housing package for more than 1,100 new hostel beds and a 24-hour emergency centre. The plan is to transform temporary night shelters into places where the homeless can stay through the day.
[via Economist.com]

Brits on the move this holiday weekend

This August Bank Holiday, the UK is downing tools and turning its back on long weekend lie-ins in favour of moving house!
Today, Pickfords, the UK’s largest moving company, launches the results of its annual Move Monitor which reveals that Thursday 24th August is the busiest moving day of the year, as literally hundreds of families choose to move house.
The Move Monitor which tracks around 19,000 home moves each year, pinpoints where the nation is moving to and from. And this year, the monitor reveals that more people are moving to Perth than Preston, Plymouth or even Putney! Pickfords’ research revealed Perth as the most popular international city destination, with more people migrating there than any single UK city.
When it comes to moves in and around the UK, this year Nottingham is the most desired destination. Top of the city hotspots for the first time, Nottingham experienced more moves into and within the city than any other, knocking Glasgow to a number two position. Newcastle and Bristol are on the rise, whilst newcomers Bath and Reading came in at number 9 and number 10 respectively.
But overall it’s those Southerners that love nothing more than moving house, 40% of all Pickfords’ moves were within or to the South.

UK’s Top Ten Moving Destinations by city
(2005 position in brackets):

1. Nottingham (2)
2. Glasgow (1)
3. Newcastle Upon Tyne (5)
4. Bristol (4)
5= Edinburgh (3)
5= Cambridge (7)
7. York (6)
8. Southampton (8)
9. Bath (new entry)
10. Reading (new entry)

Top relocation destinations:
(% of total 6,160 moves)

1. Australia – 31%
2. New Zealand – 11%
3. USA – 10.5%
4. Canada – 6%
5. South Africa – 5%
6. Spain – 4.5%
7. France – 3.5%
8. United Arab Emirates – 3.5%
9. Cyprus – 2%
10. Germany – 1.5%

Regional Movers and Shakers

· South East: Most active moving region in the UK experienced a quarter of all UK moves (25%). 61% of all movers stay in the region, while 22% of people moving to a new region chose the South East

· South West: Experienced the largest number of moves into the region from other areas of the UK, with just over 50% of movers arriving from outside the South West

· Scotland: Top of the pops for people staying put. Of those movers within the region, nearly two thirds (65%) remained in Scotland

· North West: The only region to experience a significant increase in moving activity over the past year, with 22.5% more moves than 2005. Of all the region’s moves, 59% were into the North West from other parts of the UK

· London: Only accounted for 7.5% of total moving activity. Almost twice as many movers left the capital than moved in from other areas, meaning London suffered the highest net loss of all regions

Pickfords’ spokesperson Lyndsey Daykin isn’t surprised that the August bank holiday is such a popular time to move. “ We see a huge surge in house moves during the month of August. Our customers are keen to make the most of the extra day off work; the good weather and the fact children are still off school, so come Autumn they are settled in a new home.”

The Move Monitor has also revealed that more people are moving abroad than ever before. A third (33%) of those surveyed are heading overseas – an increase of 11.5% on last year, the most popular place for Brits to relocate is Australia with just under a third of overseas home movers heading down under, an increase of 14% from last year. Almost all of the top ten saw in increase in numbers moving there since last year, with Dubai experiencing a massive 31% increase, due to the booming property market.
According to Daykin, “The monitor revealed that whilst Australia remains the firm relocation favourite, Pickfords relocated people further a field than ever before. This year we moved twice as many people to Bulgaria as last year, and almost as many people to United Arab Emirates as to France, which shows just how the international property market is changing. Organising relocations to 104 countries around the world, from Argentina to Zambia, the Move Monitor reveals that people are prepared to consider all parts of the globe as their home."

Persimmon profits up!

Persimmon, the only housebuilder in the FTSE 100 index , reported a 16 percent rise in first-half pretax profit to a record 271.5 million pounds, beating analysts expectations according to a poll conducted by the company.
But the firm, which bolstered its position as the top British housebuilder after completing an acquisition of smaller rival Westbury in January, forecast house price growth would be subdued in the second half and said it would open new outlets to boost volume growth.
Reuters

Boston "real estate rapist" sentenced to 50-100 years in prison

A New Hampshire judge sentenced the accused real estate rapist to 50 to 100 years in prison after he was convicted of assaulting a 19-year-old woman in an attack that terrified home sellers last summer.
Oliver Hooper, 35, said little as the judge gave him a sentence that will keep him in prison until he is at least 85 years old.
I want to keep you off the streets as long as I can. I don't want you to harm anyone else, Judge Peter Fauver told Hooper in the Strafford Country Superior Court.
Police alleged that Hooper, a traveling salesman from Gorham, Maine, tried to lure up to 10 female real estate agents from northeastern Massachusetts and the New Hampshire seacoast into vacant buildings under the guise of buying a home. Most rebuffed his requests.
However on July 26, 2005, police alleged that a 19-year-old in Dover, N.H., agreed to show Hooper her parents home. Hooper, police said, raped the girl at knifepoint.
The victim who was not identified because she is a rape victim, addressed the court before the sentencing:
"I will never be free of the damage that he has caused me he did not kill me, but he broke my spirit and my soul."
Hooper declined an opportunity to speak to the judge or the victim.
source

Harcourts launches New Zealand property mashup

[via Google Maps Mania]
New Zealand real estate group Harcourts has taken hold of the Google Maps API and fully integrating it as a centerpiece in their property map search function.
The integration can be found on http://maps.harcourts.co.nz/. The main page even greets you with the Google Maps logo! Making use of recently released street maps for New Zealand, the application searches based on the usual property types and number of bedrooms, with the resulting search being plotted on a Google Map for you explore. There are great street and road maps with great detail and the satellite imagery speaks for itself with awesome clarity. The fact that New Zealand is such a stunning country helps as well.

Rightmove says prices falling

Rightmove is claiming that asking prices in the UK fell by 1.6 percent between early July to early August and that the mini-boom in the south of England is running out of steam pushing the annual rate of house price inflation back into single digits at 9 percent according to their latest report.
Stretched buyer affordability, exacerbated by the recent rise in interest rates, meant hefty gains seen in the first half of the year were no longer sustainable, the survey said.
"Prices have passed their peak for 2006," Miles Shipside, Rightmove's commercial director was quoted as saying.

source

Hungary for a profit by Peter Conradi

Fly-to-let guru and Sunday Times property editor Peter Conradi examines the bourgening property market in Hungary in this article. Here's an excerpt:

The picture in Hungary is a mixed one. With growth last year of about 4%, the economy is certainly not stagnating, even if it is lagging behind many of its other former communist neighbours. The budget deficit, though, is expected to hit 8% of GDP this year — the highest in the EU — forcing some government belt-tightening and making it unlikely that Hungary will achieve its goal of joining the euro in 2010. The forint, meanwhile, has suffered badly in the recent turmoil in global markets

All of which, for the agents, of course, adds up to a buying opportunity. “Because of the recent fall in the forint, property is cheaper now for foreigners than it was five years ago,” says Daniel Jovan, a broker with Otthon Centrum, one of Hungary’s largest estate agencies. “It is a very good place for investment at the moment.” Lewis and the other parties behind Zala Springs must hope that is a message British investors take to heart.

full article

US Condo market - boom or bust?

Depending on which side of the fence (or Atlantic) you sit, condo conversion in urban US markets may actually provide a great hedge for investors against the current downturn in US real estate. This Los Angeles news report (below) highlights the current building frenzy among local developers and the high demand from upmarket renters. The report also investigates nearby Las Vegas; claiming that the spectacular collapse of George Clooney's project appears to be a one off and that things there are still heating up.
Still, the message conflicts with the constant bombardment about the pending collapse of the US market. But with the current strong sterling (and euro) against a weakened dollar and market; UK and European investors looking for a decent return may find urban US markets more attractive. But then again, currency fluctuations change rapidly and who knows, a day or two from now, we could all be singing a very different tune.


Related Posts:

• Gold and the housing market
• Detroit on a roll - Downtown real estate bucks trend
• Condo conversion: New York's Hit Factory Studios

Zillow launches "Zindex Reports"

The Seattle based RE 2.0 wonderkid announce the release of real estate performance reports covering five major cites in the US;
Seattle
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Phoenix
Miami-Fort Lauderdale
Click here for the announcements and here for the reports. and please let us know what you think. Here in the UK, similar services such as the Rightmove Index and the Hometrack Index are heavily relied upon in the media and industry as fairly accurate protrayals of the property market. However, with the reaction from many brokers in the US, it's kinda hard to imagine the Zillow reports be taken seriously anytime soon.

Michael Jackson chillin out in London

According to Roger Friedman of foxnews.com, Jacko is most likely chillin either at the Dorchester or the Lanesborough hotel. Friedman claims that Janet's paying the bills at his California estates including "Neverland" and and "Hayvenhurst"; where his parents live in Encino California
[via Inman]

Abbey changes B2L lending criteria

Abbey National Bank, the UK's #2 mortgage lender behind HBOS announced today changes to its buy-to-let (B2L) lending, whether buying a B2L property for the first time, B2L portfolio expansion or simple remortgage.
The bank is now lending up to £1 million per property at 85% LTV and also announced an extension to its "fee-free options" where there is no booking fee or valuation fee to be paid, plus £250 cash back towards legal costs.

“Our low up-front costs and flexible lending policy make it easy for landlords to enter the market and benefit from the investment opportunity. Equally, if a customer’s concern is to secure a really low rate on their mortgage, we can do that too;"

according to Paula Ickinger, Product Executive with Abbey Mortgages and Loans.
Details are available at any Abbey branch (715 in the UK) or by calling 0800 389 4154. No word yet if these products are available to non-resident UK investors, or for UK investors investing abroad; although we are awaiting a response from the company.

UPDATE from the Abbey press office:

Abbey's standard B2L range is only available through Abbey branches or over the phone to UK residents. These mortgages can be taken out on holiday let properties as well.
We do also have a range of Spanish mortgages available to UK residents, in conjunction with our parent company, Banco Santander. The Spanish Home Finance Team is available on 0800 085 8507.

Expert commentary on UK REITS

The London Stock Exchange website contains free expert commentary on UK Real Estate Investment Trusts (UK REITS), which will come to being in January 2007. Commentary is provided by 4 influential investment firms; Henderson Global Investors, BDO Stoy Hayward, Shearman & Sterling LLP and NabarroNathanson.
According to the NabarroNathanson, a UK REIT is a tax regime for property investment (rental rather
than development/ trading) but will also be permitted to carry on other activities which are not property investment for UK tax purposes. These will form part of its residual business.
The UK listed property sector consists of more than 40 stocks with a total market capitalisation of over £42 billion, claims Patrick Sumner, Head of Property Equities at Henderson Global Investors.
The vast majority of these—and certainly the bigger ones like Land Securities and British Land—will convert to REITs next year. The vast majority of the assets of UK property companies are held in long-established investment property markets, with offices and retail making up around 80% of total assets. All but 5% of the properties (by value) are in the UK according to Summer.
the complete reports are here

HIPs decision "spineless and unnecessary"

“The Government’s decision to make the HCR a voluntary part of the HIP was spineless and unnecessary and was a decision made purely for political reasons. It is now up to industry to pick up the pieces and deliver its benefits to the connsumer."

These are the words of Paul Broadhead, Deputy Director General of The Association of Home Information Pack Providers (AHIPP), who announced this week the implementation of the first stage of a regional roll out in anticipation of the June 2007 mandatory introduction.
The six chosen locations are:
• Southampton
• Newcastle
• Northampton
• Bath
• Huddersfield
• Cambridge

Participating member firms include:

Allied Surveyors (www.alliedsurveyors.com)
Habitus Chartered Surveyors (www.habitus.co.uk)
HIPSTAR (www.hipstar.net)
Lending Solutions (www.your-move.co.uk)
LMS (www.lms.com)
mysalepack.com (www.mysalepack.com)
Quest Associates (www.questuk.com) the
Spicerhaart Group (www.spicerhaart.com)

A full list of members is here. No word yet on a roll out for London, or other major metropolitan areas. We've emailed the AHIPP for a full list of participating members and are awaiting response.

Detroit on a roll - Downtown real estate bucks trend

Podcaster Dejan Sudjic of the BBC tells the story of Detroit's remarkable recovery

powered by ODEO
Once described as the greatest failure of the modernist city , the city with the highest unemployment in the US (besides New Orleans), downtown Detroit real estate is hot!
Bucking the downturn trend in US real-estate, and the slowdown in US auto industry, the motorcity is attracting the educated, the young and empty nesters". With a $300 million waterfront rejuvanation inititaive as well as tax incentives, it's propbably time to take a closer look at Detroit

Another new mashup

I wasn't going to bother blogging about this, but what the heck, I guess it's pretty revolutionary. This is the first site we know so far that offers Googmap mashups from a non-agent website (Craiglist). Check it out here. It's pretty clean so far works well, mainly covering Boston and other east coast cities.

**EXCLUSIVE** The FindaProperty.com interview

FindaProperty.com recently revamped their website and has been getting a lot of positive feedback so far from the people we've spoken with, (nevermind the the ducks; here's an explanation). Sarah Boorman FindaProperty.com's head of marketing, kindly answered a few questions we put across to them last week. Special thanks to Julia Neel and Nikki Eniraiyetan of Cohn & Wolfe for setting up the interview:

(RSN) The site focus now appears to be more consumer orientated. Historically speaking, FAP was always viewed by the property industry as a web integration tool for estate agents. Is that assessment correct? And does the rebrand represent a change in the business model and focus for FAP?

(SB) The business model has not changed and FindaProperty.com is still primarily an online advertising site for estate and lettings agents. Following extensive research with both agents and consumers the site has been redesigned with a view to facilitating the consumer search for properties and the users experience on the site. This is to maximize new and return traffic to the site, and to increase the enquiries generated to the agents.

(RSN) FAP has always been focused on the London market and has been marketed as such. Would you attribute your success so far to that fact?

(SB) FindaProperty.com originated in London and has been focused in the London and South East market for some years. This is a significant portion of the property market and a core area to get right prior to expanding nationally. We deliver an 850 percent return on investment for agents listing on the site, and have developed the brand to be the no.1 in this market. London is a core urban centre with strong sales and rental markets, and the market is replicated throughout the UK (Manchester Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham ) and we are looking to replicate this success in these areas.

(RSN) You have referenced your plans for expansion into Manchester and other northern markets. Can you share with us an estimated expansion timeline?

(SB) The launch in Manchester is imminent and should be complete before the end of 2006, with Leeds and Liverpool following shortly afterwards.

(RSN) Recently, there has been a lot of Google maps mash-up search engines coming online. We notice that you’re also including a gmap mash-up. Specifically there have been a few (e.g zoomf.com and nestoria.co.uk) that at the moment appear exclusively focused on London. Do you view these new engines as a threat to your business, or do you feel that there is room in the industry for a few new players?

(SB) Competition is good for any business, and ultimately the consumer will decide where they look for properties. We will continue to heavily market FindaProperty.com to ensure we are at the front of mind for the consumer, and we will continue to look for ways to enhance and improve our site to ensure we are a consumers first choice when it comes to finding a property.
Many of the new entrants to the market are using scrapping technology to populate the content on their site. This is problematic and means they do not have direct relationships with the agents which leaves them vulnerable to having out of date information.

(RSN) Propertyfinder.com recently announced it was no longer allowing private sellers to advertise their properties. However, private sales seems to be a growing trend in with new sites e.g. first4sale.com and others appear to be rapidly gaining popularity amongst consumers. What is your take on this? Would FindaProperty.com entertain private sale advertisements in the future?

(SB) Agents add a lot of value to the sales process and we think it is important that consumers are aware of this. There are a growing number of sites in this market where consumers can advertise their properties, but we would always recommend a consumer to enlist the help of a reputable estate agent when looking to sell their property.

Hezbollah is winning the war! (according to George Galloway)

Although many had written off British politician George Galloway, and for a while it seemed he was gone to the dogs er ... cats. However, this video represents a different picture of the man whose strongest passion in life appears to be Middle Eastern politics and affairs. In a heated interview with Anna Botting of Sky News, Galloway charismatically disses the news channel citing its unashamedly Israeli bias in its coverage of the current Lebanese crisis.

The big question of course (notwithstanding or discounting the catastrophic loss of life) is who will rebuild the cities after the destruction. About a week before the crisis escallated, Ivana Trump announced plans to build a 35 storey residential development in partnership with Dubai based developers Damac. A few days later the bombs started dropping.
"The Donald" also revealed plans to build in Tel Aviv, but to date no word on the status of both projects and it's quite reasonable to assume that they're both on hold. Shortly after the conflict started, the Saudi Arabian rulers pledged $70 million to the Lebanese government. It looks as though it's going to take a lot more than 70 million to rebuild both countries. Sadly it appears that no one really "wins" in the long run, except maybe unscrupulous developers waiting in the lurks.

Condo Conversion: New York's Hit Factory Studios

In another sign that the music industry is not what it used to be, (imagine Jay-Z now touts water as opposed to Crystal) legendary New York "Hit Factory" studios (where John Lennon got shot and Biggie Smalls recorded Ready to Die); has also sadly come to an end. The announcement this week by upmarket developers Sibling that the studios that recorded some of the biggest hit records the world has known will be converted into 27 luxurious apartments ranging between $1-4 million with completion expected early next year. The studio was sold to developers last year after the founder Ed Germano died and the business moved to Miami.
Germano bought the 100,000 square-foot facility in 1975 and his reputation for doing anything and everything to make visiting musicians happy was legendary. He would rip up carpeting if it bothered the eye, or fill a studio with hay to make a country musician feel more at home, according to MTV. No word yet whether the developers plan to maintain the same level of service, although word is they plan to keep the building name "Hit Factory"

The Googlization of Myspace and its impact on Real Estate 2.0

Few people probably realize an often neglected but growing aspect of MySpace.com and that is its classified section which - in our opinion - rivals Craigslist and the other online classified listing services. There are over 90 million people using MySpace with phonomenal growth exceeding a quarter million new regisrations per day. Although 90% of MySpace users are in the US, the company unceremoniously launched MySpace International (so far only the UK and Australia) earlier this month. Hitwise recently ranked MySpace.com as the number one domain on the internet, beating out Google, Yahoo, MSN etc, the traditional heavyweights .
Google CEO Eric Schmidt, in the conference call announcing the deal described MySpace as "user generated"; stating that internet users are "moving towards user generated content ... a lot of users [equal] a lot of growth [and] a lot of opportunity". Details of the specifics of the deal are still pretty sketchy, but it seems as though there are plans to integrate a MySpace toolbar onto Google and of course Google search integration into MySpace.
Well what does all this mean for Real Estate 2.0 ?
We blogged before about what we percieve to be the potential impending impact MySpace will have on the next generation of real estate consumers. Although the user demographic for MySpace right now is pretty young (mainly teenagers it appears); what happens when these teens grow up and begin to buy houses, either for use or investment?
Clem Chambers in a recent Forbes.com article refuted the common perception that MySpace is a "kid's site" claiming that unless you call 18- to 30-year-old "kids", that perception may not necessarily by correct:

The 18-30 crowd make MySpace its Internet home in the same way that the previous generation made AOL theirs ... MySpace is a Net phenomenon that is happening right now; the traffic graphs on Alexa show it all.

Chambers observation is interesting, in light of yesterday's announcement. Remember Google also owns a large percentage of AOL, which means they're controlling search for both generations, if Chambers' observations are correct.
Will Google's crawlers index classifieds.myspace.com? We're not sure, but we can safely assume this will happen. And if so, will these search results appear on the Google organic search results? Again, details are sketchy; but in the conference call, a Newscorp executive stated that content sharing was not part of this deal, but that they would start discussions.
There are already over a thousand groups in listed in MySpace under the real estate search category. We launched a MySpace page, made friends with a few people who seemed to be into real estate and actually came across what we thought to be some really good deals and some pretty good contacts. We asked our new "friends" how business was doing and whether they had made any sales through MySpace as of yet. Unsuprisingly no one had made any coversations as of yet. Jamie D pretty much summed up in an email what everybody was telling us at the time:

No luck!
But 91,000,000 million possibilities! Its free advertising.
They are real listings but its mostly to get the phone to ring. The chances of selling those to someone on myspace are slim to none. However, If I can get them to call, I got a contact, and a contact after sometime, can become a lead or they send refferals.
Thats the motive. Lead generation really.

That motive may have to change real soon ....

Nationwide revises forecast

More positive growth news for the UK housing market. In a just released statement, Group Economist Fionnuala Earley stated that the countries largest building society has upwardly revised it's forecast for 2006.

We now expect prices to increase by around 5%, compared with our December forecast of 0%-3%. The resilience of the market so far this year in the face of deteriorating affordability suggests that there is still enough demand in the market to support prices. However, we expect somesoftening towards the very end of the year, mainly due to affordability, but also reinforced by the surprise increase in interestrates, which can do nothing other than add to caution.

Given Early's assesment, the newly released Land Registry figures, the UK can probably expect more interest rate hikes later this year.

Covent Garden market sold for £421m

London's iconic Covent Garden market has been sold to property giant Liberty International for £421m. full story via Telegraph