Scandal of Europe’s 11 million empty homes

[CityFarmer]

Ghost cities are not unique to China, but happen in Europe too...

Scandal of Europe’s 11 million empty homes

LONDON — More than 11 million homes lie empty across Europe — enough to house all of the continent’s homeless twice over — according to figures collated by the Guardian from across the European Union.

In Spain more than 3.4 million homes lie vacant, in excess of 2 million homes are empty in each of France and Italy, 1.8 million in Germany and more than 700,000 in the UK.

There are also a large numbers of vacant homes in Ireland, Greece, Portugal and several other countries, according to information collated by the Guardian.

Many of the homes are in vast holiday resorts built in the feverish housing boom in the run up to the 2007-08 financial crisis — and have never been occupied.

On top of the 11 million empty homes — many of which were bought as investments by people who never intended to live in them — hundreds of thousands of half-built homes have been bulldozed in an attempt to shore up the prices of existing properties.
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http://www.todayonline.com/world/europe/...mpty-homes

[yeokiwi]

On top of the 11 million empty homes — many of which were bought as investments by people who never intended to live in them

Buy and rent out to achieve a passive income for retirement. Great concept but it is not going to work if everyone is doing the same thing. Imagine we have 1 million Singapore households and each household has an average of 1 property for rental.

That will mean that there will be 1 million properties to rent out. It will work only if there are equal number of foreigners in Singapore.

Once the recession comes (it will come one day), many of these properties will not have any tenants.

It is better to burst this passive income dream now than later.

[corydorus]

I think there is nothing wrong to rent out especially so with greying population. Furthermore this is a viable investment. When recession comes, they face headwinds like any other businesses. The problem only comes for those who over extended themselves. Otherwise is a relative safe investment with good returns.
In many countries, the yields can be much lower.

[mulyc]

At the rate we seem to be going, the upper middle income in Singapore all have at least one secondary residential property for rental income.

[opmi]

I think there is nothing wrong to rent out especially so with greying population. Furthermore this is a viable investment. When recession comes, they face headwinds like any other businesses. The problem only comes for those who over extended themselves. Otherwise is a relative safe investment with good returns.
In many countries, the yields can be much lower.

To add, property market is cyclical. people who think property prices wont come down is delusional.

[pianist]

maybe after 2019 ba then property price will come down..ok?
btw 6.9m white paper should come true..so by then there will be equal/more no of foreigners than local, thus the govt is holding the horse for us now with these measures, to onboard more properties before the 6.9 arrival..

even if there is less foreigners than locals, the key to property investment in my view is still location......try buying one investment property in sembawang or punggol see which foreigner will rent it?

[Investmentrealm]

I think there is nothing wrong to rent out especially so with greying population. Furthermore this is a viable investment. When recession comes, they face headwinds like any other businesses. The problem only comes for those who over extended themselves. Otherwise is a relative safe investment with good returns.
In many countries, the yields can be much lower.

To add, property market is cyclical. people who think property prices wont come down is delusional.

But it may not come down to previous levels. If not, when property prices Corrected, it should have gone down to its original price.

Report just came in today river tree condos at sengkang were sold at 950 to 1150 psf!! 200+ units sold... Quite amazing with marketing, if done properly.

[sgd]

I think some locations where different races congregate should be fairly stable even in down periods.

If you look at the stakeholders of the industry namely real estate agents are still making money though not like before. At one stage after sars in 2005/2006 agents were struggling to take home $2000 a month no typo there. 2007 onwards market started moving up then 5 years market boom. But market started going down from 1997 asian financial crisis that's like a 10 year correction period before it started going up.

So cooling measures started a year ago in 2013 it could be at the beginning of up to 2022 2023 10 year cycle and interest rates haven't even started going up yet they just only now draining the liquidity from market.

[BlueKelah]

I only knew about the empty homes in China previously, but late last year TOP GEAR posted an episode where they raced in the empty city and airport in Spain. That's when I am like no wonder Europe economy in deep Sh** now.

China will soon follow..

[pianist]

I wonder how much are they selling one of those empty homes in Europe..in germany