UK Land Banking Scams

For those of you who have ever considered one of those 'small investments' in UK land which is being presented as land with the potential for 'rezoning' then you may well need to have a read of the following and the Guardian's piece here.

This particular area of the property market is fraught with danger, particularly for those with no knowledge of the UK property market and the ins and outs of the planning process across the UK. In the main the UK is very slow to rezone green belt land, so be very careful about what you're buying, no matter how inexpensive it may seem. That is, of course, unless you are happy to lose your 'investment'. 

If you visit the UK Land Investments site all you'll find is a letter from the administrators. This liquidation of companies is a typical ploy by land bankers, which usually just pop up again a couple of months later with a different name. Although on this occasion they may have been helped along the way by the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA).

There are a few operatives outside the UK which also look pretty dodgy but nothing concrete has been proven against them yet so we'll refrain from mentioning them until there is proof that we should do so. 

The FSA has released the following statement for those considering investing in Land Banking schemes.

Read an advisory article about Land Banking on the OverseasCafe.com site. 

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UK Property Links

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Tempted Buy - Sunday Independent

If you are readers of the Sunday Independent you may have noticed that OverseasCafe.com has provided the properties for its Tempted Buy... overseas property section this Sunday, June 8th.

We're fairly sure these will be available online on the Indo's website later in the week, and when this happens we'll have a link to it here, but for those that are too impatient to wait until this happens you'll find the property listing for this week at TemptedBuy.com.

A selection of Stone Properties from around the world can be found here.

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OverseasCafe.com in the News

OK, so this isn't the most timely news in the world, but it slipped under the radar somehow and it would be remiss of us not to mention it so now is as good a time as any.

Back in February the website got a very honourable mention in the Irish Independent, in a piece written by none other than our 'boss' Eilís FitzGerald.

The piece is based on the, now legendary, statistics published by the website each month. In the piece Eilís gives some good advice.

"There is no doubt that our interest in property abroad is as strong as ever, so the key to success is research, research, research. Property markets abroad tend to be strongly influenced by foreign investment in the region, and this is unlikely to happen in an unstable political environment. A politically stable country with a growing economy will attract foreign investment and tourism, which leads to higher capital appreciation and greater rental demand."

You'll find the full text of the article here.

In case you're not all that aware of what the site is about you'll find a few links to pertinent areas of it below.
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For a selection of property from around the world click here.

For a listing of agents selling overseas property click here.

For independent articles on overseas property click here.

For advice on purchasing property overseas click here.

For news on the world of overseas property click here.

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LA Struggles for Harcourt Developments

The Irish Times reported at the beginning of May that a company backed by businessman Pat Doherty and former broadcaster Mike Murphy is facing a legal battle in the US over a €500 million Las Vegas property development.

Las Vegas developer Glen, Smith Glen (GSG) and two linked companies are suing Harcourt Developments, its Nevada subsidiary, Mr Doherty himself and a number of others for breach of contract in a Nevada court. GSG is Harcourt's local partner on its Sullivan Square project, a €550 million mixed apartment and commercial development that the pair are building in Las Vegas.

GSG and its co-plaintiff, Sullivan Square Harcourt and GSG DSM Holdings, began proceedings in the court on May 1st. According to documents filed with Clark County district court, GSG and Sullivan Square say that Harcourt Developments and Harcourt Nevada have defaulted several times on their obligations to fund the project. This has resulted in contractors and consultants working on the development not being paid. They have taken two other lawsuits against the company. Also a number of them are claiming a share in Sullivan Square as compensation. GSG, run by businessmen Alan Glen and Kenneth Smith, owned Sullivan Square and began working on the project itself. An acquaintance introduced them to Mr Doherty and Harcourt.

In August 2006, the Irish company agreed to fund the development in return for a 60 per cent share. GSG's complaint states that last October, Harcourt Nevada defaulted on its obligation by "failing to timely provide sufficient funding for development and construction of the project, and failing to fund the overhead for GSG dedicated to the project". The court papers say that in February, Mr Doherty personally assured GSG that Harcourt would meet its obligations in 24 hours, but failed to do this. Also during February, Harcourt approached GSG and asked it to change the agreement to give a third party a 20 per cent stake in Sullivan Square to secure funding. GSG was to hand over 9 per cent. The plaintiff says that Harcourt subsequently admitted that there was no new third party and that it wanted 9 per cent as a condition for providing funding. GSG states that it reluctantly agreed to give Harcourt 9 per cent, cutting its share of the project to 31 per cent.

The documents state that Harcourt cannot plead inability to pay as the plaintiffs are aware that the defendants "maintained lavish and extravagant lifestyles" during the period. Harcourt Developments principals include Mr Doherty, Mr Murphy, and English businessman, Andrew Parker Bowles, former husband of Camilla Parker Bowles.

The project was launched in Ireland with much media publicity just a year ago. There are a number of other reports on the case here & here.
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For a selection of property in the USA click here.

For a list of agents selling property in the USA click here.

For independent articles on overseas property click here.

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For news on the US property market click here.

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Who's Been Looking Where - May '08

For those of you with an eye for statistics you'll no doubt be interested to see what areas are proving most popular with Irish web surfers.

May results are out and can be found on the site here. There is also a listing of percentages from January to May which gives a more accurate estimate of interest for the year-to-date. Monthly figures can be affected by new, in the news, hot-destinations, although negative sentiment has been more obvious in the market this year which has brought the old reliables of the UK and US to the fore.

In a more positive vein, however, there were a total of 94,300 searches conducted over the past month which is an increase of over 20,000 on April figures. April would traditionally be considered a stronger period than May for overseas property interest so this may be an indication of a turning tide for agents and developers overseas. To date this year the industry has been having a terrible time so any good news will be gratefully accepted.
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Property in the UK - click here
Property in the US - click here
Property in Spain - click here
Property in France - click here
Property in Portugal - click here
Property in Italy - click here
Property in Lanzarote - click here
Property in Tenerife - click here
Property in Turkey - click here
Property in Bulgaria - click here

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Kevin O'Kane - Turkish Scam Update

For those of you who have been following the story of Bellaghy native, Kevin O'Kane's, story in Turkey you may be interested in the latest update, you'll find it here.

O'Kane, along with his Turkish business partner, Kubilay Atmaca, is accused of selling property to 70 couples in Altinkum, on the south coast of Turkey, and providing fake title deeds so that they would think that they owned property which they in fact did not. The case is currently running in the Turkish courts but there are also outstanding cases against O'Kane in his native Northern Ireland.

If you're not familiar with the case you'll find some background information here, here, here, here & here. There's also some comment here, and probably plenty more if you do a search on the internet and you're anxious for more information. It's a big story in Turkey and, obviously O'Kane's native Northern Ireland from where most of the purchasers originate.

O'Kane denies all the charges, claiming that his Turkish partner, Atmaca, is entirely responsible for the scam.
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For a selection of property in Turkey click here.

For a list of agents selling property in Turkey click here.

For independent articles on overseas property click here.

For advice on purchasing in Turkey click here.

For news on the Turkish property market click here.

For new releases and product updates from Turkish agents click here.

For a selection of property exhibitions featuring Turkish property click here.

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Ryanair Full Year Results

For those interested in what the future may hold for the price of flight tickets based on the rising cost of oil then the announcement of Ryanair's end-of-year results yesterday may prove interesting, if not entirely uplifting.

All you need, as usual, is Mick O'Leary's comment: "I've now come to the view that I hope oil does stay at $125 or $130 a barrel during the winter because I think that will bankrupt half of the airlines flying today, in which case we'll still be the lowest-fares airline in Europe, bur our fares won't be €40 a passenger, they might be a little higher."
I suspect they may be not a little, but quite a lot higher Mick. I doubt very much if you're going to sit and watch your airline make no profits while travellers still avail of low fares. Less competition changes the game for everyone and those left standing can name their price.

You can find the full article here.

Aer Lingus' decision to hike fuel surcharges to the US again today will not fill the market with much cheer either. See full story here.

Click here for articles related to the aviation industry on OverseasCafe.com.

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