My best friend has just called me with the offer of a holiday at his new villa over in Spain.  Due to a promotion at work and also with having a large amount of equity to play with, he has invested in a holiday villa up in the hills in Spain which will allow him to take several holidays a year and make some money through renting it out at other times during the year.

This got me thinking about places that may be nice to invest in property, and what makes a nice location.  It could be that you are looking for somewhere nice and sunny in an isolated location.  Or maybe you want somewhere with a more lively nightlife, or somewhere with a strong expat community that may turn into a retirement property for you.

Personally, I would probably opt for somewhere a bit different, maybe Croatia or Bulgaria which are both meant to have stunning panoramic views and property that is reasonable value.

So you have made the plunge and purchased that new property.  You have been through the rigmarole of moving house, maybe including a long journey if you have relocated to another part of the country.  Now you are in your new property, and its important that you make your stamp on it as soon as possible.

Where do you start, is it bedrooms to make it nice, as you may spend a lot of time in there.  Or alternatively are you more about entertaining people and therefore its decorating living and dining areas to make guests feel more at home.  Then there is the bathrooms and kitchen areas, with many people thinking that changing them is quite important for making the home feel like your own.

Do you have any experiences, good or bad, that you want to share relating to decorating ??

So you are thinking of selling up and want to maximise the value on your home when it goes to market.  I have put together a quick look at 10 things you should look to do to ensure you get the best deal when selling.

1. Tidy up the garden – I am not talking about spending thousands, but a quick prune and present the garden in the best possible way will help viewers to see the benefits it has to offer.

2. All rooms decorated – make sure that any unfinished DIY jobs are either complete or are in a position where it won’t be obvious that work is ongoing.  This may mean you slap a quick coat of paint on walls that have been bare for months, due to you being focused on moving.

3. Get rid of clutter – similar to the garden, the last thing you want is to have all your possessions strewn all over the room.  Maximise the space, to allow the viewer to see the rooms in their full glory.  Remember they will be trying to picture it with their own belongings, so the more space, the better.

Let me know how you get on with these tips, and whether it actually helped !!

When buying a property, almost all people make the utmost effort to try and find out everything about the property before they buy.

Why? Because they have never spent such a large amount of money and have never made such a big decision previously in their lives.

Many people make a lot of trips to far distance properties on the other side of the country and wast a lot of time doing this. But as we now come into the year 2010, more technology is available at our hands and with the introduction of Google Street View in most if the UK, you can view a property without even setting foot outside your own home!

Many people go in the route of buying an existing house from another owner in a location which they find good. But the question here today is that is it worth just buying a house or building one from scratch?

Of course building one from scratch is going to be more expensive due to obvious reasons such as buying the land, getting it registered, hiring all the different companies and staff for a long period, buying all the bricks, drawing the plans etc.

If you find the perfect land and location then people may find it better to build a house.

There seems to be a modern trend that’s growing very rapidly. More and more people are moving away from the traditional home and moving into their own flats.

There are many reasons for this and why this trend is becoming more and more popular (especially in the United Kingdom) such as:

• Flats are cheaper
• Lots of people enjoy University life a lot and once they leave university, they want to go back into a similar environment, so they choose flats.
• Some people want to live close to the city center and flats can be found in the middle of the center of the city.

So what are your thoughts?

Google has for some time now gone into the property business and allowed people to upload their houses and businesses for sale and for rent on Google services which then links to Google Maps.

Do you think this is a good idea?

It has its pros and cons.

In the end of the day, I’m sure most people, no matter how technologically advance they may be, would prefer to go and visit a house and a business location when spending a very large amount of money.

But then again, that’s my opinion. What is your opinion on this feature of Google?

This is a big questions amongst people abroad that why on Earth would people from the western countries such as the UK and Europe want to build and buy houses in other countries such as Dubai and China?

It is mostly those people who haven’t lived or know much about the UK.

Living in the UK is becoming more and more difficult according to most people. Why is this? Prices are going up, things are becoming more expensive. There are lots of taxes to pay. unemployment figures are high and so on.

But to those living in the UK. Is this really true?

The company A &J Mucklow who are located in Midlands has reported major loses to almost double following the collapse of commercial property values.

The company has a strategy to overcome this by investing in properties have fallen in price to increase their assets but at much lower prices that they would normally get them for.

They have secured a massive £35 million backing facility with HSBC and they also have £25 million for acquisitions.
”

Mucklow remains very well positioned to ride out these turbulent times and benefit from the distressed market. We intend to utilise our new banking facilities to selectively acquire investment properties.”

Said Rupert Mucklow chairman

The dragons den star James Caan has been reported to be teaming up with ING for a new commercial fund for properties in the real estate.

His is launching it through his own private equity firm Hamilton Bradshaw but he is still waiting on approval before he can finish, if it is all approved and goes to plan he has said it should be live by autumn.

Simon Latham is in charge of the property investment team at ING and he will have responsibility for administration and managing the fund while James Caan will act as the investment advisor, with him planning to invest around 10% of his personal funds into the plan.
James had this to say

My view is that the real estate market has hit the bottom, valuations have settled and there are opportunities to be had. Two years ago the property market got overheated but today you can acquire real estate at yields of between 7 and 8% at a cost of capital of 6%. Two years ago the cost of capital was also 6% but yields were only between 3 and 4%. This represents a near 30% shift in value and real estate is as attractive as it has been in a while.’