Posts tagged International Real Estate
Canada’s Economy Outperforms in 2010
Nov 11th
2011 Outlook is for Slower but Continued Growth
The Canadian economy, led by exports and a strong commodity cycle, performed well through 2010. Anchored by a stable banking sector, the Canadian economy out-performed most other economies in the developed world. GDP growth is expected to be 3% for 2010. But the overall economy faces headwinds going forward. In particular, a weak U.S. dollar has driven the Canadian dollar towards parity, slowing our trade with our largest trading partner. And an already slow recovery in the U.S. will keep a lid on Canadian growth prospects for 2011. The result is a slower growth of GDP, now forecast at 2.3% for 2011. More >
German Open Ended Funds Will Close Down, Germany Recovers Fast
Nov 4th
Two of Germany’s open end funds platforms, Aberdeen’s DEGI Europe and Morgan Stanley’s P2-Value, have decided after a two year closing period that they will close the funds and sell all of their buildings.
Most of the investors that have put money into those funds are institutional investors, large funds of funds, and are now under pressure from their investors to pay the money back. Because most of the money is in real estate assets and there is not that much liquidity left in the funds to repay the investors, management has decided to close the funds, collecting fresh money from new investors or selling some buildings to meet the request from investors who want to get out. More >
Latin America Looking Even Better, the Caribbean Still Recuperating
Nov 3rd
The World Economic Outlook recently released by the IMF states that the economies in Latin America and the Caribbean will grow by 5.7%; certainly just “a bit” of an increase over the 4.3% estimated at the outset of 2010. The report mentions that the region is growing at a faster pace than expected due to solid macroeconomic policies, consolidated and stable policy support, favorable external financial conditions and strong commodity revenues. An additionally interesting observation is that Mercosur (a trade federation founded in 1991 comprising countries of southern South America – Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina) has emerged as the GDP growth champion so far this year. All those members are expected to enjoy growth rates exceeding 7%. Argentina and Brazil are estimated to experience rates of 7.5%, Uruguay should have 8.5% and Paraguay (the perennially overlooked southern sibling) is pegged to experience a 9% growth rate. These numbers place the Mercosur countries among the top five in the entire region! And, as you may have surmised, Paraguay may well be the region’s economic growth champion by year end. The strong growth in the region is attributable to strong domestic demand (so much so that some global economists are worried that it will lead to economic overheating in some countries), a powerful and stable increase in investment (mostly domestically derived funds and capital returning to the local markets after being invested overseas for a number of years) and healthy exports driven by Chinese and Asian demand and by the demand derived from the slow but steady recovery of the U.S. economy. More >
New Personal Safety Concerns in Latin America
Nov 1st
I just read an article in the Nuevo Herald of Miami wherein it noted that a recent opinion survey of Panamanian residents was taken and the results surprised me. Out of 1,000 respondents slightly more than 70% have a strong fear of falling prey to street crime. Only 28% of those surveyed have little or no fear of it. Furthermore, 41% feel a strong fear of street crime at night when they return to their homes or when walking in the streets and 31% admit a moderate fear. More >
Are Commercial Real Estate Brokers Reinventing Themselves?
Oct 28th
As we all know times have been tough and brokerage companies around the world have made cuts in staff, salaries and closed offices as circumstances have dictated. As far as investment transactions were concerned, the brokers interviewed by Property EU stated that €52 billion of investment transactions was generated – a 38% decline from the previous year. The previous year saw a decline of 60%. CBRE noted a decline of 5% year on year with Catella and Colliers – 82% and 78% respectively. More >
