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Known the world over as one of the greenest and happiest countries in the world, Costa Rica, which literally means “rich coast”, has become an outstanding ecotourism center. In 1949, the army of Costa Rica was decommissioned in order to channel more funding into health care and education- an environmentally friendly, peaceful solution which has bettered the economy as a whole. Costa Rica also houses 5% of the world’s biodiversity and the country contains roughly 500,000 different species. Costa Rica contains various individual microclimates because of its geo-locational proximity to the equator and situation between two oceans. Dry forests as well as rain forests dot the country, and it is also blessed with a number of active volcanoes. All of this contributes to Costa Rica’s biodiversity, making it a logical choice for conservation, and a natural destination for ecotourism.
August 7th, 2011 | Posted in Headlines,International Real Estate,Real Estate News | Read More »
The government of Brazil has recently taken steps to improve the transparency of real-estate funds in an attempt to lure more investment to Brazil’s booming real estate sector. Breifs, as the Brazilian real estate funds are called, have ballooned in recent years, hand-in-hand with a real-estate boom driven by 10 years of strong, reasonably consistent economic growth. Real-estate values in some desirable regions of the country have skyrocketed, which is causing analysts to suspect a bubble. Others, however, still see plenty of room for growth, pointing to the fact that real-estate financing amounts to only 3% of GDP. Breifs- similar financial instruments to U.S. real-estate investment trusts, also known as REITs- buy and rent commercial properties in and around developed areas of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, although the fund’s structure is versatile, and they can be used for other purposes, like financing. One thing that separates them from their U.S. counterparts is that the Brazilian funds can’t take on loans to inflate returns.
August 5th, 2011 | Posted in Global Finance,Headlines,International Real Estate,Real Estate News | Read More »
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai disagree strongly about the nation’s land redistribution policy, but both have recruited South Africa to persuade Prime Minister David Cameron to “honour Britain’s obligations” by funding land reform efforts in Zimbabwe. The controversial land seizures have been taking white owned lands and redistributing them to black veterans of Zimbabwe’s revolutionary war since 2000. Mugabe recently vowed that his land seizures would continue, in defiance of the global political agreement (GPA) which requires an end to the practice. The formal disbandment of the Namibia-based SADC Tribunal ruling, has accelerated the land grabs from white farmers in recent months. Prime Minister Tsvangirai has called for an immediate stop to the accelerated land grabs and an audit to determine who owns what. This would shed light on the multiple ownerships and to ensure security of tenure for all farmers, black and white. Mugabe, a former leader of the liberation movement has denied the land audit every time it arises.
August 4th, 2011 | Posted in Headlines,International Real Estate,Real Estate News | Read More »
According to several sources, the Saudi Arabian property market is expected to boom thanks in large part to a boost in government spending. The stimulus has been significant enough to affect economic growth forecasts by the IMF. The forecasts for 2011 were around 6.5 percent, up 2.4 percent from 2010. The stimulus in question was announced in March, when King Abdullah vowed to spend 30 percent of Saudi Arabia’s economic output, or approximately $130 billion on public spending, such as mass housing and job creation. $67 billion of the funds will go towards building 500,000 homes, in addition to earlier investments of $15 billion to bankroll the construction of 1.65 million homes in the next five years. A ministry will also be established with an annual budget of $4 billion. The IMF and other observers are speculating that these measures will increase the productivity of the country as a whole. “We will have to see how this new supply affects the market,” said Mike Williams, the senior director of Middle East Research and Consultancy at CB Richard Ellis, in relation to the supply of new homes that will come on the market.
August 4th, 2011 | Posted in Global Finance,Headlines,International Real Estate,Real Estate News | Read More »
In a ruling being called everything from dictatorial to Kafkaesque, the inhabitants of a Bedouin village in Israel’s Negev desert are being held financially liable for the expense of vacating and demolishing their own homes. The Israeli government filed a roughly $500,000 claim with a court on July 26 for the expense of demolishing the structures and evicting the residents of the al-’Araqib village, Amnesty International claims. The villagers have been evicted almost 28 times over the past year, most recently on July 25. The resident have long claimed that the settlement is part of their ancestral lands, but authorities claim that they are illegally squatting.
August 2nd, 2011 | Posted in Headlines,International Real Estate,Real Estate News | Read More »
Uruguay recently filed a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to issue up to $560 million in government bonds. The bonds are part of a $2.9 billion securities program, according to the document, which was filed July 25th. Uruguay has had an overall positive outlook in recent years, despite some small political hiccups in recent months relating to it’s bloody past. Uruguay may be small in area, but recently it has seen a surge in investment. Fitch Ratings issued a small rating increase for Uruguay mid-July, and upgrade to BB+, a rating which is “speculative”. The rating stopped just short of investment grade. Uruguay’s growth performance and outlook are still “quite favorable,” the rating agency said.
July 25th, 2011 | Posted in Global Finance,Headlines,International Real Estate,Real Estate News | Read More »
With it’s history of genocide, political turmoil, economic instability and hyperinflation, until quite recently, Zimbabwe has been a traditional “bad investment”. However, in early August a group of investors from Hong Kong will be coming to the tiny, land-locked country to explore investment opportunities in the hotel, leisure, mining and jewelry industries. This reflects the hopeful nature of the Zimbabwean economy, which at the moment, is stable and rising. DEAT Capital, a private economics firm partnered with the government and Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) traveled to Hong Kong and Singapore to explore investment and venture capital sources in the two countries. CZI is a private industry interest group, which advocates for businesses in Zimbabwe.
July 23rd, 2011 | Posted in Global Finance,Headlines,International Real Estate,Real Estate News | Read More »
A recent cabinet decision in Kenya to legalize the importation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has sparked a heated debate in Parliament over the safety of the genetically engineered organisms. In mid-July, the Cabinet approved a bill allowing the importation of GMO corn with the stated intention of increasing food security and alleviating the ongoing food shortages the country has experienced for the past several years. However, Legislators Joshua Kutuny, John Pesa and Charles Keter are claiming that the bill merely uses hunger and food security to force GMO corn into a country which has historically resisted GMOs in all forms, like many other countries in the world. Mr Keter questioned the intentions of those who support the law, while Mr. Kutuny even went so far as to raise concerns that the government was complicit in the current food shortage, and Mr. Pesa suggested alternatives to GMOs, such as new technology, and farm subsidies.
July 22nd, 2011 | Posted in Headlines,International Real Estate,Real Estate News | Read More »
On Wednesday, July 20, a general strike of as many as 10,00 oil workers went into effect in eastern Colombia amid protests sparked by the dismissal of labor union spokespersons and hundreds of contractors. The work stoppage has resulted in violence, leaving six people injured, and seven vehicles in flames, said Puerto Gaitan’s mayor Oscar Bolaños. The inland town of Puerto Gaitan, located in Colombia’s Meta province is where Pacific Rubiales Energy’s massive Rubiales field is located, and field has become the focus of the protests. Bolaños told a local radio station that the violence has had an impact on the region’s oil exploration and production zones. Labor spokespersons have stated that the workers are “very dissatisfied” with working conditions in the region, and that national riot police deployed to quell the protests used excessive force against the otherwise peaceful protesters.
July 21st, 2011 | Posted in Global Finance,Headlines,International Real Estate,Real Estate News | Read More »
On July 18, Peru’s Congress approved a bill which would pay the country’s 40 year old land reform bonds which could be worth $1.4 billion or more. The bill, which has yet to be signed into law, instructs the finance ministry to establish a debt swap program which could consume 1 percent of the country’s GDP. The law allows owners of the old land reform bonds to swap their certificates for new sovereign debts. The law also specifically stipulated that the new bonds have up to 30 year maturities so that the next government would not saddled with the entirety of the debt. The bonds were issued in Peru’s bitter 1970’s, when leftist President Gen. Juan Velasco attempted a land redistribution by giving the land of the wealthy to the poor. However, many middle-class land owners were also ensnared in the scheme.
July 20th, 2011 | Posted in Global Finance,Headlines,International Real Estate,Real Estate News | Read More »
