Ever since man has been earning money, he has been looking to invest his hard earned money in the right and most profitable channels. Investments have been on the minds of people since we can remember. Formidable investment options have competed with each other with shares, bonds and property leading the show. Of the three, property has always held the upper hand when it comes to a safe and sound investment option. Yet, despite all its risks, shares continue to find its own league of followers. If you are a new entrant into the investment market, you need to have a deep understanding of all the investment options in order to invest rightly. The smart investor is the one who spots the best investment option miles away.
Measuring returns
There are several ways to measure the returns that you get from an investment. One is to measure the net income and the other is to measure the change in the value of the asset. And of course you have to keep the risk factor in mind. In more recent times, the definition or the way by which you measure the returns has undergone a change. Returns is now defined as the percentage net income over a period divided by the value of the property or the net yield, and the percentage change in value over an equal or the same period of time. For example a property with a total yield of 15% and an increase in the value of 5% gives a total return of 20%. At the same time, the risk is defined as the volatility or the deviation over the same period of time.
Why Property?
In the US, shares were declared as the riskiest investment option in the last few years according to a survey. But they also gave the highest returns. The lowest returns were given by bonds and the risk was the minimum as well. While property fared in between the two. So wouldn’t you like to invest in a channel that does not have as much risk and at the same time, delivers a standard percentage of returns? A lot of investors look to invest a part of their income in each of the above mentioned assets. This is a smart investment policy because even if a bad situation were to arise, each one of the assets would react differently to it. Not all of them would go through a decline at the same time. The co relation of property with equities is quite less. Hence even if equities fall, it is not necessary that property will follow suit.
Sub classes within the same
Even within property there are two distinct sub classes. One is listed property and the other is directly held property. Of the two the later is the more stable option and also has less risks involved. So if you too are confused by the greatest investment debate of all times, then be rest assured that property definitely holds the upper hand. A two fold income source, least risks involved and an ever growing demand are what fuel’s the property market ahead. So what are you waiting for?
2011年10月27日星期四
Where To Purchase Property For Sale In Mallorca
A lot of people are becoming really keen on property for sale in Mallorca, property for sale in Majorca and even property for sale in Ibiza after discovering the amazing weather conditions and natural charm of these places in the Balearic Sea. Nonetheless, the majority of people are just acquainted with the Balearic region in a holidaying meaning and usually do not know how to go about getting property in this kind of region, as appealing as it is. Lots of people are often tentative to buy property in this location due to the fact they are uncertain of what cost to purchase a residence or villa at, what local communities and locations are the best and what to watch out for in property for sale in Mallorca.
Such individuals need to make use of house solutions and property agencies that are easily accessible in the Balearic region. Such companies specialize in these types of neighborhoods, are really knowledgeable about the location, and may fundamentally make sure that you inevitably obtain the house that best fits your preferences and budget in the Balearic location. This document sheds light on the positive aspects provided by these sort of services in order that you can find the proper property for sale in Majorca or buy the suitable property for sale in Ibiza.
It is important to initially understand why island residence is so fascinating these days. Until not long ago, a lot of people did not recognize the obvious deluxe that is situated in the heart of these islands in the Mediterranean. Not only are these islands spectacular like those of the Caribbean, however they are as well loaded with the tradition of Europe. As increasingly more people are beginning to appreciate this, they are swiftly excited about purchasing a home in this type of area. Not simply do these islands supply perfect weather, but also natural beauty such as excellent shorelines and magnificent waters. After finding the many benefits of this kind of situation, most people find that there is little to no rationale not to buy a house in one of those regions.
As mentioned above, more and more people are encouraged concerning the notion of purchasing property for sale in Mallorca, property for sale in Majorca or property for sale in Ibiza. Getting the right property however, is a little challenging. The services of a Balearic residence service or a real estate professional are particularly valuable and advantageous. Balearic real-estate companies give assistance with locating sensible guidance which is self-sufficient to make sure that you get a house ideal to meet your needs. The support of a real estate agent will in addition permit you to access houses that are not readily marketed in house adverts or on housing marketplace pages. This’ll make sure that you are exposed to as several properties as is feasible to locate the residence which is ideal for your concerns.
In addition, the experience of Balearic house agencies will guarantee that you won’t spend too much for a home or property for sale in Mallorca. It is rather clear that the facilities of a property service company in the Balearic Sea provide the help you’ll need to find that ideal property for sale in Ibiza.
Such individuals need to make use of house solutions and property agencies that are easily accessible in the Balearic region. Such companies specialize in these types of neighborhoods, are really knowledgeable about the location, and may fundamentally make sure that you inevitably obtain the house that best fits your preferences and budget in the Balearic location. This document sheds light on the positive aspects provided by these sort of services in order that you can find the proper property for sale in Majorca or buy the suitable property for sale in Ibiza.
It is important to initially understand why island residence is so fascinating these days. Until not long ago, a lot of people did not recognize the obvious deluxe that is situated in the heart of these islands in the Mediterranean. Not only are these islands spectacular like those of the Caribbean, however they are as well loaded with the tradition of Europe. As increasingly more people are beginning to appreciate this, they are swiftly excited about purchasing a home in this type of area. Not simply do these islands supply perfect weather, but also natural beauty such as excellent shorelines and magnificent waters. After finding the many benefits of this kind of situation, most people find that there is little to no rationale not to buy a house in one of those regions.
As mentioned above, more and more people are encouraged concerning the notion of purchasing property for sale in Mallorca, property for sale in Majorca or property for sale in Ibiza. Getting the right property however, is a little challenging. The services of a Balearic residence service or a real estate professional are particularly valuable and advantageous. Balearic real-estate companies give assistance with locating sensible guidance which is self-sufficient to make sure that you get a house ideal to meet your needs. The support of a real estate agent will in addition permit you to access houses that are not readily marketed in house adverts or on housing marketplace pages. This’ll make sure that you are exposed to as several properties as is feasible to locate the residence which is ideal for your concerns.
In addition, the experience of Balearic house agencies will guarantee that you won’t spend too much for a home or property for sale in Mallorca. It is rather clear that the facilities of a property service company in the Balearic Sea provide the help you’ll need to find that ideal property for sale in Ibiza.
2011年10月26日星期三
Commercial Property Forced Appreciation
Forced appreciation has frequently been compared to printing funds. In apartment investing, taking a few straightforward actions this will give you the ability to boost the commercial real estate rents.
Forced appreciation is typically as simple as new landscaping for your investment, or adding amenities and services such as cable or wireless World wide web service. They are straightforward steps that are not overly high-priced, but that give you the capacity to raise rents higher than the past owner was able to get for the property. You can also give premium suites to discerning tenants. This might have an initial price for refurbishing, but it will also permit you to rent them at a significantly increased price. These straightforward ways allow you to use your property management to develop a much better environment for your apartment investing, giving it an advantage and creating an improve in income.
You also have the choice to impose and enforce late fees on any non-paid rents by tenants if they aren’t paid by the date specified when the lease was signed.
There are other income opportunities in apartment building investing or property management such as parking and garage rentals, laundry facilities, storage, vending machines with candy, soda, or soap powder pay phones and video machines in the laundry facility. By adding amenities such as these, the property is a lot more convenient for the tenant, and it also creates some additional income from the building. It may also make the building much more attractive to possible tenants that come to see a unit.
In every single apartment building there are pet lovers who are willing to pay additional for their pets. Permit pets at premium rents and charge pet fees for each pet. Adding cellular towers, billboards and gift shops to the property will also earn you extra income in your apartment investing.
Decreasing expenses is an additional way to get dollars out of your property. These expenses include property tax, utilities, maintenance, management efficiencies and insurance. These expanses can all be passed on to the tenants. It is constantly wise in commercial real estate to decrease what expenditures you are able, as this increases your income and makes the property management job easier.
Also, make each and every attempt to decrease vacancy. Less vacancies means far more rental income, acquiring the finest result with your commercial property management. Move-in specials are 1 way the property management can keep the rental units filled. Gross leases, tenant referrals and growing advertising are just some of the ways to bring in far more potential tenants and keep vacancies at bay. Just like any other company, apartment building investing demands requirements appropriate advertising. But, it may well be the extra amenities that entice potential tenants.
Forced appreciation is typically as simple as new landscaping for your investment, or adding amenities and services such as cable or wireless World wide web service. They are straightforward steps that are not overly high-priced, but that give you the capacity to raise rents higher than the past owner was able to get for the property. You can also give premium suites to discerning tenants. This might have an initial price for refurbishing, but it will also permit you to rent them at a significantly increased price. These straightforward ways allow you to use your property management to develop a much better environment for your apartment investing, giving it an advantage and creating an improve in income.
You also have the choice to impose and enforce late fees on any non-paid rents by tenants if they aren’t paid by the date specified when the lease was signed.
There are other income opportunities in apartment building investing or property management such as parking and garage rentals, laundry facilities, storage, vending machines with candy, soda, or soap powder pay phones and video machines in the laundry facility. By adding amenities such as these, the property is a lot more convenient for the tenant, and it also creates some additional income from the building. It may also make the building much more attractive to possible tenants that come to see a unit.
In every single apartment building there are pet lovers who are willing to pay additional for their pets. Permit pets at premium rents and charge pet fees for each pet. Adding cellular towers, billboards and gift shops to the property will also earn you extra income in your apartment investing.
Decreasing expenses is an additional way to get dollars out of your property. These expenses include property tax, utilities, maintenance, management efficiencies and insurance. These expanses can all be passed on to the tenants. It is constantly wise in commercial real estate to decrease what expenditures you are able, as this increases your income and makes the property management job easier.
Also, make each and every attempt to decrease vacancy. Less vacancies means far more rental income, acquiring the finest result with your commercial property management. Move-in specials are 1 way the property management can keep the rental units filled. Gross leases, tenant referrals and growing advertising are just some of the ways to bring in far more potential tenants and keep vacancies at bay. Just like any other company, apartment building investing demands requirements appropriate advertising. But, it may well be the extra amenities that entice potential tenants.
Benefits of a SIPP Property Investment
Self Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs) have gained an increasing amount of interest in real estate investments from pension holders over recent years. The concept of SIPP plans was originally introduced in 1989, creating a ‘hands-on’ approach for pension holders to make full decisions of how and where their pension is invested. For real estate to be eligible for SIPP approval, the properties are required to undergo strict criteria approval, ensuring greater security as an investment option.
The development of SIPP plans have enabled integration and flexibility for pension holders to determine how their funds are invested, enabling control over the resulting returns. Traditional pension plans have often been limited in diversification, where investment options were entirely controlled by the fund managers.
The introduction of SIPP plans has created the opportunity for under-performing investments to be changed at the request of the pension holder, maximising the return potential. The flexibility of a SIPP offers many distinctive investment advantages, avoiding the problems associated with traditional plans that may be trapped into financial losses during periods of economic downturn.
Investments into a wide range of properties can be obtained through property based investment funds. Real estate investments through SIPPs can also be purchased through property funds, where a diverse selection of property investments are selected and managed through field experts. This option allows for expansive return potential and lowers the risk factors involved.
Acting as an individual investor will enable the SIPP holder to benefit from personal control over the pension fund. Owning investment properties through a SIPP fund avoids the inconveniences of mortgages, complicated legal issues, high capital outlay and overall property management issues.
The development of SIPP plans have enabled integration and flexibility for pension holders to determine how their funds are invested, enabling control over the resulting returns. Traditional pension plans have often been limited in diversification, where investment options were entirely controlled by the fund managers.
The introduction of SIPP plans has created the opportunity for under-performing investments to be changed at the request of the pension holder, maximising the return potential. The flexibility of a SIPP offers many distinctive investment advantages, avoiding the problems associated with traditional plans that may be trapped into financial losses during periods of economic downturn.
Investments into a wide range of properties can be obtained through property based investment funds. Real estate investments through SIPPs can also be purchased through property funds, where a diverse selection of property investments are selected and managed through field experts. This option allows for expansive return potential and lowers the risk factors involved.
Acting as an individual investor will enable the SIPP holder to benefit from personal control over the pension fund. Owning investment properties through a SIPP fund avoids the inconveniences of mortgages, complicated legal issues, high capital outlay and overall property management issues.
2011年10月25日星期二
Options for Buying Waterfront Real estate property
If you might be in the market for waterfront property or home, you may be interested in it for one of many reasons; to get vacation functions, as your primary residence, because you want a pension home, or being an investment ability. Each worth mentioning real estate options provides slightly diverse considerations which you’ll want to bear as their intended purpose.
Many folks first think about buying waterfront property for vacation purposes. You may have taken every year vacations for a prime piece of waterfront property, be it for a river, the lake, invariably a pile creek, or near to the marine. Maybe you discover yourself counting the times until it is possible to return to the waterfront vacation spot. You’ve no interest in trying another location for your trip-you want to return to the favorite spot. If hence, this is a superb time take into account buying waterfront property. Next period you’re with vacation, talk to agent in madrid or location area you like to visit along with see if you cannot get happening buying your own personal little piece of waterfront property heaven.
But maybe you have a vacation home along with the a couple of weeks you spend there isn’t enough any further. Do you discover yourself dreaming of these waterfront home inside months prior to deciding to can go back? Are an individual plotting end of the week escapes to that particular waterfront property you love so considerably? Then probably its time take into account buying waterfront property for your primary residence. Your latest vacation home may well make the switch beautifully, but you have got to consider carefully if you possibly could imagine yourself living there day to day. Are the appliances along with amenities modified? You could be willing to be able to tolerate a good outmoded range along with the lack of an microwave in the vacation log home, but not in the primary residence. Is your vacation property large plenty of to sustain daily being? An truthful appraisal of your current needs and no matter if your vacation home will provide it could go a considerable ways towards building the transition to waterfront living very easy.
Many folks love thinking about waterfront being, but aren’t prepared make the sacrifices it may entail-long commutes, living from the the location, lack of cultural options. If this is you, you may will think about buying which waterfront property for your retirement. Once you no longer have employment to are accountable to daily, thinking about living somewhat away from your hustle along with bustle takes on more draw. With pension, life slows down somewhat, and you should have time to understand your waterfront real estate-watching the sea gulls swoop along with dive, reading the roar belonging to the ocean, or maybe dangling feet off the deck into a cold pile creek.
Eventually, there could be the option of buying real estate for investment decision purposes. It’s just about a assure that the price of waterfront property is only planning to escalate. Many’s the investor exactly who wishes they will had bought property years before, when charges seemed quaintly cheap. Those identical properties which dwelling were charmingly inexpensive have become worth a smallish fortune.
Whatever your desire inside buying property, there are sure to be options that may fulfill your preferences.
Many folks first think about buying waterfront property for vacation purposes. You may have taken every year vacations for a prime piece of waterfront property, be it for a river, the lake, invariably a pile creek, or near to the marine. Maybe you discover yourself counting the times until it is possible to return to the waterfront vacation spot. You’ve no interest in trying another location for your trip-you want to return to the favorite spot. If hence, this is a superb time take into account buying waterfront property. Next period you’re with vacation, talk to agent in madrid or location area you like to visit along with see if you cannot get happening buying your own personal little piece of waterfront property heaven.
But maybe you have a vacation home along with the a couple of weeks you spend there isn’t enough any further. Do you discover yourself dreaming of these waterfront home inside months prior to deciding to can go back? Are an individual plotting end of the week escapes to that particular waterfront property you love so considerably? Then probably its time take into account buying waterfront property for your primary residence. Your latest vacation home may well make the switch beautifully, but you have got to consider carefully if you possibly could imagine yourself living there day to day. Are the appliances along with amenities modified? You could be willing to be able to tolerate a good outmoded range along with the lack of an microwave in the vacation log home, but not in the primary residence. Is your vacation property large plenty of to sustain daily being? An truthful appraisal of your current needs and no matter if your vacation home will provide it could go a considerable ways towards building the transition to waterfront living very easy.
Many folks love thinking about waterfront being, but aren’t prepared make the sacrifices it may entail-long commutes, living from the the location, lack of cultural options. If this is you, you may will think about buying which waterfront property for your retirement. Once you no longer have employment to are accountable to daily, thinking about living somewhat away from your hustle along with bustle takes on more draw. With pension, life slows down somewhat, and you should have time to understand your waterfront real estate-watching the sea gulls swoop along with dive, reading the roar belonging to the ocean, or maybe dangling feet off the deck into a cold pile creek.
Eventually, there could be the option of buying real estate for investment decision purposes. It’s just about a assure that the price of waterfront property is only planning to escalate. Many’s the investor exactly who wishes they will had bought property years before, when charges seemed quaintly cheap. Those identical properties which dwelling were charmingly inexpensive have become worth a smallish fortune.
Whatever your desire inside buying property, there are sure to be options that may fulfill your preferences.
2011年10月24日星期一
Poland property: still sagging
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It’s not enough that Polish real estate owners (many of whom have mortgages denominated in Swiss currency) have been battered by the soaring franc, they’ve also had to contend with a steady fall in the value of flats.
According to a new study by Ober-Haus, a central European real estate agency, that uses its internal data, apartment prices are continuing to sag. In September, prices fell month-on-month in most large urban centres – from a tiny 0.1 per cent in Warsaw to a steeper 1.2 per cent in the secondary cities of Poznan, Lodz and Katowice.
Since the peak of the boom, just before the onset of the global economic crisis in late 2008, apartment prices have fallen by about 10 per cent in Warsaw to 28 per cent in Lodz, an industrial city in central Poland that was a late-comer to the real estate frenzy that gripped Poland following the country’s entry into the EU in 2004.
Poland’s central bank has bad news for those homeowners hoping for a quick turnaround. In a report issued earlier this month, the central bank finds that price falls are slowing, but there is little sign of a rebound.
“During the analysed period there was a continuation of most of the trends seen in the 1st quarter, which can be described as a shift in the market to a new point of equilibrium, with lower housing prices and lower production costs,” says the bank’s report.
Those lacklustre prices are scaring off potential buyers. REAS, a real estate consultancy, reports that housing transactions in Poland’s six largest cities fell by 10 per cent in the third quarter to 6,807 sales.
The last optimists must be the developers, who are continuing to build despite the sagging sales. In the third quarter they handed over 8,862 new flats – a 23 per cent increase over the same period a year earlier.
That means there are 48,000 unsold flats on the Polish market – a record – and construction permits are up by about 10 per cent. That backlog will take a long time to shift, especially with the banking regulator showing signs of tightening loan requirements for new borrowers, making it more difficult to get mortgages.
All that is enough to make any real estate punter pretty gloomy.
It’s not enough that Polish real estate owners (many of whom have mortgages denominated in Swiss currency) have been battered by the soaring franc, they’ve also had to contend with a steady fall in the value of flats.
According to a new study by Ober-Haus, a central European real estate agency, that uses its internal data, apartment prices are continuing to sag. In September, prices fell month-on-month in most large urban centres – from a tiny 0.1 per cent in Warsaw to a steeper 1.2 per cent in the secondary cities of Poznan, Lodz and Katowice.
Since the peak of the boom, just before the onset of the global economic crisis in late 2008, apartment prices have fallen by about 10 per cent in Warsaw to 28 per cent in Lodz, an industrial city in central Poland that was a late-comer to the real estate frenzy that gripped Poland following the country’s entry into the EU in 2004.
Poland’s central bank has bad news for those homeowners hoping for a quick turnaround. In a report issued earlier this month, the central bank finds that price falls are slowing, but there is little sign of a rebound.
“During the analysed period there was a continuation of most of the trends seen in the 1st quarter, which can be described as a shift in the market to a new point of equilibrium, with lower housing prices and lower production costs,” says the bank’s report.
Those lacklustre prices are scaring off potential buyers. REAS, a real estate consultancy, reports that housing transactions in Poland’s six largest cities fell by 10 per cent in the third quarter to 6,807 sales.
The last optimists must be the developers, who are continuing to build despite the sagging sales. In the third quarter they handed over 8,862 new flats – a 23 per cent increase over the same period a year earlier.
That means there are 48,000 unsold flats on the Polish market – a record – and construction permits are up by about 10 per cent. That backlog will take a long time to shift, especially with the banking regulator showing signs of tightening loan requirements for new borrowers, making it more difficult to get mortgages.
All that is enough to make any real estate punter pretty gloomy.
2011年10月20日星期四
Copyright Infrastructure In The Digital Age: Raising Awareness At WIPO
A global meeting entitled “Enabling Creativity in the Digital Environment: Copyright Documentation and Infrastructure” was held recently at the World Intellectual Property Organization. Gathering representatives of governments, business leaders, academics, and other stakeholders, the conference was organised in the framework of the Development Agenda Thematic Project on Intellectual Property and the Public Domain.
The 13-14 October conference programme is available here.
During his welcome address, Trevor Clarke, WIPO assistant director general with responsibility for copyright, explained that the two-day conference was convened to raise awareness of member states of the important role that copyright infrastructure can play in development, especially in the digital environment. “Very often the same infrastructure and documentation that facilitates the exercise of copyright and related rights … can help the general public to delimit the public domain,” he said.
With topics ranging from public registration and legal deposit systems to balanced and effective dissemination of creativity over the internet, the conference covered a lot of ground. Dr. Ismail Serageldin, director of the Library of Alexandria in Egypt, boiled down the meeting’s broad scope with a simple phrase during his keynote address: “Inventing the future is what this conference is all about.”
In the context of the speed of development and change in the digital era, he said that there is an urgent need to promote works in the public domain and access to knowledge, to rethink the law and what is copyrightable, to recognise fair-use for non-commercial exploitation, and to nurture artistic and creative development.
The Business of Copyright Infrastructure Online
Bringing together copyright experts, entrepreneurs, and business leaders, the panel session on “Copyright Infrastructure for Business Models Online” covered many issues related to copyright in a digital world which provoked intense reactions from audience members and a lively debate.
“Copyright management is often quite a challenging, complicated endeavour, but copyright licensing shouldn’t be for users,” said Victoriano Colodrón, the executive director of RightsDirect, a European subsidiary of the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC). “It should be an easy process for content users.”
Colodrón illustrated his key message with three examples of successful online business models used by CCC to provide flexible copyright licensing solutions to multinational corporations. One of these models, RightsLink, used by publishing heavyweights such as the New York Times, Elsevier and Springer, places the licensing mechanism where the content is and where the content consumption takes place, allowing publishers to licence content on their websites.
In the same session, Ralph Simon, CEO of Mobilium International, urged IP leaders to take into account the importance of mobile and smartphone use in the development of copyright infrastructure. He said that there will be just 360 million sales of PCs in 2011 compared to 1 billion mobile phone sales, emphasising that mobile growth is especially strong in African countries. “One of the key objectives and, I believe, imperatives of WIPO is it would be very important for us to try to gather in all of the TELCOs [telecommunication companies], handset makers, TELCO infrastructure providers because we need that constituency to help us with the process of copyright registration and copyright attribution…. And to help us to protect the creative rights of copyright creators.”
Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Chief Technology Officer, Mitch Singer, came to the table with UltraViolet, an internet movie platform launched in the United States on 11 October. Singer describes the concept as “Blu-ray meets the Cloud,” as the platform provides the rights of a film purchased by a user so they can view the video on other devices and share it with family members. Backed by some of the biggest movie studios, UltraViolet is being hailed as a solution to the stagnation of digital movie distribution. It will soon be available in Canada and progressively in Europe.
Panellist Jun Wu, chief executive director of R2G, China’s first centralised music distribution platform, evoked some of the challenges in today’s digital music environment and some solutions that seemed to hit a nerve with some conference participants. He argued that today, in the online digital music world, there is a huge imbalance between total revenue generated versus benefit reaped by content providers. He provided a figure to illustrate his point. In 2010, $2.7 billion US dollars of revenue in digital music consumption was generated in China. Of this, the music industry was only able to capture $40 million US dollars. He explained that that this gap is in part due to the lack of infrastructure to support and define copyright in a digital environment.
“In the internet world,” he said, “we should be able to support multiple, different business models, however, we need to have an infrastructure to facilitate that. And currently today there is no such infrastructure.”
In terms of what such an infrastructure would look like, Wu explained, “Through a unified registration process, copyright will have a very clear definition in the future. The definition should have a more direct association with the commercial value of that product. This means that even though the user-generated content might inherently have its own copyright, it is fundamentally different from a commercial copyright. Copyright should be very definable and it should not take 29 degrees to define what is a copyright.”
The Future of Copyright in a Digital World
During the question and answer period of this session, Clarke came back to this point asking for further explanation on eventual new ways of looking at copyright. Wu responded, saying that from a Chinese perspective, it is impossible to monetise copyright in the current system and called for a simplification of copyright to improve commercialisation.
This suggestion provoked strong reactions from audience members. J?rg Evers, a classical composer and chairman of GEMA, one of the world’s largest societies of authors for works of music, responded by saying that such monetising difficulties were due to “a lack of proper legislation in China, because in Europe it’s very easy for an author to prove that he has written his work or written his music, so there is a lack of a proper protection of author’s rights.” Ndèye Abibatou Youm Diabe Siby, director general of the ministry of culture and communication of the Senegalese Copyright Office, said that although there are new economic realities, she found the suggestion to review the definition of copyright unnecessary and worrisome as it could undermine the work which has been done in terms of the protection of authors’ rights.
In an interview following the session, Wu clarified his remarks, saying, “what I am suggesting is how we can provide an infrastructure so that part of what we understand as copyright today can be better monetised in the future in a digital world.”
Access to Knowledge Issues
During the session covering “Infrastructure Enabling Access to Knowledge” a number of topics were covered including preservation of creative material in the digital environment, infrastructure for beneficiaries of limitations, public domain databases, and orphan works.
Dr. Silke von Lewinski, department head of international law at the Max-Planck Institute for Intellectual Property in Munich and author of “Indigenous Heritage and Intellectual Property: Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore”, spoke about the possibilities and challenges related to protecting traditional knowledge (TK) and whether or not there should be registries or databases of traditional cultural expressions (TCEs). Among the challenges that she mentioned was that many indigenous peoples object to the idea of separating a TCE from its larger context (e.g., an event, a ceremony, a place) and do not agree with the idea of trying to codify them in a database. She also cautioned that creativity and access to knowledge are western values that indigenous peoples do not necessarily share in the same way.
Maria Pallante, register of copyrights and director of the US Copyright Office, spoke about the progress that Washington has made developing orphan works legislation. The legislation would allow good-faith users of copyrighted content to move forward in cases where they wish to license a use but cannot locate the copyright owner after a diligent search. Although the House of Representatives did not pass the 2008 Orphan Works bill, Pallante said that “it was close” and that the legislation would be introduced again.
The 13-14 October conference programme is available here.
During his welcome address, Trevor Clarke, WIPO assistant director general with responsibility for copyright, explained that the two-day conference was convened to raise awareness of member states of the important role that copyright infrastructure can play in development, especially in the digital environment. “Very often the same infrastructure and documentation that facilitates the exercise of copyright and related rights … can help the general public to delimit the public domain,” he said.
With topics ranging from public registration and legal deposit systems to balanced and effective dissemination of creativity over the internet, the conference covered a lot of ground. Dr. Ismail Serageldin, director of the Library of Alexandria in Egypt, boiled down the meeting’s broad scope with a simple phrase during his keynote address: “Inventing the future is what this conference is all about.”
In the context of the speed of development and change in the digital era, he said that there is an urgent need to promote works in the public domain and access to knowledge, to rethink the law and what is copyrightable, to recognise fair-use for non-commercial exploitation, and to nurture artistic and creative development.
The Business of Copyright Infrastructure Online
Bringing together copyright experts, entrepreneurs, and business leaders, the panel session on “Copyright Infrastructure for Business Models Online” covered many issues related to copyright in a digital world which provoked intense reactions from audience members and a lively debate.
“Copyright management is often quite a challenging, complicated endeavour, but copyright licensing shouldn’t be for users,” said Victoriano Colodrón, the executive director of RightsDirect, a European subsidiary of the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC). “It should be an easy process for content users.”
Colodrón illustrated his key message with three examples of successful online business models used by CCC to provide flexible copyright licensing solutions to multinational corporations. One of these models, RightsLink, used by publishing heavyweights such as the New York Times, Elsevier and Springer, places the licensing mechanism where the content is and where the content consumption takes place, allowing publishers to licence content on their websites.
In the same session, Ralph Simon, CEO of Mobilium International, urged IP leaders to take into account the importance of mobile and smartphone use in the development of copyright infrastructure. He said that there will be just 360 million sales of PCs in 2011 compared to 1 billion mobile phone sales, emphasising that mobile growth is especially strong in African countries. “One of the key objectives and, I believe, imperatives of WIPO is it would be very important for us to try to gather in all of the TELCOs [telecommunication companies], handset makers, TELCO infrastructure providers because we need that constituency to help us with the process of copyright registration and copyright attribution…. And to help us to protect the creative rights of copyright creators.”
Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Chief Technology Officer, Mitch Singer, came to the table with UltraViolet, an internet movie platform launched in the United States on 11 October. Singer describes the concept as “Blu-ray meets the Cloud,” as the platform provides the rights of a film purchased by a user so they can view the video on other devices and share it with family members. Backed by some of the biggest movie studios, UltraViolet is being hailed as a solution to the stagnation of digital movie distribution. It will soon be available in Canada and progressively in Europe.
Panellist Jun Wu, chief executive director of R2G, China’s first centralised music distribution platform, evoked some of the challenges in today’s digital music environment and some solutions that seemed to hit a nerve with some conference participants. He argued that today, in the online digital music world, there is a huge imbalance between total revenue generated versus benefit reaped by content providers. He provided a figure to illustrate his point. In 2010, $2.7 billion US dollars of revenue in digital music consumption was generated in China. Of this, the music industry was only able to capture $40 million US dollars. He explained that that this gap is in part due to the lack of infrastructure to support and define copyright in a digital environment.
“In the internet world,” he said, “we should be able to support multiple, different business models, however, we need to have an infrastructure to facilitate that. And currently today there is no such infrastructure.”
In terms of what such an infrastructure would look like, Wu explained, “Through a unified registration process, copyright will have a very clear definition in the future. The definition should have a more direct association with the commercial value of that product. This means that even though the user-generated content might inherently have its own copyright, it is fundamentally different from a commercial copyright. Copyright should be very definable and it should not take 29 degrees to define what is a copyright.”
The Future of Copyright in a Digital World
During the question and answer period of this session, Clarke came back to this point asking for further explanation on eventual new ways of looking at copyright. Wu responded, saying that from a Chinese perspective, it is impossible to monetise copyright in the current system and called for a simplification of copyright to improve commercialisation.
This suggestion provoked strong reactions from audience members. J?rg Evers, a classical composer and chairman of GEMA, one of the world’s largest societies of authors for works of music, responded by saying that such monetising difficulties were due to “a lack of proper legislation in China, because in Europe it’s very easy for an author to prove that he has written his work or written his music, so there is a lack of a proper protection of author’s rights.” Ndèye Abibatou Youm Diabe Siby, director general of the ministry of culture and communication of the Senegalese Copyright Office, said that although there are new economic realities, she found the suggestion to review the definition of copyright unnecessary and worrisome as it could undermine the work which has been done in terms of the protection of authors’ rights.
In an interview following the session, Wu clarified his remarks, saying, “what I am suggesting is how we can provide an infrastructure so that part of what we understand as copyright today can be better monetised in the future in a digital world.”
Access to Knowledge Issues
During the session covering “Infrastructure Enabling Access to Knowledge” a number of topics were covered including preservation of creative material in the digital environment, infrastructure for beneficiaries of limitations, public domain databases, and orphan works.
Dr. Silke von Lewinski, department head of international law at the Max-Planck Institute for Intellectual Property in Munich and author of “Indigenous Heritage and Intellectual Property: Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore”, spoke about the possibilities and challenges related to protecting traditional knowledge (TK) and whether or not there should be registries or databases of traditional cultural expressions (TCEs). Among the challenges that she mentioned was that many indigenous peoples object to the idea of separating a TCE from its larger context (e.g., an event, a ceremony, a place) and do not agree with the idea of trying to codify them in a database. She also cautioned that creativity and access to knowledge are western values that indigenous peoples do not necessarily share in the same way.
Maria Pallante, register of copyrights and director of the US Copyright Office, spoke about the progress that Washington has made developing orphan works legislation. The legislation would allow good-faith users of copyrighted content to move forward in cases where they wish to license a use but cannot locate the copyright owner after a diligent search. Although the House of Representatives did not pass the 2008 Orphan Works bill, Pallante said that “it was close” and that the legislation would be introduced again.
Expert Legal Advice from Property Tax Lawyer Texas
In order to pay up property taxes that are in perfect accordance with the exact amount that one actually ought to pay in Texas one requires some legal advice which can be sought from expert Property Tax Lawyer Texas who are extremely well trained in handling such issues with utmost efficiency.
Paying up the exact amount as property tax in Texas is certainly quite a tiresome experience for most property tax payers in the area. Thus for a quick and fast analysis of the property it is certainly advisable to hire the apt services of competent Property Tax Lawyer Texas. Not only will these legal experts advice on how to go about assessing the entire property owned by the legal owners but they will also advice on how to avoid any litigation or legal hassle on the property owned and also how to manage to get all the documents essential for proper assembling and proving ownership rights of any property whether personal, residential or commercial and how to pay proper and appropriate taxes without having to pay up anything extra with every legal rule in the book kept in mind.
Property Tax Lawyer Texas are extremely helpful in providing right guidance and easy solutions for people who have had legal problems and are entangled in property litigations with no solutions in sight. Since there are a number of different taxes imposed on each property owner in Texas it becomes almost impossible for the general person to actually go about trying to find a way out of tricky situations.
Property Tax Lawyer Texas are legal advisors who provide the correct methodology to approach each area of taxable property with utmost keenness and in such a way that there is maximum tax exemption available for each of their clients. What needs to be done so that there is a fair assessment of the property and paying up taxes does not prove to be a burden to the property tax payer is what these legal experts excel at and thus with a thorough and in-depth analysis of all legal documents each client gets huge benefits if timely advice is sought from any of the Property Tax Lawyer in Texas.
Apart from property litigations the property tax owners are also given valuable advice on any profit or non profit organization and also are experts in handling just about any legal issues related to payroll taxes, audits, issues that have long term lawsuits and of course legal matters related to any kind of property taxation by the expert property tax lawyer Texas. Every legal advice given by the experts are totally in sync with all rules and regulations that are bound by law of property taxation in Texas so there is absolutely no risk involved if legal advice is ought from them. The fact that most property owners in Texas are burdened with a lot of litigations makes it all the more advisable that instead of trying to sort out the problem on their own it is always better to seek legal advice which in the long run will certainly prove to be much more beneficial as every tax that the property owner needs to pay will be paid up and that too on time and more over with sound legal advice a lot of money will be saved as there will not be any litigation which will be a great blessing for the property owner who seeks legal expert advice in Texas!
Paying up the exact amount as property tax in Texas is certainly quite a tiresome experience for most property tax payers in the area. Thus for a quick and fast analysis of the property it is certainly advisable to hire the apt services of competent Property Tax Lawyer Texas. Not only will these legal experts advice on how to go about assessing the entire property owned by the legal owners but they will also advice on how to avoid any litigation or legal hassle on the property owned and also how to manage to get all the documents essential for proper assembling and proving ownership rights of any property whether personal, residential or commercial and how to pay proper and appropriate taxes without having to pay up anything extra with every legal rule in the book kept in mind.
Property Tax Lawyer Texas are extremely helpful in providing right guidance and easy solutions for people who have had legal problems and are entangled in property litigations with no solutions in sight. Since there are a number of different taxes imposed on each property owner in Texas it becomes almost impossible for the general person to actually go about trying to find a way out of tricky situations.
Property Tax Lawyer Texas are legal advisors who provide the correct methodology to approach each area of taxable property with utmost keenness and in such a way that there is maximum tax exemption available for each of their clients. What needs to be done so that there is a fair assessment of the property and paying up taxes does not prove to be a burden to the property tax payer is what these legal experts excel at and thus with a thorough and in-depth analysis of all legal documents each client gets huge benefits if timely advice is sought from any of the Property Tax Lawyer in Texas.
Apart from property litigations the property tax owners are also given valuable advice on any profit or non profit organization and also are experts in handling just about any legal issues related to payroll taxes, audits, issues that have long term lawsuits and of course legal matters related to any kind of property taxation by the expert property tax lawyer Texas. Every legal advice given by the experts are totally in sync with all rules and regulations that are bound by law of property taxation in Texas so there is absolutely no risk involved if legal advice is ought from them. The fact that most property owners in Texas are burdened with a lot of litigations makes it all the more advisable that instead of trying to sort out the problem on their own it is always better to seek legal advice which in the long run will certainly prove to be much more beneficial as every tax that the property owner needs to pay will be paid up and that too on time and more over with sound legal advice a lot of money will be saved as there will not be any litigation which will be a great blessing for the property owner who seeks legal expert advice in Texas!
2011年10月18日星期二
Orange County gets fewer property value challenges
Fewer Orange County land owners are contesting the valuation of their property, reports Orange County Property Appraiser Bill Donegan. This is the fourth consecutive year his office has seen a decline in the number of petitions filed.
Property owners were notified in mid-August of the value and tax rates proposed by the taxing authorities. Property owners who feel the assessed value exceeded the fair market value had until Sept. 12 to file a petition with the county’s Value Adjustment Board.
This year, 2,660 property owners out of the county’s 438,631 tax parcels filed a petition seeking a reduced property value. That’s a 23.6 percent reduction from the 3,482 petitions filed last year.
Donegan said most property owners object to the taxes rather than the valuation. “Both residents and businesses have seen values decline for several years now; yet taxes have increased for many.”
Fewer Orange County land owners are contesting the valuation of their property, reports Orange County Property Appraiser Bill Donegan. This is the fourth consecutive year his office has seen a decline in the number of petitions filed.
Property owners were notified in mid-August of the value and tax rates proposed by the taxing authorities. Property owners who feel the assessed value exceeded the fair market value had until Sept. 12 to file a petition with the county’s Value Adjustment Board.
This year, 2,660 property owners out of the county’s 438,631 tax parcels filed a petition seeking a reduced property value. That’s a 23.6 percent reduction from the 3,482 petitions filed last year.
Donegan said most property owners object to the taxes rather than the valuation. “Both residents and businesses have seen values decline for several years now; yet taxes have increased for many.”
Property owners were notified in mid-August of the value and tax rates proposed by the taxing authorities. Property owners who feel the assessed value exceeded the fair market value had until Sept. 12 to file a petition with the county’s Value Adjustment Board.
This year, 2,660 property owners out of the county’s 438,631 tax parcels filed a petition seeking a reduced property value. That’s a 23.6 percent reduction from the 3,482 petitions filed last year.
Donegan said most property owners object to the taxes rather than the valuation. “Both residents and businesses have seen values decline for several years now; yet taxes have increased for many.”
Fewer Orange County land owners are contesting the valuation of their property, reports Orange County Property Appraiser Bill Donegan. This is the fourth consecutive year his office has seen a decline in the number of petitions filed.
Property owners were notified in mid-August of the value and tax rates proposed by the taxing authorities. Property owners who feel the assessed value exceeded the fair market value had until Sept. 12 to file a petition with the county’s Value Adjustment Board.
This year, 2,660 property owners out of the county’s 438,631 tax parcels filed a petition seeking a reduced property value. That’s a 23.6 percent reduction from the 3,482 petitions filed last year.
Donegan said most property owners object to the taxes rather than the valuation. “Both residents and businesses have seen values decline for several years now; yet taxes have increased for many.”
Phoenix Investment Property for a Profitable Investment
Property investments have gained immense popularity in Phoenix. Investing in real estate has helped maximize the income of many in this part of the world. Many individuals have made a fortune by investing considerable amount of money on real estate. Investments in single as well as multiple properties have helped people to be in a financially commendable position. Investing in a good property has become a great alternative money making opportunity in Phoenix. It is wise to opt for a Phoenix investment property as it is the best way to make some quick bucks that will make you grow financially strong.
Before you plan to invest in real estates, it is essential to find a property that will fit your budget and pave way for immense profit. The rising trend of investments in real estate properties has made it difficult to find an affordable property. Finding a great realty demands extensive research coupled with a strong network. It is time consuming and tedious job to find a property in this city. This is where hiring a reputed Phoenix investment Property Company comes into picture. They will take the responsibility of locating an excellent realty at a reasonable price. They will handle the entire situation efficiently and crack the best deal for you. The only thing you need to do is to provide them with details of your budget and the rest will be taken care by them. They will ensure that you invest in a land located at a prominent locality.
The sole reason for choosing a reputed Phoenix investment property company is that they are well aware of the best deals in the city. Their years of experience in providing the best deals to many property seekers make them an ideal choice. The best part about choosing such investment companies in Phoenix is that they not only help you buy a good real estate, but also find prospective tenants for your property. The companies even take the responsibility of dealing with tenants. They ensure that the rent is collected on time. From managing your property to dealing with the tenants they will handle it all for you. They will function as the perfect real estate manager for your apartment, villa, condominiums, and flats that you choose to invest in. This way, you will can get rid of the headache of keeping a tab on the various properties and the tenants as well. These professional agencies will ensure that they strictly adhere to the rules and regulations.
Owning a piece of land will ensure that you have a secure future. You can sell the property to earn a great deal of money in case you are facing financial crisis. Maintaining the land well is essential to earn a large amount. Handing over the piece of land to a good Phoenix Investment Property company will ensure that your property is in good condition as well as help you earn a good amount of income. These small time investments are sure to give you great profits in return.
Before you plan to invest in real estates, it is essential to find a property that will fit your budget and pave way for immense profit. The rising trend of investments in real estate properties has made it difficult to find an affordable property. Finding a great realty demands extensive research coupled with a strong network. It is time consuming and tedious job to find a property in this city. This is where hiring a reputed Phoenix investment Property Company comes into picture. They will take the responsibility of locating an excellent realty at a reasonable price. They will handle the entire situation efficiently and crack the best deal for you. The only thing you need to do is to provide them with details of your budget and the rest will be taken care by them. They will ensure that you invest in a land located at a prominent locality.
The sole reason for choosing a reputed Phoenix investment property company is that they are well aware of the best deals in the city. Their years of experience in providing the best deals to many property seekers make them an ideal choice. The best part about choosing such investment companies in Phoenix is that they not only help you buy a good real estate, but also find prospective tenants for your property. The companies even take the responsibility of dealing with tenants. They ensure that the rent is collected on time. From managing your property to dealing with the tenants they will handle it all for you. They will function as the perfect real estate manager for your apartment, villa, condominiums, and flats that you choose to invest in. This way, you will can get rid of the headache of keeping a tab on the various properties and the tenants as well. These professional agencies will ensure that they strictly adhere to the rules and regulations.
Owning a piece of land will ensure that you have a secure future. You can sell the property to earn a great deal of money in case you are facing financial crisis. Maintaining the land well is essential to earn a large amount. Handing over the piece of land to a good Phoenix Investment Property company will ensure that your property is in good condition as well as help you earn a good amount of income. These small time investments are sure to give you great profits in return.
2011年10月17日星期一
Vigorous property market on the horizon
As a key finding, the report reveals that investor confidence in Thai real estate remains strong despite rising construction costs for developers and higher lending costs for homebuyers. Listed developers’ presales of condominium projects in Bangkok and Pattaya climbed to THB 22.6 billion during the second quarter of 2011, a steady doubling from the first quarter’s THB 11.3 billion tally.
Property developers expect vigorous market activity into the second half of the year, thanks to a strong pipeline of upcoming new projects, rising consumer confidence and a more stable political situation.
As Bangkok’s mass transit system expands, a trend is being created around the city’s fringe area by a growing number of Thai buyers, especially among the young, who now prefer condominiums over houses. The inner-city market has been energetic with 61 projects under development, totaling 16,730 units, with 38 projects launched in the past 12 months alone yielding 9,701 units. The pace of transfers compared to new completed condominium projects remains balanced with 83 percent of the units sold before completion.
“The first half of the year has been particularly good for developers,” noted Simon Dervillé, Raimon Land deputy vice president for Business Development. “A record number of 3,528 units was sold in inner-city Bangkok, with 53 percent of all units launched over the past 12 months finding buyers–that leaves us with a cumulated amount of 6,000 units under development to sell. The days when developers were selling out in a day are behind us, but 10 months to turn the inventory is still a very healthy number.”
Central Lumpini remains the highest-priced area in the CBD, with prices reaching 151,171 baht per square meter, followed by Silom/Sathorn and Sukhumvit at THB 137,018 and THB 108,036 per square meter, respectively.
Positive Market Sentiment in Pattaya
The condominium market in Pattaya has also experienced a surge over the past 12 months, especially in the THB 3 million and below bracket, as more developers turn towards smaller-sized units catering to buyers looking for weekend homes. Twenty-six projects were launched over the past 12 months for a total of 10,000 units, with 47.1 percent of units taken to date, a strong indicator of the depth of the market outside of Bangkok.
“Thai buyers still account for the majority of our sales in the Pattaya market. And now that Europe faces financial and currency issues, buyers from South Korea, China and Taiwan are quickly turning into our second largest group of customers,” added Dervillé.
The Condominium Focus Thailand also revealed that North Pattaya, especially along Wongamat Beach, remains the most valuable area for condominium projects with an average sale price of THB 87,840 per square meter. This is relatively high compared to other areas in Pattaya where land is still abundant and the market more competitive in terms of price. Growth areas are likely to remain concentrated in South Pattaya, as well as near Sukhumvit Road, where the demand from local residents who work in the area is surging.
Condominium Focus Thailand is a research publication aimed at providing investors and industry observers with an accurate insight into supply, completions, off-plan sales and transfers.
The report covers condominium projects launched since 2003 in Bangkok and Pattaya that have a majority of units priced at over THB 2 million. Raimon Land collects this data by surveying the projects listed in the publication on a monthly basis through a variety of sources comprised of site visits, interviews, press articles, investor research on listed companies and other research agency reports.
The data catchment area of inner-city Bangkok includes Sukhumvit, Silom/Sathorn, Central Lumpini, and Riverside locations, whereas in Pattaya, it includes the areas from Naklua to Na Jomtien.
Property developers expect vigorous market activity into the second half of the year, thanks to a strong pipeline of upcoming new projects, rising consumer confidence and a more stable political situation.
As Bangkok’s mass transit system expands, a trend is being created around the city’s fringe area by a growing number of Thai buyers, especially among the young, who now prefer condominiums over houses. The inner-city market has been energetic with 61 projects under development, totaling 16,730 units, with 38 projects launched in the past 12 months alone yielding 9,701 units. The pace of transfers compared to new completed condominium projects remains balanced with 83 percent of the units sold before completion.
“The first half of the year has been particularly good for developers,” noted Simon Dervillé, Raimon Land deputy vice president for Business Development. “A record number of 3,528 units was sold in inner-city Bangkok, with 53 percent of all units launched over the past 12 months finding buyers–that leaves us with a cumulated amount of 6,000 units under development to sell. The days when developers were selling out in a day are behind us, but 10 months to turn the inventory is still a very healthy number.”
Central Lumpini remains the highest-priced area in the CBD, with prices reaching 151,171 baht per square meter, followed by Silom/Sathorn and Sukhumvit at THB 137,018 and THB 108,036 per square meter, respectively.
Positive Market Sentiment in Pattaya
The condominium market in Pattaya has also experienced a surge over the past 12 months, especially in the THB 3 million and below bracket, as more developers turn towards smaller-sized units catering to buyers looking for weekend homes. Twenty-six projects were launched over the past 12 months for a total of 10,000 units, with 47.1 percent of units taken to date, a strong indicator of the depth of the market outside of Bangkok.
“Thai buyers still account for the majority of our sales in the Pattaya market. And now that Europe faces financial and currency issues, buyers from South Korea, China and Taiwan are quickly turning into our second largest group of customers,” added Dervillé.
The Condominium Focus Thailand also revealed that North Pattaya, especially along Wongamat Beach, remains the most valuable area for condominium projects with an average sale price of THB 87,840 per square meter. This is relatively high compared to other areas in Pattaya where land is still abundant and the market more competitive in terms of price. Growth areas are likely to remain concentrated in South Pattaya, as well as near Sukhumvit Road, where the demand from local residents who work in the area is surging.
Condominium Focus Thailand is a research publication aimed at providing investors and industry observers with an accurate insight into supply, completions, off-plan sales and transfers.
The report covers condominium projects launched since 2003 in Bangkok and Pattaya that have a majority of units priced at over THB 2 million. Raimon Land collects this data by surveying the projects listed in the publication on a monthly basis through a variety of sources comprised of site visits, interviews, press articles, investor research on listed companies and other research agency reports.
The data catchment area of inner-city Bangkok includes Sukhumvit, Silom/Sathorn, Central Lumpini, and Riverside locations, whereas in Pattaya, it includes the areas from Naklua to Na Jomtien.
2011年10月14日星期五
Why Rent a Luxurious Holiday Property Rental As opposed to a Resort?
In this write-up, we purpose to supply an educational indicates to knowledge how to help save a significant quantity of income when traveling with a loved ones or big group. In the circumstance examine below, well display how Ultimate Luxurious Rentals trip properties in Tucson, AZ have saved the vacationers coming to the region time, income, privacy, and a “house away from house” experience.
1st off, you might be wondering, what is a luxury property rental? Properly, we will get to that later on in the post. Lets start with some of the factors folks are now renting these vacation houses as opposed to
Several vacationers pick to rent a getaway properties for a selection of factors. Economics is one particular of the primary factors. A getaway residence can replace 2-four resort rooms at a fraction of the cost. Vacationers can consume their meals at property or even cook up their favourite meals on the barbecue. Our common vacation rental client saves around $2000 in a one week stay. Privacy is another major consideration when picking a vacation rental home over a hotel or resort. Numerous trip residences include enclosed again yards with personal heated pools and spas. Guest can appreciate their gathering of buddies and family with out interruption. Facilities are possibly the main cause vacationers carry on to rent holiday houses calendar year soon after 12 months. Several holiday rentals offer you facilities that are superior to a lot of upscale lodges and resorts. Pillow top rated mattresses with sateen sheets, plasma TVs, free wireless Web, pool or sport tables, totally stocked gourmet kitchens, private heated pools and spas and some of the most spectacular city and mountain views in town.
In addition to the property itself, the location you select has its own sights and amenities. Continuing with our situation research of luxurious homes in Tucson, Arizona, here is a minor background of the Aged Pueblo and some of the heritage that draws in men and women to this specific vacation spot.
With its combined cultural heritage and international population, Tucsons traditions span centuries of habitation from prehistoric Indian cultures to recent immigrants from all more than the planet. Right now Tucson has turn into a vacation spot for numerous site visitors specifically individuals looking to hire a holiday residence in Sonoran Desert of Arizona.
Accurate to its Aged West beginnings, Tucsons initial inhabitants roamed the place hunting mammoth and bison among 12,five hundred and 6,000 B.C. Subsequent them were the Cochise , who developed pit houses and utilised stone tools, and the Hohokam, who started farming the valley in 300 A.D.
In 1692, Spanish missionaries arrived in the valley to come across the Indian village S-tukson “black base”. In 1775, the Spanish developed an outpost, the Presidio of San Augustin.
By 1804, some 1,000 men and women lived in the adobe village – primarily Spanish, Mexicans, and Native Americans who produced their dwelling raising crops and livestock. After the Mexican Revolution of 1821, Tucson became portion of Mexico.
Searching for a southern rail route, the U.S. negotiated the Gadsden Buy with Mexico in 1854 and Arizona became a U.S. territory. In 1867, Tucson became the territorial capital for the ten-year period of time, which accelerated civic progress.
In 1885 , The territorial legislature approved $25,000 to create the University of Arizona. The metropolis continued to grow rapidly, reaching 7,000. Around the turn of the century, Tucson began attracting 1000s of tuberculosis victims in search of a cure in its dry local weather. In 1912, Arizona became the 48th state to enter the union.
Fueled by Industries and tourism, the population of Tuscon grew rapidly – at one particular position welcoming 1,000 newcomers every single month. By 2000, the population had reached 800,000.
Holiday rental houses in Tuscon, Arizona supply a broad array of alternatives to visitors from all above the globe. Several distinct neighborhoods comprise the metropolis and supply vacationers a significant variety of accommodations and pursuits.
The Tucson Mountains are positioned around eight miles west of Interstate ten. The proximity to Interstate ten helps make day journeys to Phoenix, Tubac, and Nogales Mexico very convenient. Some of the most desirable luxurious getaway rental properties in Tucson Arizona are located in this place. These vacation homes boast some of the ideal town and mountain views in the state. Most of the luxurious holiday rentals are situated on acre additionally a lot with non-public pools and spa and offer you an encounter that is one with nature. Vacation rental buyers might have the enjoyment of seeing numerous of the deserts wildlife such as the javalina, coyote, bobcat and a vast assortment of birds this kind of as hawk, dove, quail, and the states official bird, the road runner . Trip rental friends will also have a vast range of attractions this kind of as the Sonoran Desert Museum, Old Tucson Studios, Wildlife Museum, Gates Move, and the Saguaro Nationwide Park West. The west side of town appeals to the business traveler as nicely. Numerous of the Greatest Luxurious Rentals vacation rentals are situated significantly less than 10 minutes from the Tucson convention middle. These homes places place you in the heart of the most gorgeous desert in the globe, the Sonoran Desert. For the duration of the very first two weeks in February, The TCC is residence to the Tucson gem and mineral present the biggest gem and mineral present in the world. Mothers and fathers of University of Arizona college students decide on west side holiday homes since they are very convenient for browsing their little one during the vacations or celebrating a graduation.
The Catalina Foothills is the greatest mountain range in the valley and a properly sought after location of town for site visitors seeking to rent a getaway residence in Tucson AZ. Many upscale resorts and spas have manufactured the Catalinas their property. The Catalina foothills area has a broad selection of restaurants as properly as upscale purchasing at La Encanta and St Phillips Plaza. For those searching for hiking and site seeing, the Catalina location provides the Sabino Canyon Recreational Park. For getaway guests looking to escape the summertime heat temperatures typical 20 degrees decrease than the town, you can consider a twenty five mile drive up to the leading of Mt Lemmon. The Tucson vacation rentals situated in this place consist of a big choice of luxurious vacation rental condominiums and simple family trip houses on ½ acre plenty with exceptional mountain and metropolis views.
Oro Valley has been one particular on the most rapidly increasing areas in Tucson. A lot of of the holiday rental properties and condominiums are new development and supply extremely upscale lodging. There are numerous fine restaurants to decide on from as well as some of the very best golf resorts in town. The is only disadvantage to renting a getaway house in Oro Valley is the visitors. Traveling to and from Oro Valley at the incorrect time of day can be really a chore. Travel moments to other locations of town this sort of as the Tucson mountains and the east aspect can just take up to 45 minutes or lengthier.
As you can see for this specific vacation spot, there is an entourage of facilities, attractions, scenery, and background. In order to make the most of your trip, it would naturally be to your reward to have further money. Luxury trip rentals are a win-win selection for your journey. Aside from your spot, they are definitely some thing to search into. Obviously you are going to want to come across the best deal with the most credible company of luxury rentals.
Even now curious what is a luxurious rental? Best Luxury Rentals is a commencing point for you. With more than 7 years in the luxury home rental organization, they have continued to offer the highest quality of residences and solutions to customers throughout the world. Check out them at Ultimateluxuryrentals.com and get a first hand seem at homes in Tucson, AZ, Taos, NM, and Costa Rica!
1st off, you might be wondering, what is a luxury property rental? Properly, we will get to that later on in the post. Lets start with some of the factors folks are now renting these vacation houses as opposed to
Several vacationers pick to rent a getaway properties for a selection of factors. Economics is one particular of the primary factors. A getaway residence can replace 2-four resort rooms at a fraction of the cost. Vacationers can consume their meals at property or even cook up their favourite meals on the barbecue. Our common vacation rental client saves around $2000 in a one week stay. Privacy is another major consideration when picking a vacation rental home over a hotel or resort. Numerous trip residences include enclosed again yards with personal heated pools and spas. Guest can appreciate their gathering of buddies and family with out interruption. Facilities are possibly the main cause vacationers carry on to rent holiday houses calendar year soon after 12 months. Several holiday rentals offer you facilities that are superior to a lot of upscale lodges and resorts. Pillow top rated mattresses with sateen sheets, plasma TVs, free wireless Web, pool or sport tables, totally stocked gourmet kitchens, private heated pools and spas and some of the most spectacular city and mountain views in town.
In addition to the property itself, the location you select has its own sights and amenities. Continuing with our situation research of luxurious homes in Tucson, Arizona, here is a minor background of the Aged Pueblo and some of the heritage that draws in men and women to this specific vacation spot.
With its combined cultural heritage and international population, Tucsons traditions span centuries of habitation from prehistoric Indian cultures to recent immigrants from all more than the planet. Right now Tucson has turn into a vacation spot for numerous site visitors specifically individuals looking to hire a holiday residence in Sonoran Desert of Arizona.
Accurate to its Aged West beginnings, Tucsons initial inhabitants roamed the place hunting mammoth and bison among 12,five hundred and 6,000 B.C. Subsequent them were the Cochise , who developed pit houses and utilised stone tools, and the Hohokam, who started farming the valley in 300 A.D.
In 1692, Spanish missionaries arrived in the valley to come across the Indian village S-tukson “black base”. In 1775, the Spanish developed an outpost, the Presidio of San Augustin.
By 1804, some 1,000 men and women lived in the adobe village – primarily Spanish, Mexicans, and Native Americans who produced their dwelling raising crops and livestock. After the Mexican Revolution of 1821, Tucson became portion of Mexico.
Searching for a southern rail route, the U.S. negotiated the Gadsden Buy with Mexico in 1854 and Arizona became a U.S. territory. In 1867, Tucson became the territorial capital for the ten-year period of time, which accelerated civic progress.
In 1885 , The territorial legislature approved $25,000 to create the University of Arizona. The metropolis continued to grow rapidly, reaching 7,000. Around the turn of the century, Tucson began attracting 1000s of tuberculosis victims in search of a cure in its dry local weather. In 1912, Arizona became the 48th state to enter the union.
Fueled by Industries and tourism, the population of Tuscon grew rapidly – at one particular position welcoming 1,000 newcomers every single month. By 2000, the population had reached 800,000.
Holiday rental houses in Tuscon, Arizona supply a broad array of alternatives to visitors from all above the globe. Several distinct neighborhoods comprise the metropolis and supply vacationers a significant variety of accommodations and pursuits.
The Tucson Mountains are positioned around eight miles west of Interstate ten. The proximity to Interstate ten helps make day journeys to Phoenix, Tubac, and Nogales Mexico very convenient. Some of the most desirable luxurious getaway rental properties in Tucson Arizona are located in this place. These vacation homes boast some of the ideal town and mountain views in the state. Most of the luxurious holiday rentals are situated on acre additionally a lot with non-public pools and spa and offer you an encounter that is one with nature. Vacation rental buyers might have the enjoyment of seeing numerous of the deserts wildlife such as the javalina, coyote, bobcat and a vast assortment of birds this kind of as hawk, dove, quail, and the states official bird, the road runner . Trip rental friends will also have a vast range of attractions this kind of as the Sonoran Desert Museum, Old Tucson Studios, Wildlife Museum, Gates Move, and the Saguaro Nationwide Park West. The west side of town appeals to the business traveler as nicely. Numerous of the Greatest Luxurious Rentals vacation rentals are situated significantly less than 10 minutes from the Tucson convention middle. These homes places place you in the heart of the most gorgeous desert in the globe, the Sonoran Desert. For the duration of the very first two weeks in February, The TCC is residence to the Tucson gem and mineral present the biggest gem and mineral present in the world. Mothers and fathers of University of Arizona college students decide on west side holiday homes since they are very convenient for browsing their little one during the vacations or celebrating a graduation.
The Catalina Foothills is the greatest mountain range in the valley and a properly sought after location of town for site visitors seeking to rent a getaway residence in Tucson AZ. Many upscale resorts and spas have manufactured the Catalinas their property. The Catalina foothills area has a broad selection of restaurants as properly as upscale purchasing at La Encanta and St Phillips Plaza. For those searching for hiking and site seeing, the Catalina location provides the Sabino Canyon Recreational Park. For getaway guests looking to escape the summertime heat temperatures typical 20 degrees decrease than the town, you can consider a twenty five mile drive up to the leading of Mt Lemmon. The Tucson vacation rentals situated in this place consist of a big choice of luxurious vacation rental condominiums and simple family trip houses on ½ acre plenty with exceptional mountain and metropolis views.
Oro Valley has been one particular on the most rapidly increasing areas in Tucson. A lot of of the holiday rental properties and condominiums are new development and supply extremely upscale lodging. There are numerous fine restaurants to decide on from as well as some of the very best golf resorts in town. The is only disadvantage to renting a getaway house in Oro Valley is the visitors. Traveling to and from Oro Valley at the incorrect time of day can be really a chore. Travel moments to other locations of town this sort of as the Tucson mountains and the east aspect can just take up to 45 minutes or lengthier.
As you can see for this specific vacation spot, there is an entourage of facilities, attractions, scenery, and background. In order to make the most of your trip, it would naturally be to your reward to have further money. Luxury trip rentals are a win-win selection for your journey. Aside from your spot, they are definitely some thing to search into. Obviously you are going to want to come across the best deal with the most credible company of luxury rentals.
Even now curious what is a luxurious rental? Best Luxury Rentals is a commencing point for you. With more than 7 years in the luxury home rental organization, they have continued to offer the highest quality of residences and solutions to customers throughout the world. Check out them at Ultimateluxuryrentals.com and get a first hand seem at homes in Tucson, AZ, Taos, NM, and Costa Rica!
2011年10月13日星期四
Peter Jenner on protecting intellectual property online
Modern Russia met with Peter Jenner, music producer, secretary general of the International Music Manager’s Forum, and former manager of Pink Floyd and The Clash, at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) to hear his views on Russia’s approach to protecting intellectual property online. Jenner attended SPIEF to participate on its “Intellectual Property & Internet” panel, which discussed current trends in the protection of intellectual property globally as well as legislation governing Internet content.
Robust intellectual property laws rely on legal frameworks that guarantee enforcement of intellectual property rights and are essential to a modern economy. However, as new technologies emerge and producer and consumer needs evolve with respect to intellectual property, legislation should evolve as well.
Recently, after consulting some of Russia’s top bloggers and journalists, President Medvedev directed Russia’s communications ministry to draft amendments to standing copyright agreements "aimed at allowing authors to let an unlimited number of people use their content on the basis of free licensing," according to a statement published by the Kremlin.
This approach would echo the framework suggested by Creative Commons, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that has created copyright licenses that allow owners to share content for free with certain restrictions.
Robust intellectual property laws rely on legal frameworks that guarantee enforcement of intellectual property rights and are essential to a modern economy. However, as new technologies emerge and producer and consumer needs evolve with respect to intellectual property, legislation should evolve as well.
Recently, after consulting some of Russia’s top bloggers and journalists, President Medvedev directed Russia’s communications ministry to draft amendments to standing copyright agreements "aimed at allowing authors to let an unlimited number of people use their content on the basis of free licensing," according to a statement published by the Kremlin.
This approach would echo the framework suggested by Creative Commons, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that has created copyright licenses that allow owners to share content for free with certain restrictions.
2011年10月12日星期三
Can China deflate its property bubble?
AS housing bubbles go, China’s looks relatively benign. Unlike in the United States, Chinese home buyers typically put down at least 40 percent of the purchase price. That means they don’t have to worry about a modest decline wiping out all their equity, and banks have little reason to fear an influx of “jingle mail” from defaulting homeowners returning the keys.
Household debt amounts to less than 20 percent of China’s gross domestic product, according to the International Monetary Fund, one fifth of the US ratio.
“In the United States, housing was a borrowing vehicle for households. In China, it’s a savings vehicle,” said Stephen Green, an economist with Standard Chartered in Hong Kong.
This is a vital distinction. It was leverage that turned the US housing slump into a global financial crisis. That suggests even if China’s housing market suffers a similar slide, the economic consequences would be far less severe.
That doesn’t mean it would be painless.
There are a couple of trouble spots. China’s new home sales have fallen sharply in some cities, putting property developers in greater danger of default. Local governments counting on land sales to help repay US$1.5 trillion in loans may find the money flow slows, saddling banks with bad debts.
But the Chinese government appears to be ready, willing and able to limit the economic fallout. Over the past 18 months, China has clamped down on property speculators to try to cool prices.
If it stays on that course, China could become one of the few countries to successfully deflate a property bubble before it bursts. If there is a global recession, all bets are off.
Keep rising
Nationwide data suggests China’s housing affordability is not that much different from Britain’s and only marginally worse than that of the United States, where house prices have fallen precipitously over the past five years.
But in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, it is off the charts. IMF figures show that a 70-square-meter home in Beijing costs about 20 times the average annual household disposable income, quadruple the national ratio and almost seven times higher than in the United States. Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou look worse than even notoriously pricey Tokyo on the affordability scale.
A People’s Bank of China survey in mid-September showed 76 percent of urban residents saw property prices as too high, and 38 percent expected them to keep rising this year. Both readings were higher than in the PBOC’s mid-June poll.
Beijing was quick to try to stamp out speculation while other countries have left it up to market forces to squeeze out the excess – sometimes with catastrophic economic consequences, as the United States can attest.
In July, China extended the list of cities where it limits the number of homes a family can buy. There are now 40 cities with such restrictions in place, including Beijing and Shanghai.
In January, it raised the minimum down-payment for second homes to 60 percent from 50 percent.
Compare that with the US, where at the height of the housing boom speculators could buy with no money down. Some even obtained mortgages for more than the purchase price.
Now, 22.5 percent of US homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their homes were worth, according to data analysis company CoreLogic. These “underwater” borrowers are more likely to default than those with positive equity.
In China, it would take a house price drop in the 40 percent range before negative equity became a serious concern, said Barend Janssens, head of wealth management for emerging markets at Royal Bank of Canada. “There is a lot of fat, and people will lose some of that,” Janssens said.
Rising wages also play in China’s favor. The US housing bust coincided with a severe spike in unemployment, and wages stagnated. In China, double-digit annual wage increases are the norm, so income should rise faster than housing costs.
Few other options
China has a built-in propensity toward property over investment because there are few other options available to most citizens. The stock market has been extraordinarily volatile, capital markets are underdeveloped, and bank deposit rates are too low to compensate for rising inflation.
“The problem with China is that it tells people it doesn’t want them to invest in housing, but it doesn’t tell people what else to invest in,” said John Woods, chief Asian strategist at Citi Private Bank.
The IMF’s housing policy recommendations to Beijing earlier this year were to raise interest rates, develop financial markets, and introduce a broad-based property tax.
There is little reason to expect movement on the first two any time soon. As for the property tax, a pilot program in Chongqing has been credited with helping to cool price rises, and the mayor said at the end of last month it may be rolled out across the country.
That change will come too late to address the current situation, but there is cause for optimism that Beijing’s housing restrictions are working. Property prices have begun to ease in some of the frothiest cities, including Beijing.
Barclays Capital economist Jian Chang expects a 10 percent decline from the 2011 peak by the end of this year. “I don’t see a sudden bursting of the bubble near-term,” she said. “I see a gradual deflating.”
The property sector makes up about 12 percent of China’s GDP, but its impact spreads wider. Housing construction is an important source of demand for steel, cement, copper and other commodities. Real estate – both mortgages and loans to developers – accounts for about 18 percent of banks’ credit portfolios, according to the IMF.
That implies a 10 percent decline in house prices could potentially shave 1.2 percentage points off of China’s GDP. Many economists have already factored a weaker housing market into their 2012 forecasts, which show China’s growth easing to around 8.5 percent from the current pace of 9.5 percent.
But even as commercial housing construction falls, China is ramping up development of so-called “social housing” for lower-income households. It has targeted 10 million units for this year alone, and 36 million by 2015. That will take up some of the slack from slowing private-sector development.
A steeper price drop – say, 20 or 30 percent – would be a different story. Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said in September that a decline of 30 percent may be the breaking point for many developers.
Developers hesitating
That would become a significant risk for creditors, both banks and the informal lenders who have provided an increasingly large fraction of China’s credit as Beijing cracks down on traditional forms of lending. Already, developers are hesitating over buying parcels of land from local governments as the pace of new home sales slows.
Barclays’ Chang recently visited northern China to gauge the degree of the housing slowdown there and found developers and agents growing increasingly pessimistic about sales prospects. “They all wanted to complete projects and sell as fast as possible because expectations changed,” she said.
Well-known China bear Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom and Doom report, paints an even darker scenario. “Some real estate markets will blow up, and massively so, where prices could easily drop 40 to 50 percent,” he said.
If there is a global recession, China’s housing troubles become more significant. Barclays thinks a worldwide downturn would push China’s GDP growth down to 7 percent, a level considered a “hard landing” because it is too weak to generate sufficient jobs to keep up with urban migration.
Such a sharp slowdown could set off a negative feedback loop, where spooked investors sell everything – property included. Panic selling would drive down housing prices even more, taking a deeper bite out of economic growth.
But because of China’s relatively low household leverage, the risk of forced sales is limited. The bigger financial stability risk comes from the corporate side. If hundreds or thousands of property developers go bust, banks might grow more reluctant to lend, which would feed the downward spiral.
The predominant view among China economists is that Beijing would step in well before conditions got that bad. It could relax some home buying restrictions or cut banks’ reserve requirements, which stand at a record high of 21.5 percent for large banks.
Household debt amounts to less than 20 percent of China’s gross domestic product, according to the International Monetary Fund, one fifth of the US ratio.
“In the United States, housing was a borrowing vehicle for households. In China, it’s a savings vehicle,” said Stephen Green, an economist with Standard Chartered in Hong Kong.
This is a vital distinction. It was leverage that turned the US housing slump into a global financial crisis. That suggests even if China’s housing market suffers a similar slide, the economic consequences would be far less severe.
That doesn’t mean it would be painless.
There are a couple of trouble spots. China’s new home sales have fallen sharply in some cities, putting property developers in greater danger of default. Local governments counting on land sales to help repay US$1.5 trillion in loans may find the money flow slows, saddling banks with bad debts.
But the Chinese government appears to be ready, willing and able to limit the economic fallout. Over the past 18 months, China has clamped down on property speculators to try to cool prices.
If it stays on that course, China could become one of the few countries to successfully deflate a property bubble before it bursts. If there is a global recession, all bets are off.
Keep rising
Nationwide data suggests China’s housing affordability is not that much different from Britain’s and only marginally worse than that of the United States, where house prices have fallen precipitously over the past five years.
But in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, it is off the charts. IMF figures show that a 70-square-meter home in Beijing costs about 20 times the average annual household disposable income, quadruple the national ratio and almost seven times higher than in the United States. Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou look worse than even notoriously pricey Tokyo on the affordability scale.
A People’s Bank of China survey in mid-September showed 76 percent of urban residents saw property prices as too high, and 38 percent expected them to keep rising this year. Both readings were higher than in the PBOC’s mid-June poll.
Beijing was quick to try to stamp out speculation while other countries have left it up to market forces to squeeze out the excess – sometimes with catastrophic economic consequences, as the United States can attest.
In July, China extended the list of cities where it limits the number of homes a family can buy. There are now 40 cities with such restrictions in place, including Beijing and Shanghai.
In January, it raised the minimum down-payment for second homes to 60 percent from 50 percent.
Compare that with the US, where at the height of the housing boom speculators could buy with no money down. Some even obtained mortgages for more than the purchase price.
Now, 22.5 percent of US homeowners owe more on their mortgages than their homes were worth, according to data analysis company CoreLogic. These “underwater” borrowers are more likely to default than those with positive equity.
In China, it would take a house price drop in the 40 percent range before negative equity became a serious concern, said Barend Janssens, head of wealth management for emerging markets at Royal Bank of Canada. “There is a lot of fat, and people will lose some of that,” Janssens said.
Rising wages also play in China’s favor. The US housing bust coincided with a severe spike in unemployment, and wages stagnated. In China, double-digit annual wage increases are the norm, so income should rise faster than housing costs.
Few other options
China has a built-in propensity toward property over investment because there are few other options available to most citizens. The stock market has been extraordinarily volatile, capital markets are underdeveloped, and bank deposit rates are too low to compensate for rising inflation.
“The problem with China is that it tells people it doesn’t want them to invest in housing, but it doesn’t tell people what else to invest in,” said John Woods, chief Asian strategist at Citi Private Bank.
The IMF’s housing policy recommendations to Beijing earlier this year were to raise interest rates, develop financial markets, and introduce a broad-based property tax.
There is little reason to expect movement on the first two any time soon. As for the property tax, a pilot program in Chongqing has been credited with helping to cool price rises, and the mayor said at the end of last month it may be rolled out across the country.
That change will come too late to address the current situation, but there is cause for optimism that Beijing’s housing restrictions are working. Property prices have begun to ease in some of the frothiest cities, including Beijing.
Barclays Capital economist Jian Chang expects a 10 percent decline from the 2011 peak by the end of this year. “I don’t see a sudden bursting of the bubble near-term,” she said. “I see a gradual deflating.”
The property sector makes up about 12 percent of China’s GDP, but its impact spreads wider. Housing construction is an important source of demand for steel, cement, copper and other commodities. Real estate – both mortgages and loans to developers – accounts for about 18 percent of banks’ credit portfolios, according to the IMF.
That implies a 10 percent decline in house prices could potentially shave 1.2 percentage points off of China’s GDP. Many economists have already factored a weaker housing market into their 2012 forecasts, which show China’s growth easing to around 8.5 percent from the current pace of 9.5 percent.
But even as commercial housing construction falls, China is ramping up development of so-called “social housing” for lower-income households. It has targeted 10 million units for this year alone, and 36 million by 2015. That will take up some of the slack from slowing private-sector development.
A steeper price drop – say, 20 or 30 percent – would be a different story. Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said in September that a decline of 30 percent may be the breaking point for many developers.
Developers hesitating
That would become a significant risk for creditors, both banks and the informal lenders who have provided an increasingly large fraction of China’s credit as Beijing cracks down on traditional forms of lending. Already, developers are hesitating over buying parcels of land from local governments as the pace of new home sales slows.
Barclays’ Chang recently visited northern China to gauge the degree of the housing slowdown there and found developers and agents growing increasingly pessimistic about sales prospects. “They all wanted to complete projects and sell as fast as possible because expectations changed,” she said.
Well-known China bear Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom and Doom report, paints an even darker scenario. “Some real estate markets will blow up, and massively so, where prices could easily drop 40 to 50 percent,” he said.
If there is a global recession, China’s housing troubles become more significant. Barclays thinks a worldwide downturn would push China’s GDP growth down to 7 percent, a level considered a “hard landing” because it is too weak to generate sufficient jobs to keep up with urban migration.
Such a sharp slowdown could set off a negative feedback loop, where spooked investors sell everything – property included. Panic selling would drive down housing prices even more, taking a deeper bite out of economic growth.
But because of China’s relatively low household leverage, the risk of forced sales is limited. The bigger financial stability risk comes from the corporate side. If hundreds or thousands of property developers go bust, banks might grow more reluctant to lend, which would feed the downward spiral.
The predominant view among China economists is that Beijing would step in well before conditions got that bad. It could relax some home buying restrictions or cut banks’ reserve requirements, which stand at a record high of 21.5 percent for large banks.
2011年10月11日星期二
Is Investing in Distressed Property Worth It?
There are many ways to invest in real estate, but in the end like all investments it is about the return on investment that you expect to make later that should decide if the investment is worth it or not. With the current state of the real estate market a lot of properties are worth less than they were previously valued a few years ago. Some of these properties can be run down due to being vacant such as in the case of a foreclosure and in some instances the previous occupant just may have not taken care of the property like they could have. This is what is referred to as a distressed property.
If you are looking to invest in distressed properties be forewarned that there may be underlying problems that could end up costing you more money than it is worth. You can go ahead and expect to possibly put in a considerable amount of time and money into fixing the property up for resale or rental. If you have money to spare and enjoy the satisfaction of accomplishment when finished fixing things up then a distressed property may be a fun and rewarding investment for you.
If you do not have the time or don’t have handy man or handy woman skills you could always hire someone else to do the dirty work for you. One business that is becoming more popular in this distressed property market is property preservation companies also called foreclosure cleanup companies. These companies will come in, fix up the property and get it ready to go back on the market.
Before you jump head first into a property make sure you do your due diligence. Consider the surrounding market conditions, are things selling, or are they holding steady? Are properties nearby increasing in value, or depreciating? Zillow can be an excellent resource and give you a quick idea on this. Also consider the demographics of the area. Is this location an area with a steady workforce and jobs? You want to make certain that there is no shortage of jobs in a given area. This is important for keeping property occupied with tenants in the case of passive income on rental property. It could be a blow if an area’s job market dried up and people no longer desired to live there. If you were depending on that cash flow from rentals you would not only have a hard time getting new tenants, but try selling a property in an area that no one wants to live and see what happens.
How is the crime rate in the area? I personally wouldn’t want to invest in an area that was attractive to criminals. You can contact the local police for this information which is public record. You might have to submit an official public records request and they may charge a small fee for the research but, it could save you a headache later if you can avoid a high crime area.
In the end what it all comes down to when investing in distressed property is will doing so meet your investment goals? If not then it would not be a wise investment. If you are smart about it and are able to obtain some good properties then distressed property could become a profitable and important selection in your real estate investment portfolio.
If you are looking to invest in distressed properties be forewarned that there may be underlying problems that could end up costing you more money than it is worth. You can go ahead and expect to possibly put in a considerable amount of time and money into fixing the property up for resale or rental. If you have money to spare and enjoy the satisfaction of accomplishment when finished fixing things up then a distressed property may be a fun and rewarding investment for you.
If you do not have the time or don’t have handy man or handy woman skills you could always hire someone else to do the dirty work for you. One business that is becoming more popular in this distressed property market is property preservation companies also called foreclosure cleanup companies. These companies will come in, fix up the property and get it ready to go back on the market.
Before you jump head first into a property make sure you do your due diligence. Consider the surrounding market conditions, are things selling, or are they holding steady? Are properties nearby increasing in value, or depreciating? Zillow can be an excellent resource and give you a quick idea on this. Also consider the demographics of the area. Is this location an area with a steady workforce and jobs? You want to make certain that there is no shortage of jobs in a given area. This is important for keeping property occupied with tenants in the case of passive income on rental property. It could be a blow if an area’s job market dried up and people no longer desired to live there. If you were depending on that cash flow from rentals you would not only have a hard time getting new tenants, but try selling a property in an area that no one wants to live and see what happens.
How is the crime rate in the area? I personally wouldn’t want to invest in an area that was attractive to criminals. You can contact the local police for this information which is public record. You might have to submit an official public records request and they may charge a small fee for the research but, it could save you a headache later if you can avoid a high crime area.
In the end what it all comes down to when investing in distressed property is will doing so meet your investment goals? If not then it would not be a wise investment. If you are smart about it and are able to obtain some good properties then distressed property could become a profitable and important selection in your real estate investment portfolio.
2011年10月10日星期一
Cities could raise property tax to make up for state budget cuts
Worthington, Minn. — When Gov. Mark Dayton signed a budget deal negotiated with Republican legislative leaders to end the state government shutdown, city officials in Worthington knew they needed to act immediately.
"The city administrator got a hold of the two staff members that were seeking additional employees -- one of them, a police officer, the other one was in planning and zoning — and told them 'Don't be expecting those positions to be replaced,' " Worthington Mayor Alan Oberloh said.
Oberloh, who takes over as president of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities next month, said he's heard similar stories from across the state. Cities are being cautious because the final budget deal reduced state aid to Minnesota cities.
The budget deal also cut $1.2 million in money that reimbursed cities for a property-tax-reduction program. Many city leaders say the state's move it will force them to raise property taxes next year.
For Worthington, population nearly 13,000, the state aid cut was $530,000, about nine percent of the city budget. Oberloh said the city has to cut spending by that amount before this budget year ends on Dec. 31.
"I don't think there's anything that's sacred," he said. "I think we have to look at all areas. I think there's going to be some serious belt tightening." According to projections by non-partisan state House legislative staff, the budget deal could lead to property tax increases of 4.6 percent statewide. Communities outside the Twin Cities would see the biggest jump, about 6 percent on average. Metro area taxes would rise about 4 percent.
Cities in south central Minnesota could see the biggest increase, about 7.3 percent. Property taxes in the Iron Range and Duluth are projected to rise 7.2 percent, while in east central and southeast Minnesota the hike will be just under 7 percent.
Some Republicans dismiss the staff findings, saying they're based on flawed assumptions. They say the figures are too high. State Sen. Julianne Ortman, R-Chanhassn, said the said the projections assume cities and counties would make up half of any local aid cuts, but that hasn't happened in the past. She citied aid reductions in 2010 as an example.
"Local officials did the responsible thing of not levying back those reductions," said Ortman, chairwoman of the Senate Tax Committee. "They didn't do it."
Local officials have kept property taxes in check. Despite the worse recession in decades and perpetual worries about huge cuts in state aid, local governments have managed to balance their budges without property tax hikes.
But it may be hard for local officials to do so next year.
"We're definitely going to see further pressure on property taxes," said Gary Carlson, inter-government relations director for the League of Minnesota Cities. "This is the fifth consecutive year that we've had some level of reduction in the monies share from the state to the cities." However, the new state budget isn't bad news for every town.
Gloria Mack, city clerk/treasurer in Amboy, population about 500, said the south central Minnesota community escaped a cutback in its state local government aid payment.
"That was wonderful, that was wonderful," Mack said. "That really helps."
The state budget sets this year's local government aid at 2010 levels. Many cities were told late last year that their 2011 payment would increase. When the final budget deal failed to deliver the promised amount, city officials across Minnesota saw expected revenue disappear.
With no cuts in state aid to Amboy, Mack said the town probably can keep services at their current levels next year.
"We try to operate as frugally as we can," she said. "And try to do as many things as we can with what we've got."
State legislators who favor cuts in state aid say Minnesota communities need to tighten their budgets.
"The costs of running local government can be less," State Rep. Linda Runbeck, R-Circle Pines, told the Quad Community Press earlier this year.
In Worthington, Oberloh said his city already has trimmed its budget. He said the state cuts likely mean another property tax increase next year, though he can't put a number on the size of that increase yet. Last year, property taxes increased just over 3 percent.
The city will have to make more spending cuts next year, Oberloh said.
"The city administrator got a hold of the two staff members that were seeking additional employees -- one of them, a police officer, the other one was in planning and zoning — and told them 'Don't be expecting those positions to be replaced,' " Worthington Mayor Alan Oberloh said.
Oberloh, who takes over as president of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities next month, said he's heard similar stories from across the state. Cities are being cautious because the final budget deal reduced state aid to Minnesota cities.
The budget deal also cut $1.2 million in money that reimbursed cities for a property-tax-reduction program. Many city leaders say the state's move it will force them to raise property taxes next year.
For Worthington, population nearly 13,000, the state aid cut was $530,000, about nine percent of the city budget. Oberloh said the city has to cut spending by that amount before this budget year ends on Dec. 31.
"I don't think there's anything that's sacred," he said. "I think we have to look at all areas. I think there's going to be some serious belt tightening." According to projections by non-partisan state House legislative staff, the budget deal could lead to property tax increases of 4.6 percent statewide. Communities outside the Twin Cities would see the biggest jump, about 6 percent on average. Metro area taxes would rise about 4 percent.
Cities in south central Minnesota could see the biggest increase, about 7.3 percent. Property taxes in the Iron Range and Duluth are projected to rise 7.2 percent, while in east central and southeast Minnesota the hike will be just under 7 percent.
Some Republicans dismiss the staff findings, saying they're based on flawed assumptions. They say the figures are too high. State Sen. Julianne Ortman, R-Chanhassn, said the said the projections assume cities and counties would make up half of any local aid cuts, but that hasn't happened in the past. She citied aid reductions in 2010 as an example.
"Local officials did the responsible thing of not levying back those reductions," said Ortman, chairwoman of the Senate Tax Committee. "They didn't do it."
Local officials have kept property taxes in check. Despite the worse recession in decades and perpetual worries about huge cuts in state aid, local governments have managed to balance their budges without property tax hikes.
But it may be hard for local officials to do so next year.
"We're definitely going to see further pressure on property taxes," said Gary Carlson, inter-government relations director for the League of Minnesota Cities. "This is the fifth consecutive year that we've had some level of reduction in the monies share from the state to the cities." However, the new state budget isn't bad news for every town.
Gloria Mack, city clerk/treasurer in Amboy, population about 500, said the south central Minnesota community escaped a cutback in its state local government aid payment.
"That was wonderful, that was wonderful," Mack said. "That really helps."
The state budget sets this year's local government aid at 2010 levels. Many cities were told late last year that their 2011 payment would increase. When the final budget deal failed to deliver the promised amount, city officials across Minnesota saw expected revenue disappear.
With no cuts in state aid to Amboy, Mack said the town probably can keep services at their current levels next year.
"We try to operate as frugally as we can," she said. "And try to do as many things as we can with what we've got."
State legislators who favor cuts in state aid say Minnesota communities need to tighten their budgets.
"The costs of running local government can be less," State Rep. Linda Runbeck, R-Circle Pines, told the Quad Community Press earlier this year.
In Worthington, Oberloh said his city already has trimmed its budget. He said the state cuts likely mean another property tax increase next year, though he can't put a number on the size of that increase yet. Last year, property taxes increased just over 3 percent.
The city will have to make more spending cuts next year, Oberloh said.
2011年10月7日星期五
Tattersalls property sold to a developer
The Lexington Trots Breeders Association (LTBA), operators of the Red Mile, has announced it will sell 10 acres on which the former Tattersalls sale pavilion stands to a private developer who will build housing aimed at attracting University of Kentucky students.
The sale price was not disclosed. The developers filed a request with city planning officials this past Monday to have the zoning changed to accommodate the proposed apartment complex. If approved, the complex would open in 2013.
Joe Costa, president and general manager at The Red Mile, told the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader that sales no longer take place in the Tattersalls pavilion. The LTBA had considered abandoning its lease with Fasig-Tipton for the annual yearling sale and relocating to the Tattersalls sale facility...but found what was originally a tobacco warehouse to be beyond cost-effective repair.
"The question became, do we renovate and brings sales back to The Red Mile, or stay at Fasig-Tipton?" Costa said to the newspaper. "The Tattersalls property had very limited use for us going forward."
Months ago, the track announced it was developing 65 acres of its property for retail, bars and restaurants, a drugstore, a bank, offices, a jogging and bike trail, and housing. That project is awaiting private sector financing and development.
The newspaper also reported that The Red Mile had been approached by three developers seeking to purchase the Tattersalls property. Only one in four students lives on the U.K. campus, which has led to an active market for housing near the campus...which is located near the historic urban racetrack.
The sale price was not disclosed. The developers filed a request with city planning officials this past Monday to have the zoning changed to accommodate the proposed apartment complex. If approved, the complex would open in 2013.
Joe Costa, president and general manager at The Red Mile, told the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader that sales no longer take place in the Tattersalls pavilion. The LTBA had considered abandoning its lease with Fasig-Tipton for the annual yearling sale and relocating to the Tattersalls sale facility...but found what was originally a tobacco warehouse to be beyond cost-effective repair.
"The question became, do we renovate and brings sales back to The Red Mile, or stay at Fasig-Tipton?" Costa said to the newspaper. "The Tattersalls property had very limited use for us going forward."
Months ago, the track announced it was developing 65 acres of its property for retail, bars and restaurants, a drugstore, a bank, offices, a jogging and bike trail, and housing. That project is awaiting private sector financing and development.
The newspaper also reported that The Red Mile had been approached by three developers seeking to purchase the Tattersalls property. Only one in four students lives on the U.K. campus, which has led to an active market for housing near the campus...which is located near the historic urban racetrack.
2011年10月6日星期四
Stonnington has seen a very patchy year on the property front.
With stock levels well down on 2010 numbers clearance rates still remain at disappointing levels despite the lack of property. Speculation on the global economy, interest rates and fear of an overvalued property market have been the major factors fueling the property slump.
According to the National Australia Bank housing prices fell for a second consecutive quarter with their property index showing a fall of 14 points in the September quarter, following a 5-point fall in the June quarter. This fall in property prices has been evident with property sales across Stonnigton with many vendor chasing the market down.
Another factor in the Stoonington market has been the lack of A class property hitting the market in 2011 as vendors hold on for better market conditions. The second string property has been more severely market down with buyers being far more critical on price. Properties with overlooking, main road locations, difficult floor plans and railway effected property etc. have been severely marked down this year.
Banks have also tightened their lending criteria with many buyers finding it hard to secure finance in 2011. NAB held a survey that found demand for existing housing weakened nationwide in the September quarter whilst house rents increased 0.l7 per cent in the September quarter, down from the 1.3 rise in the June quarter.
This year’s traditionally busy Spring selling season has been unusually quiet across Stonnington which may be a blessing in disguise. Had we seen the property numbers of last year we could have experienced a market crash rather than a slide. We are expecting the remainder of the year to remain fairly stable and are confident of a positive opening to the 2012 with more Stonnington sellers having more realistic expectations in line with current market conditions.
The most critical factor when planning an upcoming sale is to get your pricing strategy correct to attract the right buyers. When the market is flying pricing strategy mistakes can still result in a good sale. Thant is not the case in Stonnington in the current market. Get it wrong and you severely compromise any chance of a successful sale.
According to the National Australia Bank housing prices fell for a second consecutive quarter with their property index showing a fall of 14 points in the September quarter, following a 5-point fall in the June quarter. This fall in property prices has been evident with property sales across Stonnigton with many vendor chasing the market down.
Another factor in the Stoonington market has been the lack of A class property hitting the market in 2011 as vendors hold on for better market conditions. The second string property has been more severely market down with buyers being far more critical on price. Properties with overlooking, main road locations, difficult floor plans and railway effected property etc. have been severely marked down this year.
Banks have also tightened their lending criteria with many buyers finding it hard to secure finance in 2011. NAB held a survey that found demand for existing housing weakened nationwide in the September quarter whilst house rents increased 0.l7 per cent in the September quarter, down from the 1.3 rise in the June quarter.
This year’s traditionally busy Spring selling season has been unusually quiet across Stonnington which may be a blessing in disguise. Had we seen the property numbers of last year we could have experienced a market crash rather than a slide. We are expecting the remainder of the year to remain fairly stable and are confident of a positive opening to the 2012 with more Stonnington sellers having more realistic expectations in line with current market conditions.
The most critical factor when planning an upcoming sale is to get your pricing strategy correct to attract the right buyers. When the market is flying pricing strategy mistakes can still result in a good sale. Thant is not the case in Stonnington in the current market. Get it wrong and you severely compromise any chance of a successful sale.
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