Bah .... 15 -20% ive not really sat down and worked out my exact profit, I didnt feel the need, but its somewhere in that region.

My first apartment will be finished by October and im seriously tempted to sell it because of the fall of the Pound vs the Euro, but also because of the capital appreciation of the development in question. Its gone up by 45% in GBP terms. If I keep it and GBP recovers vs Euro next year then 20% of that gain will be lost and it will require me keeping the property for another year or two to recoup that gain.

Ruichard what is the gross rental yield on the property? if it north of 7% definitely hang on - if 5% or less then definitely sell a long as it does not screw up your tax position .

It wasn't a profit issue I was referring to Richard as I took it to be 15% above Max and 20% above average valuation which makes sense, it was your criticism of other Property Investors (namely everyone else on this forum other than yourself as it comes over to me) having no concept of time, yet you seem to have forgotton how long ago you actually sold your property - either at the top of the bubble ie 2007 or several years ago ie a long way down from the top of the bubble for most of the UK.

Anyway, moving on ... I agree with you that it is tempting to think about selling properties in the Eurozone at the moment due to the weakness of GBP, I will hopefully sell my Cyprus property, but I will definitely hang on to my French property as the cost of selling and buying back into property anywhere else seems to outway the benefit of the exchange gain and the roi is good.

Finally a reasonable article about house prices in the UK.

http: / /www .telegraph .co .uk /money /main .jhtml?xml= /money /2008 /04 /15 /nprices115 .xml

"Last week, Halifax statistics showed house prices tumbled by 2.5 per cent from February to March, the biggest such fall since 1992. Mr Stansfield said there was little that anyone could do to stop significant house price falls.

"This is likely to continue for as long as the problems in the credit markets persist. We are saying prices will fall somewhere between 10 and 15 per cent over the next couple of years. But this RICS survey suggests there could be a bigger fall than that." Although a significant drop could trap many in negative equity, it could help some first-time buyers get on the housing ladder.

George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, said the housing bubble had burst. He accused Mr Brown of failing to do enough to ensure that Britain was protected from an economic downturn and ridiculed the Prime Minister for saying he had abolished the cycle of boom and bust.

................................................

This bit made me laugh ........

"Despite the gloom, most economists do not believe a housing slump on the scale of the 1990s downturn will materialise, because employment remains high and the economy is still growing."

Economist ALWAYS get the housing prediction WRONG, the fact that so many are still so optimistic indicates that the situation will get unbelievably dire!!!!

.................................................

The ending of the article gives a good indication where the authors views really lie.

"Last night, Caroline Flint, the housing minister, said: "It's important to recognise we are dealing with a different situation in the market from what was experienced in the early 90s."

"because employment remains high and the economy is still growing."

Not for long mate! WAKE UP FOOL.

Richard,

Are you positive about house prices in any region, either somewhere in the UK or in CEE??

I agree we will get a drop but the large spike down is something I don't buy. The housebuilders are reticent to build more houses in the UK, due to uncertainty on selling. With the rising population here in the UK, surely some basic economic principles come to bear (demand and supply) to support prices.

The driving factor for future price growth will be availability of credit, LTV levels and price to earning ratios. These will never return to what they were and hence prices will fall substancially.

The supply and demand argument is a classic reason for trying to prop up the UK bubble. It is irrelevant if people cannot secure mortgages to pay the inflated prices.

What about Hong Kong in the 1990's?

http: / /www .telegraph .co .uk /money /main .jhtml?xml= /money /2008 /02 /18 /ccview118 .xml

[/quote]

The driving factor for future price growth will be availability of credit, LTV levels and price to earning ratios. These will never return to what they were and hence prices will fall substancially.


[/quote]

Tom, I'm afraid you are wrong on this last comment, the LTV levels and price to earning ratios are indeed very much like they have been over previous years - just not the last 2-3 years. House prices have gone on rising through higher interest rates than we have now and lower LTV levels than we have right now. The problem is that we have many more people applying for that credit and a lack of supply, which noone predicted a year ago, despite what they say. Those that predicted a house price drop did not predict the run on banks or withdrawal of liquidity but they are just jumping on the band wagon now claiming that it was their prediction - TOSH!

Note last week's headlines - Nationwide withdrawing some of it's mortgage products - will we see the tomorrow's headlines announcing Nationwide have launched 2 great new mortgage products today? - I think not, it suits the media and some who have ulteria motives to keep spinning the bad stuff about the UK housing market.

I was glad to hear many people damning the BBC this morning for not reporting the reality and ignoring the positive news - they didn't quite apologise but had to admit they had been told off. It is people's homes and jobs we are dealing with and they should act a whole lot more responsibly.

There is still healthy activity out there in the market, there are still good mortgages about, there are plenty of people looking to buy and rent and affordability is still there, all we need is for good Leadership from the top to get a grip and listen to some of the very good proposals that are being put before them ie

1. cap tax on fuel at the pump which will have an immediate effect of controlling inflation and won't affect the balance of payments one jot as any decent Treasurer should never anticipate increases in oil prices to raise taxes;

2. cut stamp duty at the bottom end of the market and increase it at the top end by using an Income Tax style of taxing - this is long long overdue. Why should the average home owner lose approx 5% of the value of their property just to be able to move to a different area if they are changing jobs? So wrong.

3. regulate companies that Buy and lease back people's homes.

4. Introduce mortgages where the monthly payment stays the same for life, it's just the length of the mortgage that alters when interest rates change - like France - simple.

Savvy, at last a voice of reason! I can answer the earlier question on Richard's behalf - Hungary. Guess why? Because he's bought there!
Huw

Anyone know if base rate tracker mortgages are going up in rest of Europe - I only see headlines about UK - is it just a UK phenomenon although perhaps their are few property falls in Europe (bar Spain) so the repossession issue ( and implied higher risk) is only looming here.