Feedback from the Homebuyer and Property Investor Show.
We spent a lot of the weekend speaking to agents who want to start selling property on behalf of a developer but want somebody to check out whether the development is legal before committing. This is great news because it means that the message is finally getting through that in order to survive you need to do things properly and only deal with reputable developers. We saw lots of agents who were not exhibiting at the show but who there speaking to various people.
We also saw an increased number of developers and agents wanting to talk to us about the benefits of membership to AIPP (The Association Of International Property Professionals) who were at the show.
The other interesting thing was that the general public seems gradually to be waking up to the fact that they need to do their research and ask questions before investing.
Having said that we also spoke to quite a few people who had had problems with previous investments and wanted help with them. In particular, developments which were not yet completed and which should have been. Dubai was also the main country for that this weekend. In particular many people were banking on rental income from the properties which obviously had not materialised because the property was not finished.
I was encouraged by the fact that the public and agents are now becoming more aware of the potential problems as I feel that it can only be a good thing for the industry.
As for the countries that the public were interested in, well the interest in the established markets that we say last weekend at A Place In The Sun continued but not as greatly (after all it was an Investing show rather than a general property show). France and Southern Italy in particular were popular. As for the other markets there was a lot of interest in Dubai (but then there always has been at this show - I think it has something to do with their marketing).
One theme that I did see was advertising property at an under value. I spoke to somebody who was being sold property at a 'substantial' under value but then they discovered that it was being sold at the same price as other agents were selling the same property for. This just goes to show two things;
Don't believe everything that you are told. Not everything that is quoted as being at an under value is.
Carry out your own investigations on price - whether seeing who else is selling and at what price or a valuation.
I am afraid that I didn't get a chance to look at the UK side of the show to see what was happening on that.
Other than that the biggest tip from the weekend has to be not to underestimate the damage that hair straighteners can cause. Some of your readers may have read about the fire at Custom House over the weekend.
This was apparently caused by a pair of hair straighteners which were left on a bed whilst their owner had a shower. Some of the exhibitors at the show lost laptops, credit cards, clothes, passports - in fact everything that they had taken in the ensuing fire.
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