An interesting duality has developed in the international housing market that sees the older and more conventional housing markets being shunned in favour of developing markets, according to a broad based survey that was carried out by international currency exchange firm HiFX.
What it has shown is that while people still turn to conventional western markets for the purchase of holiday homes for their own personal pleasure, when it is property market investment for high return on investment and good prospecting that is being considered, the conventional property markets lose out.
Two of the more conventional property markets leading into this year had been Spain and France. Spain has recorded a net property downturn of 10% in value since the 2005 fiscal year while France has not been much better with a decrease of 7% over the same amount of time. Overseas property investors have responded to these empirical facts by giving up on conventional and developed property markets in favour of going after big scores in developing property markets.
Bulgaria and China were two of the big winners in the survey conducted by HiFX, as many people are still continuing to invest in property in those two countries because of the continually increasing property values in those areas.
Three more winners were Brazil, Egypt and Panama, all of which according to analysts are going to become hotspots for property investment in the coming years. Egypt has already begun to move strongly in that direction, with Brazil and Panama likely soon to follow.
According to Mark Bodega, the director of HiFX, it is quite obvious why this is the case. The main reason he cites for it is the absolute starting cost of doing business. According to Bodega, "In August 2007, the national median price for property sold to overseas buyers in Spain was approximately EUR 250,000. In Bulgaria, the average price was closer to EUR 60,000."
