Free Property Listings for Everyone

If you have an overseas property, or are an overseas property agent, then you'll be delighted to hear that you can list your property for free on the OverseasCafe.com website.

If you haven't already done so, click here and register as either a user or an agent, whichever is appropriate, it only takes a minute or so. If you are a normal user with more than one property to sell you'll have to register as an agent as normal users are only allowed to list a single property at any time.

Registration is completely free and will also allow you to tailor the website to deliver the information you want using Saved Searches. Agents can input all the information relating to the company which will be available for browsers to view on the site once it has been authorised by admin.

Agents can list 'normal' properties for free on the site. If you want your properties to be more easily visible to browsers you have the option of investing in 'Premium Properties' which will bring your properties to the top of any list on which they appear. For further information email advertising@OverseasCafe.com and we'll be more than happy to help you set up your account.

Normal users can also list a property for free on the site. When logged in simply click on the 'Properties' link on the toolbar at the top of your page where you will find a link to upload your property to the site. It couldn't be simpler.

It is a good idea to include pictures with any properties you load on to the site as these grab attention far more often and more quickly than those with no photos.

To see a full list of properties on the site click here.

For a full agent listing on the site click here.

Register now to receive our informative newsletter, save searches and tailor your OverseasCafe.com experience to your own needs.

www.OverseasCafe.com

Syndicated Property Investment - Tread Warily

Syndicates, a new way to invest? Well not really, syndicates have been around for decades, but only recently has it become a common vehicle for the 'ordinary investor'. Before this it was a vehicle only applicable in the realms of the Bill Gates' and Warren Buffet's of this world. By an ordinary investor we mean those with 50-100k to invest. OK, so it's not buttons but in terms of property it is not an astronomical amount of money.

The proliferation of syndicates in Ireland over the past five years or so has meant that, as with anything else available in bulk, quality has suffered. Indeed, an investor I met recently visited a seminar by a company purporting to have lined up several properties in Germany for an upcoming syndicate. Unfortunately for the company, the owner of one of the properties was Irish, was present at the seminar and swore blind he had no intention of selling the property in question seeing as he had only bought it six months previously. What are the chances?

It just goes to show, if you are getting involved in a syndicate you need to know that the guys with whom you are getting involved aren't going to pull the wool over your eyes. It is now, more than ever, extremely important to do a certain amount of due diligence on the company, their products and the property they are claiming as part of their proposed fund.

For a full advisory piece on the pros and cons of investing in syndicated property investments have a look at this article.

For a list of general advisory articles on investing abroad click here.

For a list of syndicated investment opportunities click here. If you want to be updated when syndicated opportunities are loaded on the site log in and Save the above search. You will then be emailed every time a syndicated investment opportunity is uploaded to the site.

Register now to receive our informative newsletter, save searches and tailor your OverseasCafe.com experience to your own needs.

www.OverseasCafe.com

Declare that Overseas Property - Or Else!!!

If you're one of the many Irish who emptied their matresses to buy property in Spain back in the mid to late nineties then be afraid, be very afraid.

There was a short, but very interesting, piece by Ian Kehoe on the front of the Sunday Business Post yesterday (March 16th) about the revenue stepping up its investigations into property owned by Irish citizens overseas. It claims that it has received the names of thousands of Irish citizens (directly from the Irish agents as far as we're aware but this isn't stated in the piece). It says it is predominantly targetting Spain and France at the moment but there is no doubt that this will be spread out to cover all the usual suspects such as Portugal, Hungary, Bulgaria, etc. before too long.

In light of the recent rise in co-operation between countries, particularly those in the EU - with relation to taxation, banking and asset ownership - the question at this stage is not whether the Revenue will find out about undeclared money invested in overseas property, it's merely a question of when. If you've got a property overseas and haven't declared it, or more importantly the money with which it was purchased, now might be a good time to bite the bullet and make a voluntary declaration. You'll be treated far more favourably and save yourself all the extra taxes and penalties you'll incur between here and the time your purchase is investigated.

The Revenue is going for the jugular, it's not overly interested in the rental income achieved by the properties in question (although you can be sure it will ask for a declaration on this) what it is specifically targetting is the capital used to fund the initial purchase and where exactly this came from. If it hasn't been declared in Ireland, then bingo, it's hit paydirt.

The article can be found here but it will move to the archive at the end of the week.

Register now to receive our informative newsletter, save searches and tailor your OverseasCafe.com experience to your own needs.

www.OverseasCafe.com

Is Bulgaria Following Spain

Coastal property owners facing property demolitions, it can only be Spain? Unfortunately not, misfortunate property owners along coastal Bulgaria may now be starting to become slightly apprehensive as the government has announced that it is to demolish property that has been illegally built along the coastline.

Bulgaria's Directorate for National Construction Supervision (DNCS), which started inspecting the legality of completed and ongoing construction along the Black Sea coastline on February 25, has already issued orders for the demolition of 57 units. Twenty five of them are on the north coastline and 32 are along the southern coast, the institution announced on its website. 24 units are to be demolished in the Golden Sands resort (pictured).

For the full story visit the site. The directorate has also decided that it will extend the period over which it will look into illegal construction, see here.

Hopefully this won't deter you from having a happy St. Patrick's Weekend.

Bulgarian Links on OverseasCafe.com:

Bulgarian Property Listing

Bulgarian Property News

Bulgarian Agent News

Bulgarian Property Exhibitions around Ireland

Agents Selling Property in Bulgaria

For all your overseas property needs visit:

www.OverseasCafe.com

How Sound is the Irish Banking System

We don't want to be harbingers of doom but, if things are to go pear shaped, is it not better to be informed for potential evasive action?

A quick browse through Construct Ireland magazine (March/April '08 issue) brought us to a piece by Richard Douthwaite on the potential for disaster in the Irish banking system. It makes pretty chilling reading. I'm not going to re-invent the wheel by regurgitating it all here but, suffice to say, Irish banks are not in the finest of rude health considering the slide into which our property market has descended and their almost complete reliance on this sector for building their asset values and loan books.

The piece is not on-line yet but probably will be in the not too distant future at the Construct Ireland website. In the interim you might like to have a look at a brief overview on just how precarious a ledge the Irish banks now stand. It is only three pages long, is not written in Cyrillic like a lot of this stuff tends to be and is by Morgan Kelly, Professor of Economics at UCD, so it does bear some weight.

There is a link to the piece here. You'll need a PDF reader to read it which you can get for free from www.adobe.com if you haven't got one.

Interesting reading if nothing else and it might concentrate the mind if you've got a lot of money resting in an Irish bank account.

www.OverseasCafe.com

Irish Property Law Website

Those of you unfamiliar with Michael Lynn and his recent antics you should take a look at our previous blog on the matter.

Recently while browsing around the web we were surprised to find more than a few remnants of the bould Mick lying around the place (apart from the obvious references to his failures to appear in court, mortgage fraud, etc). For a start the website for his overseas property law firm, www.overseaspropertylaw.com, is still alive and kicking (or at least it was at time of typing this blog) and looking very well it has to be said.

The part of the site which claims 'Irish Buyers Misguided on Need for Lawyers Overseas' is extremely ironic and would be funny if the whole episode weren't so serious for those individuals defrauded by Mr. Lynn.

Actually, the contents of the site are fine, and most of the information there is factual and correct. It is just unfortunate that Lynn appears to have taken the 'road far less travelled' and done a bunk with money from, not alone the banks, but from a large selection of unsuspecting property buyers as well. We did try using the contact details on the site but, surprise, surprise, they don't work.

The Kendar Holdings and Kendar Global websites have now passed into oblivion, although the latter did hang around in Ireland for a lot longer than Lynn himself. Lynn has also maintained his position on RateMySolicitor.com but it's hardly a ringing endorsement of his professional career in Ireland. Long before there were any rumblings about his property dealings and multiple mortgage scams there were some atrocious reviews of him and his practice on the site. Maybe the Law Society should use it as a means to flag potentially dodgy solicitors, as they don't seem to be capable of finding them by any other means.

If you want to find a more reliable listing of advisors who may be able to help you in your quest to purchase overseas then you should search the advisors on the OverseasCafe.com website.

For a list of articles on the site relating to Lynn and his activities click here.

www.OverseasCafe.com

Is Brazil Destined for Greatness?

Brazil is being highly spoken of as one of those legendary 'property hotspots', perhaps more so than any other country in the world at the moment. Is the information we are getting just 'spin' from agents and developers to get us interested in the next place they will make a large amount of money or is there some substance to what is going on there?

We decided we should send one of our intrepid reporters over there to see what all the fuss is about, you'll find the resultant article is extremely informational. Times overseas property writer, Gordon Miller, is the reporter who got the enviable job of travelling around this huge country and he was impressed where he didn't expect to be and unimpressed where he felt he would be. To read the article click here.

If you want to get your hands on a listing of Brazilian property you'll find it here.

For news articles on Brazil click here.

For news from Agents on what is new in Brazil click here.

For a full listing of agents selling property in Brazil click here.

Remember, if you want to be updated on any of the above categories all you need to do is log in to your account and use the 'Save Search' link at the top of each search page to be updated when anything new is loaded to that specific category. It couldn't be simpler.

Haven't got an account, then click here and register, you'll be able to save searches to have the site provide you with the information you need and you'll receive our highly acclaimed monthly newsletter.

If you want to be updated on what is happening in this blog just click on the Atom or RSS feed links at the bottom of the page and you'll be able to read this blog on your own RSS reader (you can get one free from google if you don't have one).

www.OverseasCafe.com