Hello all,

I am thinking of investing some cash and equity into a holiday let apartment. I dont want to spend over £40k and would like somewhere safe, sunny and likely to rise in value (Id settle for 10% capital gains per year)

Does anyone have any ideas or experience?

Thanks

What is your definition of "safe"? Are Cape Verde, Margarita Island or Egypt safe enough?

I suppose I mean safe in two ways. First of all I dont want to invest somewhere where I could lose my deposit or worse and also somewhere a tourist would be happy and comfortable walking around.

Iv heard bad things about Egypt that invlove guns and hold ups etc; I know most of it is probably made up stories but nobody wants to put their family in any danger.

I have seen plenty of threads about Cape Verde but am unsure of the prices and lifestyle. I imagine these areas are going to be quite expensive??

I am not sure if you could get 10% capital gain in safe areas like Europe. USA is on decrease.

10% can be obtained in more unsafe areas, probably Morocco can get you something but £40000 is already too low for Morocco, they start from at least £50000...

Hi, I am sure the only place you can buy anything for less than 40000 is Egypt... you have missed the boat in other places. Thats why I have bought there with my partner and I think that it has a lot of potential, despite the risk. In fact the way things are in uk , there is no more risk there than here at the moment. You will have to go to places other than where the crowd has gone already to get a desent size property for your money.

I would be interested if anyone knows of any other place that can be had for less than 40k with as much potential

Im going to look into Egypt tomorrow. Like you say there is more risk here than buying there....

Good luck, if you get to Hurghada let me know what you think, apparently there is a lot of building going on there but from the photos Ive seen the promenade and surrounding area looks ok. We didn't visit before buying but had a good search on the internet and I wanted to get in before prices rose.

Sponge,

Safe, sunny, CHEAP and likely capital value rises......

Montenegro. As ever its only safe if you use your own independant lawyer, with a translated version signed by the foreign lawyer and perhaps a UK lawyer just to oversea.
The next issue is to find a developer who wont go bust, not easy, but can be done.

Egypt - for me a little too far and a lot of risk in terms of internal Political wrangglings.

If you drop the sunny bit, and can accept a nice alpine climate Id strongly recommend Slovenia. Ive had my eye on this one a long time. FrankKnight international surveyors predict it will have 2nd highest cap growth in the world this yr.
Id go for the secondary ski area, not the earthquake prone one.
See sloveniaforfamilies

I saw nice detatched wine houses with land under £20000.

Thanks. I looked at a few websites last night; very glossy, sunshiny pictures so must air with caution. What about the region of Sharm-el-Sheikh? I have been offered a villa to let here before and prices still seem reasonable. Iv not looked at Hurghada yet. What price would I be looking at for a small 1 bed apartment?

As for Slovenia, Iv looked at this as a btl possibility last year. I appreciate the capital growth potential but its a beach resort or at least a high climate area Im after. If I took the Mrs skiing she would chuck me off the top of the highest piste!! Backwards!! But with detached houses for under £20k, I may have to have a look anyway; Im sure my broken legs will heal.

I think a good punt would be to invest in South Africa, but to target growth for the Soccer World Cup.

After the event has been held, hold for 6 monhts and then sell

That's what I'm doing anyway..............

Sharm is very nice apparently and there are nice locations north and south of Hurghada, we had a budget of 40k and liked the thought of living in a town rather than isolated urbanizations, nice as they may be. We bought at Desert Pearl, Hurghada and prices started from 18k for a bed-sit through to 44k for a 3 bed apartment, which isn't bad for a building 200 mtrs from the promenade. Think most of the 200 odd apartments are sold now but the developer is doing another similar build soon.

The airports at Hurghada and Sharm are being modernised, sponsored by the government, and I am hoping that the likes of Ryanair, Easy jet will be flying there soon. We used tlc-overseasproperties.co.uk who seem to be efficient, a guy called Graeme if you want details of this and other developments.

There are many other cheaper developments in HUrghada. The area where Desert Pearl lies is going to be encircled by unfinished buiolding. Alkso, the promenade you mention does not have any private beach.

Ryanair, Easy jet will never fly to Egypt, it is against their policy. They do not even fly to Canary Islands, which is closer and within EUropean Union.

As has been said many, many times, Egypt is a nice location if you want to live there for 4-5 months pe r year, between October and March. The rest of time is really too incredibly hot. Besides, there is a vast oversupl;y of accomodation in HUrghada and Sharm and extra finished buildings have the chance to be deserted most of the year.

The only chance to make money is to buy in new self-contained resorts. To do this in a profitable manner, one needs to follow the market and buy at the beggining.

I could have bought in Sahl Hasheesh for £26000 in June but I decided that I do not want to invest in Egypt. Now the lowest prices are starting from £41000.
There will be many like this in the near future.

I think you will find that the low budget airlines don't fly as far as Egypt, Canaries etc is because their planes would have to refuel to reach the destinations!

I'm sure Easyjet etc would be def flying to Canaries if it were possible....one consideration I've never researched, does Germany for example have equivalent budget airlines. Sure they could reach Egypt......?

Exactly, the policy of Ryanair adn Easyjet is to not refuel as they would have to pay extra charges. They might barely fly to MOrocco, you can see that there are plenty of problems even there. They will never fly to Egypt.

I would,t buy in the Red Sea. Hotels are very cheap and there is no market for letting or resale.

Ok Crash , so where would you buy to make a buck, or are you happy to sit on cash?

Hi breeze, I would,t buy anywhere till the big global crash in 2010.

Many nations are only just beginning thier growth / expansion cycles. Sitting it out will prove costly indeed.

You may recall the late 90s 'Tiger crash' which affected SE Asian real estate. That had absolutely no effect elsewhere - a localised crash. If thte UK / US has a crash it wont effect E Europe, N Africa, in fact most places if anything will boom even more as fright money seeks new arenas.

We live on a tiny planet folks. Get your prime real estate now, there will be none left soon. Tens of millions of former Soviet citizens require prime tourist destination real estate for thier hols and to purchase.

You need to forget the UK scene when investing - we are'nt important, life goes on without us. In other words tourist real estate couldnt give to figs as to what UK plc is up to.

I think you are spot on..... Here in Spain, I have noticed a gathering influx of Russian and other baltic state people moving into the mainly English Urbanisations.... they are the people with the money now!!!!. Also Egypt is more central to middle and western Europe and thus in the range of budget airlines.
Also, one can't say that the budget airlines from uk wont fly there one day, they could soon buy a few longer range aircraft and take advantage of increasing traffic there. The 737, a typical budget aircraft has he range to fly to Egypt now but would have to re-fill to fly back. I don't know if the re-fill costs are prohibitive or if there is a political reason which is preventing budget airlines from flying there at present.

Egypt is a nice destination and maybe a good investment. But not where you bought, that is a very bad location. If you did more research and had more patience, you would have known it before purchasing.

Rondy, Time waits for no man!! If I had waited and done more research , the same apartment would now cost me 7k more. I am happy.... we can't always hit the button on the head.

I have just found out that RyanAir have plans to fly to Sharm el Sheik....
Here is the link..

Ryan Air signed a contract with the Sharm El Sheikh airport just before Christmas with a view to start flying this year.



Have flights starting from as little as 49 GBP. www.redseaflights.comAlso



The Sharm aiport is going to give all tour operators a 2 year tax free incentive as soon as the expansion is finnished which is forecast in the next couple of months.



With the increase in tourism, flights becoming cheaper and lots of residential developments completing this year, everything is falling in to place for the short term/holiday letting market to start.



We do have a very strong long term rental market already.



I hope that this is helpful for you.



Kind regards



Barry



Barry Aldridge

Real Estate Consultant

South Sinai - Sharm El Sheikh - Egypt

Pioneer Property for Investments and Real Estate

Office: 002 0 693 660 625

Fax: 002 0 693 662 239

Mobile: 002 0 106 103 816

barry.aldridge@pioneer-property.co.uk

www.pioneer-property.co.uk

Spondge, why only in holiday destintions? Why not buy something you can let/rent the entire year!

Crash2010 what makes you think there's going to be a global crash in 2010? Sounds a bit like the Apocalyps, it's all about numbers that end in 0...

Sharm you have to be careful with the land registry , most of the properties are leasehold. There is plenty of choice, you have to decide in your mind where you wish to be. Egypt is popular, you can get into Morocco for less than 40k sterling, Cape Verde is getting pricey in terms of flights and property. There are many destinations. If you look hard enough you can get deals pretty much everywhere these days.

Hey Spongebob,

I think you can find what you are looking for just by thinking a bit outside the box.

Instead of established resorts why not check for 'green' resorts, spa towns or 'new age' centres. They tend to be just outside established resorts, cheap to buy but growing in popularity and value as we become more health, self and environment conscious.

Some good choices in Slovenia, Romania, Montenegro, Turkey and Bulgaria to name just a few.

My advice would be :

Invest in a stable country to minimise any risk.
A country with a "hard" currency like the euro
Also somewhere with cheap flights provided by more than one airline to ensure competative prices and availability. (No point buying a place abroad if you carnt afford to get there on a regular basis).
Somewhere with all year round attractions to ensure a long letting season.

Im looking at possibilities in Slovakia as property is cheap, they join the euro next year, and as well as cheap flights it is accessable by road and rail from Austria and Germany. Of particular interest are the ski resorts in the Tatra Mountains, which as well as winter sports they offer summer attractions such as golf and spa facilities to broaden the appeal