News and analytical reports of the week (01 – 07.02.2010)

Bulgaria: housing prices in the country could decline further in 2010. Latvia: apartment prices are on the rise in the capital. United States: national commercial property may trigger a new coil of the crisis.

Bulgaria: If Bulgarian banks would start selling foreclosed properties in large numbers, housing prices in the country may slide even further (according to Colliers, prices would decline by 10% in comparison to 2009).

Spain: According to the President of the Spanish Mortgage Association - Santos Gonzalez Sanchez - the property sector of the country is a “bankrupt”, while the financing of construction projects in the property domain has ceased almost completely. “The news regarding the bankruptcy of the Spanish property sector is neither bad nor good”, - the head of the Spanish Property Insight independent consultancy, Mark Stucklin, says. – “It is a reflection of the current market situation which is experiencing hard times. It is obvious that buying property off-plan should be approached with caution, since the developer which is engaged in its construction may go bankrupt. I suppose that 2010 is a right time to purchase properties in the upper price brackets, since frequently they are sold at discounts as high as 25%”.

Latvia: According to major Latvian realtor agency Ober Haus Real Estate, typical apartments without repairs in Riga have appreciated by 5%, January-to-December. That said, prices for new apartments have remained intact in January 2010.

Finland: According to the Finnish cadastral offices, over 2009, Russians have purchased nearly 400 properties in the country. A year earlier this number has worked out 780 units. Experts think that this trend is due to a global economic recession, and the cheapening of ruble against euro. The psychological factor has also played an important role in this: real estate depreciates in most countries, popular among Russian overseas property buyers, while, by contrast, grows in Finland. However, experts polled by the Prian.ru portal claim that the interest of Russians in Finnish property has started recovering in recent months.

Croatia: In January, the average price of local residential property has climbed down by 0.7%, compared to the preceding month. During the same period, homes on Croatian Adriatic coast have appreciated by 1.5%.

Slovakia: In Q4, average residential property prices have declined by 1.9%, compared to the preceding quarter. The rate of decline in local housing prices has remained almost unchanged since Q3.

United Kingdom: In January, the value of residential property has climbed up by 0.7%, compared to December, while increasing by 3.6%, year-on-year, Halifax mortgage bank says. However, according to market experts, by the end of 2010, the majority of British residential properties would averagely depreciate by 10%.

The world's largest consulting agency PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) has surveyed 600 professionals of the European property market and concluded that London is the best direction for investments in office property in the region. Investment appeal of offices in the British capital is reasoned by a sharp decrease in prices and the weakness of pound relative to other world currencies.

United States: 79 Members of Congress have sent a letter, which urges authorities to take action and protect the US commercial property market from a slump, to the Ministry of Finance and Federal Reserve. The fact is, loans totaling $1.4 trillion, taken out for acquisition of local commercial property, come due to repayment in 2013. That said 65% borrowers may face difficulties in refinancing their loans. Economists say that such development of the situation could trigger a new coil of financial crisis.

P.S.
Over 310 thousand hectares of land have been has sold or earmarked for construction by Chinese government in 2009. The authorities have already raised 1.6 trillion Yuan ($234 billion) off these activities. Thanks to these measures, the authorities have managed to compensate for 40% of the stimulus package provided to local economy (which has amounted to 4 trillion Yuan, or $586 billion).

Author: Alexey Lahov