Cyprus-Forum.com

[purdey]

Hey, Russians and Ukrainians are still spending millions in Cyprus. They spent 6 million in Pissouri last week..

[Johnson&Johnson]

i take it you are quoting from the article about the russians by antonis loizidou

dont forget, its his job to talk up the market - he's an estate agent/ developer/ speculator after all

in the same way, i do not trust those buysell figures that tell us prices are rising every month. an estate agent accepted as the authority on house prices - absurd !

anyway i do not doubt it re pissouri. there will always be someone buying and someone selling - sometimes for big money

but the general trend from now on should be down (although of course it should recover after the bust, as did the CSE for awhile)

a lot of people will be suprised and shocked - cypriots still think that the laws of the market somehow do not apply to them

[purdey]

No I am referring to an individual that is linked to my brother in laws business.
I am genrally in agreement with what you are stating, I have seen a huge downturn in business in the private property market, but commercial property and land are still in high demand.
As far as Buy Sell are concerned I think the people directly involved in property sales take little or no notice of their dubious figures.
I believe also, Cyprus will recieve a huge shock in the near future, I only hope the banks can read the writing on the wall...

[Spanish_spinne]

Hi.

As a Spanish, just let me say that everytime I read what's happening in Cyprus with all this houses being builded and new developments everywhere it reminds me what has happened here, (specially in the Mediterranean coast) and I fell a little sad for you.
You are following our path, and before you contniue this way you, (Your goverment), would rather have a serious look about what's happening to us now; big developments with no buyers at all... our seaside destroyed, our water resources wasted, our unemployment growing up, lots of pepole who cannot pay their mortgages and lots of inmigrants that have no job anymore wandering for our streets...

I know i'm being chatastrophist, but sometimes it's needed

[Peterc]

i was hoping that the majority of you would be correct in your assumptions that property prices here would drop, a) because youngsters could afford to join the property ladder, and b) because too many unscrupulous developers are making too much money and are in a position of strength when it comes to property laws and illegal builds.
unfortunately, 35,000 ex pats will be looking for "the dream" and will be leaving the uk for foreign shores. if only 5% of these come to cyprus, thats 1,750 sales. notwithstanding the eastern european market which will no doubt double these figures, i cannot see where a ressession comes into the equation. for sure investors are no longer investing here, and the ones that were duped into buying investment apartments will not be able to sell. this isnt due to properties not selling but due to overpaid estate agents who are rewarded by developers to sell new developments with higher commission(up to 15%) payments than the average legal 5% that they would get for a resale.
i hope im wrong

[purdey]

I don't see a crash on the cards, but I do see a downturn in business. More re-sales on the market this year than previous years, and some big reductions in prices away from the coast.
Let's hope Cyprus does not follow the Spanish lead, then there would be a crisis. Time will tell, but there is a move in the ex pat market, returning to the UK seems to be more evident..

Some brief figures based on investment in Cyprus 1994 (British Investors). For every £1.00 invested the return was £3.50. Today every £1.00 invested the return is £1.75. These figure do take into account Euro rates and price rises of materials, and labour.

[craigbeck]

A crash in unlikely in Cyprus, a solution to the political problem would significantly increase GDP and the country would become even more popular. This will undoubtably see an increase in property prices. There is a slow down at the moment purely because the brits are being super cautious withj their cash.

[purdey]

Solution to political problem...never in a million years. Maybe more cross border trade but no solution. Nip over to Cyprus problem to witness hands across the divide.

[Johnson&Johnson]

craigbeck

a solution would mean a massive property crash. GC's would have to repopulate famagusta, a deserted town the size of limassol. not to mention the morphou area. imagine all that supply coming online. cyprus would be saturated with empty properties even more than it is now.

all property markets are driven by availability of credit, and in case you havnt noticed, we are in the middle of the credit crunch, the worst financial crisis since the great depression.

i read today that laiki bank and BOC are increasing their interest rates by about 0.5%, so borrowing will get harder and more expensive too

more gloom from the uk:


The Daily Telegraph
House prices down in half of all postcodes
By Harry Wallop
Last Updated: 1:43am BST 12/04/2008

Have your say Read comments


House prices have fallen in nearly half of all postcodes in England and Wales compared with a year ago, raising fears that tens of thousands of home owners could be plunged into negative equity.

News review: So, you think you can't get a mortgage?
Have your say: Have prices fallen in your area?
Average house prices are now less than they were a year ago in a host of areas across the country.

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According to research undertaken for The Daily Telegraph, average property prices are lower now than in April last year in 45 per cent of England and Wales's 2,300 postcode districts. The figures come in the same week that Halifax, the country's largest lender, warned that house prices had fallen by 2.5 per cent in the last month alone.

At the time Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, tried to play down the fall, pointing out that house prices had risen so much in recent years that any fall in a single month was "containable".

However, today's figures from Hometrack, the property research company, suggest that the downturn is far more widespread than previously imagined.

While some of the falls are modest, property experts gave warning that the widespread nature of the falls should ring alarm bells for home owners who have got used to 13 years of unbroken growth in house prices.

Ed Stansfield, a property economist at the forecasting house Capital Economics, said: "This is the clearest sign yet that the market is turning in earnest. Bearing in mind, prices were still climbing quite strongly a year ago, valuations must have fallen quite sharply in recent months for prices on an annual basis to be in negative territory."

The people who should be most worried about the declines in property prices are the estimated 15,000 first-time buyers who have bought over the past year with a 100 per cent mortgage.

Because they own no equity in their house, if the value of their property falls, they will be immediately plunged into negative equity - where a home owner owes more to their bank or building society than the property is worth.

Negative equity cast a huge shadow over the economy during the early 1990s and caused 75,500 repossessions in 1991 alone.

Matthew Sherwood, a global economist at Experian, the credit data company, estimated that 8,000 people were already in negative equity.

"On a national level it is a tiny amount, but there are regions where there are worrying signs," he said.

According to Hometrack, the areas that have seen the largest falls are Swindon with prices down six per cent in some areas; Doncaster, down five per cent in many postcodes; Bristol, down six per cent; Plymouth, down five per cent.

While London and the South East has started falling sharply in recent months, the falls have yet to wipe out the gains made in 2007.

Hometrack collects its data by asking 17,000 estate agents each month what is the average "achievable" price.

One in three mortgages is now being taken out on an interest-only basis.

Mortgage brokers say lenders are becoming nervous about the high and rising proportion of advances being made to borrowers who have no apparent means of repaying their debts.

The number of interest-only loans has doubled in the past five years.

[Johnson&Johnson]

Hi.

As a Spanish, just let me say that everytime I read what's happening in Cyprus with all this houses being builded and new developments everywhere it reminds me what has happened here, (specially in the Mediterranean coast) and I fell a little sad for you.
You are following our path, and before you contniue this way you, (Your goverment), would rather have a serious look about what's happening to us now; big developments with no buyers at all... our seaside destroyed, our water resources wasted, our unemployment growing up, lots of pepole who cannot pay their mortgages and lots of inmigrants that have no job anymore wandering for our streets...

I know i'm being chatastrophist, but sometimes it's needed

buenos dias

you are absolutely right - we are following spain donw the dark path

an excellent point about the water as well.

the water shortages both in spain and in cyprus are surely linked to the building boom. all that concrete needs to be watered 3 times a day to prevent it from cracking and splitting - no doubt this is where our most precious resource has gone