The confusion and uncertainty surrounding the worldwide economy has created a lot of negative headline figures for individual country property markets around the world. We see likes of Greece still falling, Russia performing badly, the European Union as a whole struggling and the USA not exactly on fire. Sometimes it is easy to be taken in by the headline figures but if you delve a little deeper there may be some gems.
Greece property market
Since 2008 Greek property prices have fallen by an average of 41% which is a phenomenal collapse in anyone’s book! The country seems to go from bad to worse, the budget deficit is not yet under control and the European Union continues to flex its muscles to rein in the Greek government. So, on the surface are there any reasons to look at the Greek property market? Would you be wasting your time, money and effort?
As a prime example of finding hidden gems under a dark cloud, the Greek luxury property market has started to show signs of recovery while markets around them still continue to fall. This interest is predominant fuelled by overseas investors with political issues within Turkey, a major property investment competitor, seemingly placing more focus upon parts of Greece as a recovery play.
UK property market
The UK is an interesting property market because London has always been head and shoulders above the rest of the country with regards to property price performance. The gap between the North and South has been growing for many years, economic performance has varied widely but things would appear be changing.
While some may suggest that the London property market is in “freefall” the truth is that perhaps the froth of recent years has been blown off London property prices. One thing is starting to emerge, the fact that prices in the North of England are holding up better than those in London and the South of England and therefore the gap between the North and South is slowly starting to reduce. Nobody is suggesting they will ever get to parity, things will likely change when the UK Brexit issue is resolved but at this moment in time more focus on relatively high rental income and reduced capital growth would appear to be putting the North of England back on the map.
Digging deeper
It is very easy to pigeonhole country property markets under the same banner and assume that performance is replicated right across the board. The fact is that very few markets perform like this due to the array of different economic situations in different areas of the country, different demographics and different types of property.
If you take the time and effort to research specific niche markets you will notice a variation compared to the general market. There will be times to buy, against the general market, there will be times to sell, against the general market, but only by doing your research will you start to understand this. By all means take into account the wider market performance but also concentrate on the niche area and the surrounding economy, employment situation, property prices and rental demand. After your research you may be surprised to see the degree of variation in property price performance within the same country.