Overseas Property World

I just read a Telegraph article by Zoe Dare Hall, a writer whom I like very much, usually, but on this occasion I am still trying to work out the point of the piece.

It tells the story of the overseas property boom gone by, portraying buyers in a dim light, and then comes to a rather abrupt end as sharp as if the pen had run out of ink.

One point it does make that I do agree with is the fact that some of the new emerging markets that bubbled up just before the crash were based on little more than hype. I remember I said something similar at the time: along the lines of: about all it takes for a market to get the emerging market title is for a few developments to spring up and a few agents to promote it as so.

Apart from that the article portrays the buyers of overseas property in a very negative light, buyers whom Zoe Dare Hall was quite happily making her living off at the time.

Yes, a lot of people did get burned when bubble’s burst around the world, there always are casualties when asset bubble’s burst. And yes, some buyers did fall prey to unscrupulous fraudsters, and yet more to careless developers who failed to secure or stick to planning permission before marketing units off plan.

But that doesn’t mean that everyone buying overseas property, past, present and future is a low-wit imbecile asking to be robbed blind.

At the end of the article she writes:

It has left many believing that tangible bricks and mortar is the only way forward, but also a more hardened and wiser breed of buyer who now knows never to take anything on trust.

I agree with the different breed bit, it is true that those currently buying overseas property are doing so after conducting a lot more research. Whether this will gradually change over time is another story.

However, the current buyers are not avoiding off plan; a: because it is often the only option if you want to have a variety of properties to choose from in your chosen location, and b: because off plan property is still one of the most potentially rewarding investments in the world of overseas property, and the risk can be minimised by careful and extensive due-diligence.