Torcana Property

The Real Estate Buy And Hold Strategy Is Back

During the boom times, I used to attend 15-20 property exhibitions per year. I can´t remember anybody at these shows advocating a buy and hold strategy. It was all about buying offplan and then selling for a big profit shortly after completion. Many a t... Read >

What are the consequences of these defaulters?

As you might expect, lenders in the USA hate the fact that a person can choose to walk away from their mortgage. There is no law against doing it. These lenders are lobbying HARD to get the rules changed so that people don´t have an incentive to walk away... Read >

Property Markets - What´s interesting, what´s not

Let´s get the bad news out of the way first. The views I expressed on Ireland and Spain in the Xmas newsletter in December 2009 have not changed one iota. Both are high risk - low return investment destinations and I can´t see that changing in the near te... Read >

It´s not all bad news - there are some gems out there

As mentioned above, we did actually view one property that my friend is going to put an offer on. In my opinion, he has found pretty much the only type of property I would ever encourage an investor in coastal Spain to purchase. It was in a small devel... Read >

A huge transfer of wealth

In the late 1990s, enormous wealth was being transferred from venerable pension funds to Silicon Valley kids in their early twenties setting up overvalued dotcoms. I was a 20 something in San Francisco at the time and even at that tender age I couldn´t be... Read >

So is the trend up or down

The above headlines might seem nonsensical when put beside each other, but the reason these respected organizations are giving US housing a big thumbs up in one month and a big thumbs down just a few short weeks later is easy to explain. They are looking ... Read >

Where is the pain in Spain?

Spain is a very beautiful country and it had one of the biggest real estate booms ever seen. I get asked about it all the time by investors who like the idea of purchasing a great value property there. I tell them all the exact same thing - if you want... Read >

Second homes: All the joys of Florida in one spot

Florida is a huge second-home destination. It seems to have something for everyone: secluded beaches and urban buzz, golf communities and marinas, high-rises and bungalows at prices from ultra-luxury to shockingly affordable. It's also diverse. The mansio... Read >

US Mortgages Finally Available for Discounted Properties

Growing confidence in the markets Stockmarkets have rebounded, as have equities and commodities. Investors have regained their appetites for debt and the interest rates at which banks lend to each other has fallen back to near pre-crisis levels. Ben Bern... Read >

Buffett Bullish On US Homebuilders

Billionaire Warren Buffett said the U.S. residential real estate slump will end by about 2011, predicting that’s how long it will take demand for homes to catch up with the supply. According to Buffet's latest annual shareholder Letter, "the industry i... Read >

Surprise Bounce in UK House Prices

House prices rose in March for the first time since October 2007, according to Nationwide. The building society said that property prices increased by 0.9% compared with the previous month. That reduced the annual rate of house price falls from 17.6% i... Read >

German sentiment at 3 year high

German business sentiment leapt by a record margin in July to reach its highest level in three years, fuelled by a World Cup buzz that boosted consumer spending in Europe's largest economy, a survey showed today. The unexpected jump, which boosted the ... Read >

New ways of purchasing discounted/distressed properties

As usual, please feel free to skip my opinion piece and go straight to this week's property deals - we're promoting half price and high yield projects in Orlando Florida & Birmingham city centre, with plenty more available on www.torcana.com. We've ... Read >

How house prices affect our everyday lives

As always, you can skip straight to this weeks property deals by clicking on our special offers to your right. There are still excellent units remaining in our fully finished and tenanted development in Orlando - one bed apartments start at less than ... Read >

Another house price crash looks "remote" according to the FT

Another global house-price crash looks unlikely according to a new report in the Financial Times last week. "Historically low interest rates and the basic under-supply of good quality homes in places where people want to live and raise families un... Read >