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A beautiful home in Laguna Beach, waiting for you!
Laguna Beach, California (Photo credit: surfcrs)
A beautiful home in Laguna Beach, waiting for you!
Posted: April 1, 2012 in Laguna Beach, Uncategorized0
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/credit_crisis/housing_plan/index.html
Billionaires’ Playgrounds
Posted: March 5, 2012 in Real Estate, World newsTags: central london property, economy, London, Paris, Real Estate
By Nick Claiton
While bubbles have burst, prices tumbled and sales declined in the broad property markets across Europe, at the very top end, in the prime locations, it is often a very different story. Central London is the gold standard of international luxury residential property, but there are other areas that are not far behind. “At the prime end and even more at the super-prime end of the London market, prices are at an all-time high. You would not recognize that there was an economic crisis,” says Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist of the U.K. property professional body, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
“If I had inherited three million and wanted to invest it, what would I spend my money on?” asks David Forbes, head of the private office at the international estate agents Savills. “I’d look for something in London as close to the center as possible. That would only get you a flat with two or two-and-a-half bedrooms. But it is an absolute safe haven for your money and it remains seriously under-supplied.”
Tancred Lidbury, associate director for Europe at Christie’s International Real Estate, says: “Prime Central London property is trading at anything between £23,000 per square meter to £85,000 per square meter for top Knightsbridge serviced properties. Prime Paris property, on the whole, tends not to exceed €45,000 per square meter, though apartments are generally larger. Prime areas of Geneva and Zurich are pretty much on a par with each other, with prices of some larger lakefront properties reaching up to €42,000 per square meter.”
While the U.K. capital city is not alone in seeing rising prices, it would seem it has the foremost combination of elements driving the top end of the market ever upward. Some of the factors are economic, others more to do with lifestyle.
Perhaps the main reason for the city’s resilience is the international nature of its luxury property market. The proportion of foreign buyers increases the further up the price scale you go. According to Mr. Forbes, once you get over £10 million, well over 90% of the buyers are from outside the U.K. And the interest is truly global so London is not drastically affected by regional economic downturns.
“The super-prime residential property market in London is particularly strong because the city has more international wealth purchasing property than any other city in the world. This began back in the 1980s with the arrival of Middle Eastern investment into the London real estate market, followed by former USSR states such as Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan in the mid-1990s,” Mr. Candy says. “Today we have the Indian and Far Eastern markets to bolster this even further. Super-prime buyers are able to invest here in a tax-efficient way if they are non-domiciled and non-resident, compared to somewhere like the U.S. where the tax charges would be substantially higher.”
One Hyde Park, the Richard Rogers-designed complex where a single apartment recently sold for more than £135 million.
Also, says Edward de Mallet Morgan, associate partner at estate agents Knight Frank, billionaires are probably making money whether the markets are rising or falling. They are not looking for a quick turnaround on residential property, which in turn means they are less likely to sell. “Central London is not getting any bigger,” he says. “There are a few little developments and properties being extended by people, but ultimately there are fewer and fewer houses for more and more of these wealthy people to come and buy.”
The multitude of reasons why London is attractive to high-end buyers adds to its resilience as a market. Its position as Europe’s main financial center, which helped drive up prices, could have proved a liability in a financial downturn widely blamed on bankers. This has not been the case. Such is London’s popularity that many believe even a stricter tax regime for foreigners in the U.K. would do little to deter super-prime buyers. “I talk regularly to people who are thinking of relocating to Switzerland, Monaco or Singapore. Then they look at the schools and the general London way of life and say: ‘We’ll stay and pay the tax’,” says Mr. Forbes of Savills.
![[LuxuryHyde2]](http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/EM-AQ049_Luxury_DV_20120304164852.jpg)
This type of attitude perhaps goes some way to explaining why the high end of the property market doesn’t always track the local national or regional economy. Take France. It is regarded by a number of commentators as Europe’s most dynamic luxury real estate market.There was some concern that new tax regulations introduced at the beginning of January would have a negative impact. But according to Estate Net France, an agent for luxury property on the Riviera, the only effect has been to increase the number of properties on the market and to push prices down slightly, at least for the moment.
Alexander Kraft, president of Sotheby’s International Realty France-Monaco, says 2011 was “a really solid year.” “The fourth quarter was one of our best ever. We sold more than 200 properties with an average sale price of more than €1.1 million, which is basically seven times the average sales price for a single family home in France,” he says. There are, Mr. Kraft believes, a number of reasons why the French luxury property market has been so robust, the main one being that although prices have increased they still appear good value. “I tell people you should sell your garage in Mayfair and buy a castle in France. You can still find a nice château for €1 million to €1.5 million,” he says. This is partly a reflection of a property market that has been stable since the 1980s. “It’s especially attractive given low bank interest rates and the volatile stock market,” Mr. Kraft adds.
There has, he says, been an influx of overseas buyers both from the traditional areas of Western Europe and North America, but also from the emerging markets, including Russia, increasingly Brazil and from China— where 5% of buyers in France now come.
The market in Monaco has behaved differently from elsewhere, according to Mr. Kraft. The crisis arrived 18 months after it hit other European markets, so 2010 was a very slow year. But prices are still amongst the highest in the world. “Paying €20,000 a square meter is considered a snip,” he says. “Prices of €50,000 to €100,000 a square meter are common.” But Monaco is not the only location for new super-prime property.
Even in countries such as Greece and Portugal, the luxury market in prime locations has shown signs of revival. Tiago Queiroga, the chief executive of Sotheby’s International Realty in Portugal, says: “People who have money to invest see this as a good time to enter the market. Even over Christmas and New Year, when [the market] is normally dead, our people in the Algarve were running round showing houses to people.”
The head of Knight Frank’s Italian department, Rupert Fawcett, reports that the financial downturn has brought about a flight to quality. “Tuscany, and more specifically Chianti, is seen very much as a bedrock of stability. Lake Como has maintained its allure and, at the moment, Venice is quite in demand.”
Updates about our loved community: Laguna Beach!
Posted: February 29, 2012 in Laguna BeachTags: California, laguna beach california, Park Avenue, Saturday
By CLAUDIA KOERNER / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
LAGUNA BEACH – Downtown’s streets will soon be filled with red, white and blue for the 46th annual Patriots Day Parade.
Community groups, floats, classic cars and marching bands – 100 entries in all – will parade through Laguna Beach Saturday for the patriotic event. The procession starts 11 a.m. at Laguna Beach High School before winding down Park Avenue and Glenneyre Street to finish on Forest Avenue at City Hall. This year, the theme is “Never Forget,” and honorees include retired Gen. Lee Butler, the former commander of U.S. strategic nuclear forces. Butler and his wife Dorene will serve as grand marshals.
This year’s honored patriot is Louise Buckley, who enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps in 1942. After the war, she went on to work in Lockheed’s Aircraft and Electronics Division, eventually retiring in Laguna Beach and becoming active in community groups. Citizens of the year are Betsy and Dr. Gary Jenkins, known for their efforts with groups from the Laguna Beach Unified School District board to the high school football boosters.
The Laguna Beach Police Department expects heavy traffic downtown between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday. Pacific Coast Highway and Laguna Canyon Road will remain open, but portions of Park Avenue and Glenneyre will be closed along the parade route. All of Forest Avenue, Third, Second and Mermaid streets will be closed.
The best host of Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his girlfriend Lu entertained in their house some of the Oscars nominees including Max Von Sydow, Jessica Chastain, Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo (nominees for the art direction of Hugo) and Hugo’s legendary costume designer Sandy Powell.
The Mayor showed his real leadership when he put two fingers in his mouth and did a loud whistle to bring everybody to silence and let the Hollywood Reporter publisher, Lynne Siegal, talk…way to go, Mayor!
Silvia
RE, with an "eye" on everything is happening around us!
Interesting report about the Foreclosure Crisis, from Propublica
Posted: February 24, 2012 in Real Estate, World newsTags: Foreclosure, Real Estate
http://www.propublica.org/article/the-best-most-revealing-reporting-on-the-foreclosure-crisis
