London Tops The Property Hit Parade For Serious Investors

London came out top of the international property pops for commercial real estate investment according the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE). Nearly 200 members, who together own property worth $842 billion internationally were asked to rate investing in cities and countries.

In the city stakes London' easily came out top, a massive 31 points ahead of second-place Washington, and 40 points in front of third placed New York. London's great leap forward was dramatic – in 2008 it only rated a close second.

AFIRE investors saw prices having already bottomed in London, while in the US further declines were expected before prices turned up. Or as James Fetgatter, AFIRE chief executive, put it :

"London currently offers investors the advantage of a "re-priced" market."

On a country basis, despite the possible price dip to come, the United States with 44 per cent was again voted "most stable and secure real estate investment environment."

Germany came second with 21 percent of the vote, reminiscent of a forgotten Eurovision song contest...

"The financial crisis of the past year has obviously affected investors' perceptions of U.S. real estate as 'stable and secure,'" said Fetgatter. "However, it is also apparent that opportunity lies within this instability since the U.S., along with the UK, show substantially higher scoring for expected capital appreciation."

While just over half said the United States - where prices are off more than 40 per cent from all time highs - would likely afford best price appreciation going forward, the UK came a creditable second, perhaps surprisingly beating China, which has had a roaring 2009.

The type of property most favoured by investors was housing estates and flats, with other more business-oriented construction and property seen as somewhat less rewarding. It would appear the pro's are once again expecting housing to lead the recovery in 2010.

Meanwhile data released by Rightmove this week showed UK housing up for the year, in line with reports from the Halifax and Nationwide.

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Top 10 most Popular Overseas Property Destinations in October

It is amazing the difference that the foreign exchange rate currently makes to the popularity of an overseas property destination. In October Turkey property became the third most popular with those searching for property on Property Abroad.com -- a climb of 3 places on the previous month.

It is surely no coincidence that the pound spent most of October really weak against the Euro, and strong against the Turkish Lira -- especially when you look at previously monthly charts showing the same results.

America and Spain held their positions in 1st and 2nd, and Greece retained its position in 4th. This left France down two places as 5th most popular in October.

Germany is another surprise; climbing two places to steal 6th most popular in October, putting Portugal back to 7th after being 5th most popular in September.

But the biggest surprise has to be the return of Canada to the chart in a very respectable 8th position. Canada has always been one of the favourite locations for Brits to emigrate, but because of the recent positive data on the Canadian housing market, this has to be considered as signalling increasing interest in Canada property from foreign investors.

Finally Cyprus held the same 9th position as in September, and Italy was in 10th having fallen back 3 places from being 7th most popular in September. The full results -- with September's position in brackets -- are as follows.

America (1)
Spain (2)
Turkey (6)
Greece (4)
France (3)
Germany (8)
Portugal (5)
Canada (NE)
Cyprus (9)
Italy (7)

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US Repossessions hit record levels

Repossessions in the USA have hit an all time high adding to signs that the recession in the US housing market is deepening.

In the first half of 2009 almost 1.5 million US properties were at some stage of repossession proceedings according to RealtyTrac Inc.

This figure represents a 15 percent increase on the same period in the previous year and now means that 1 in 84 US home owners have received some form of repossession order.

Speaking on the recent figures Les Calvert of the Property-Abroad.com Group who specialise in the worldwide property market said:

"There have been reports recently that the US housing market may be close to bottoming, and that may be true. However, it is impossible to get a true picture until the full depth of the repossession crisis are known, and rising repossessions will also prevent any recovery."

Property prices in some of the major US city areas had dropped by up to 18 percent in April compared to last year according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index.

The loss of another 1,000 jobs at Harley Davidson adds to the jobless figure in a recession that has already left almost 6.5 million Americans out of work.

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