Florida Property Is Not So Much A Distressed Investment
Posted by Ken Thorkildsen on May 10, 2010
This year has seen much of the world’s property market take a hit for the worse. Matthew Moore, founder of Florida property specialists Distressed Invest looks, back at how 2010 has been and what’s in store for the rest of the year. 
In every financial downturn there will always be those that win and those that lose, with property it is a matter of holding your nerve for as long as possible – if possible – and waiting until the best moment comes to make your move. Property markets for the last 10 years or so have seen extraordinary price increases and every new market has been described as “the next biggest thing” with television shows, property magazines shouting from the rooftops of how great this or that property investment is.
Property investment upto the early 90’s was generally seen as something for the very wealthy with those in the money, especially in the UK, buying their holiday home in Florida Spain or Portugal or indeed the south of France. These were the most popular places that people generally went on holidays each year. The widening of the EU saw the market open up further afield with the emergence of eastern Europe such as Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey etc.
“Cheap properties, in comparison to the UK and Ireland, saw the market awash with first time overseas buyers flocking to these regions. Foreign property developers saw this lucrative market and up went apartment blocks at alarming rates and property agents started appearing and offering these properties.” Moore continues, “after the honeymoon period and a lot of broken promises, buyers ended up with properties that they could not afford either in mortgage payments due to the lack of rental or perhaps business owners feeling the pinch with downturn and wanting to cut their losses by offering their properties at the original purchase price or less.”
“One of the mottos of Distressed Invest is that Property Profits Are Made When You Buy, Not When You Sell. By that we mean that we always look after the property investor by sourcing properties that banks have on your accounts but are making a loss and they want to offload.” Explain Matthew. “We moved into the Florida property market for two reasons, one is that we have very good associates n Florida who we have arrangement to offer their properties direct from the lenders, and the second reason is that Florida is an established property market which has saw peaks and troughs in the past.”
“I was reading on the reports at the beginning of the year suggesting that Florida will show to be the best place to invest in property this year and I have to say it is something that I wholeheartedly agree with as in some places the current prices are shown to be at the same level as 2005 – in fact there was a $2.2m property reduced by an incredible $500,000 which was almost 23% which percentage wise is fairly common. I can see the market almost levelling out perhaps another three or four months and then we will see prices starting to go on the up.” Advises Matthew.
The notice of the Harry Potter theme park in Orlando certainly suggests of a return to some normality in the area and with the news that nearly a quarter of current property buyers in Florida come from the UK is equally pleasing. “Definitely,” says Matthew, “there has been an amazing amount of interest in Florida property since we starting offering to our Distressed Invest clients. We also have over 120 agents in the UK and Europe with whom we work with which is an amazing number considering the press that property has had over the last couple of years and all of them eager for Florida with their clients.”
Matthew continues, “As I said previously, of all the foreign property buyers in Florida more than 1 in 5 comes from the UK which is an amazing amount if you consider the economic climate. These property investors are the experienced investors but equally you will see a lot of confidence returning from the less experienced investors who have held on to their properties during the downturn and will see the fruits of their patience over the next couple of years.”
Telephone: (0044) 0141 416 3198 or email: matthew@distressedinvest.com
Distressed Invest are Florida property specialists focussing on Florida properties below market value (BMV).
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