Foreign Property Buyers Increase For High End Sales

Posted on January 20, 2012 by editor
Posted in Foreign Property, Politics Of Property, UK Property Market Comment Tagged buyers, end, foreign, High, Increase, Sales

If you follow the property press releases as I do ( purely for entertainment reasons, obviously) then you can’t help but have noticed the huge increase of foreign property buyers seeking to buy high end property. You may be forgiven for thinking this is all going on in London only, but it’s not. The trend is spreading to the Home Counties and beyond.

Oxford Plays Host To Oligarchs

At the weekend the Oxford press reported that last year nearly 40% of high end property sales (over £2.5 m) were bought by Russians and Europeans-notably Greeks. Buyers from the Middle East were also in high proportion. Wealthy Greeks are seeking a safe haven away from the Greek crisis for their fortunes.

Just a couple of days ago the Telegraph reported that out of the top 20 high end sales last year, 19 of them were sold to foreigners. And, the former owners were mostly English nationals. Some 90% of buyers are foreign nationals on sales of properties over £30 million. 90%. That’s a heck of a lot.

New Government Policies?

I have said many times, that I think we should have a much stricter policy on this kind of sale to foreigners, mainly because most of the homes sold (and built to order) are not lived in permanently, but are used as occasional holiday homes. I have seen and lived in a place where this happened, and the effect was that it killed the local economy, created a two tier system, and lot of bad feeling with the locals. You end up with gated communities, or villages where half the homes are empty for most of the year.

In Australia, after a rapid influx of Asian money,they brought in a new rule where temporary residents need permission to buy homes and must sell when they leave. In New York the super rich don’t go through the hassle of buying expensive apartments because the buildings operate on a system where new buyers need to be interviewed and approved by all the blocks’ community first.

Crime Proceeds

Many years ago the Costa’s in Spain got themselves a bad reputation because our home grown criminals were hopping it over there to get away from our laws and keep their proceeds away from our system. Much of the wealth that is arriving via the newcomers here is money which has been derived from serious crime. Is this really what we want for a modern UK- a shelter for major criminal activities in the form of top end property sales?

The difference between this type of purchaser and the large numbers of Polish and other Eastern block Europeans who came over to work is huge. Those folks contributed to the local economy and integrated into our society as a whole. Many stayed long term, and some returned home.The super rich do not contribute to our economy on the whole. So what value are they to us as a country?

What do you think? What solution would you put forward? We are always interested to hear your views, please feel free to comment below.

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bmvscan

BMV Properties, what is the real deal?

There are ways to save money and one of them is “not to lose due to greed”.

Now a days there are various companies offering you to take advantage of recession and provide you with “below market value / BMV properties”, some of the names are Choices Acquisitions part of bigger group and also operate as choices co uk estate agents, fasttrackproperty, Axis etc (google bmv properties).
Most companies have free or reasonable membership fee (below £100) should you decide to become their member but some are over the top!!

Over the TOP would ask you for 2 levels of membership, to get Auction listings you pay £250 and to be their so called “retained client” you pay £1800, yes £1800!!

You will be made aware of lots of below market value property deals which can earn you or save you money and the aim is to get you on board as a client with positive feedback from (internet) clients you do not know or have any reference of. When you are up for the membership, you will be asked to provide your account or credit or, debit card details. Now be very careful here, sales people will be very fast, enthusiastic and quick enough to want you to confirm or “activate the membership” over the phone the moment you’ve given your financial details.

Remember, once you have paid the “membership” money and activated your account you can never ever claim it back, “better think it’s lost” or stolen if you can live with that

What are the real benefits in becoming a paid member, none!, Why?

1. Auction properties: You can get them for free from any auction site, it’s simply free.
Call the auctioneers and they will be happy to provide you with the list via email or mail they have to sell their stuff to you and make commission, don’t they.

2. Some will tempt you as their retained client:- If by any chance you decided to become their retained client (where you are promised the listing of property 1st) by parting with £1800, you will be asked to “commit” to the property you have never seen in your life so that can be taken off the market.

The moment you said yes, you are obliged to pay them their 2.5% commission upfront + any deposit required to secure the property (normally 10 percent).

Now who in their right minds would agree to even commit to buy a property not viewed and give the fees upfront, which again cannot be “claimed back” !!

What if the property you bought has major repair works OR

Annoying neighbours, you might need some kind of insurance to protect you for few BMV deals. This could be the reason it was sold at less value in the first place.

Leasehold flats in London unless in high profile areas of Kensington etc are very hard to sell if lease is below 80 years so beware on that too, properties are normally 15-20 percent cheaper already because of this.

So few rules to remember when you are dealing with any company who asks you for membership fees and their commission or any form of payment upfront without the facility of viewing.

Stay away from companies who asks for fees to be their client.

Do not commit to anything over the phone!! In some and you can lose all your money paid!
Only ask for written invoice and then decide should you get tempted for this money loosing “adventure”. Companies have “cooling off” period but if the invoice you receive is later then “cooling off” period?

Do not give your account details over the phone, once gone, they are out of your hand.

Do not pay upfront anything. If they want you as a client they can show you the property and give you a timeframe of 24 hrs to decide to put offer.

Do not commit to or pay their fees upfront to BUY the property, only on exchange of contracts as that might never happen if the vendor decided to back out!

All the above points are only for you to be safe and how to save money in current climate and put it to better use.

You can search about some companies by googling their name and on sites like: moneysavingexpert and singingpig and newspaper site guardian, observer and property-system.

Take care

Landlords, You’re Living The Dream, Now What?