Proptastic have you bought anything in Egypt yet? if not why is this?
I still like the buying a shop idea any more info on this side of things.
This question strikes a raw nerve, I'm afraid.
The story is this:
My (now ex-)girlfriend and I bought a couple of apartments under market value in this delightful 1960's Communist blockhouse in Latvia's 3rd largest city, Liepaja, during the course of 2005.
We got the pair of them for the princely sum of GBP20,000.
After full renovation on one of them, they were up to GBP60,000 by the end of 2006.
It was at this point that I thought that this was some crazy money for some rubbish old apartments and that there was a bubble in Latvia and we should sell up and buy someplace else.
Exactly where, I didn't know at that time and
Propertastic! came about because I couldn't find one source of information that allowed me to compare all of the emerging markets side-by-side. It was while making the research for
Propertastic! that I came across Egypt for the first time and couldn't believe how cheap everything was.
I told my girlfriend that we should sell up and invest in Egypt then. Unfortunately, while I am probably too impulsive by nature, she is a great procrastinator, and the situation wasn't helped by the fact that she became my ex-girlfriend over this period.
The result was that we didn't do anything with the properties.
Sadly, my thoughts regarding the great Latvian property bubble came all too true from March 2007 and prices dropped like a stone. The two properties are down to GBP40,000 - and that's if a buyer can be found at all.
Now had we gone head with my plan - sold up and bought a couple of properties in Hurghada instead in Jan 2007 (I'd have probably bought something at The View and maybe Regency Towers back in those days),I'm pretty sure that the GBP60,000 would now be up to GBP80,000.
So her procrastination has cost us GBP40,000 in a period of nine months.
Oh well, can't win them all, I suppose.
But onto the shop. I have to admit that I have done no more research on it - I know that commercial is a bit of a different ballgame from residential.
But if I had some money to invest right now, I mentioned it in the Guide, but I reckon it's a surefire winner, and that's a really good British/Irish pub in the middle of what I refer to as 'Little Britain', which, for those of you who haven't downloaded and looked at the report yet (shame on you all!) looks like this:
Let's count up how many apartments will be there when it's all finished:
Desert Pearl = 400
Suleder = 400
British Resort = 400
Coral Sea Pearl = 180
Regency Towers = 80
Lotus = 400 (a guess, but it looks big)
Red Sea Pharaoh = 45
Sara's Residence = 45
Desert Rose 2 + Misc = 200
So you basically have over 2000 apartments coming online over the next couple of years. Two people per apartment = 4000 people.
That's a fair-sized English village you have there - an English village that would be served by perhaps 2-3 pubs?
I hear ex-pats already moaning that they can't get bacon in Egypt (it's not illegal - just that the muslims can't eat it so it isn't served). Spirits are also hard expensive when served in clubs, but not that expensive to buy in bulk. Have a little shop next to it selling your PG Tips, Heinz baked beans and Kelloggs cornflakes and all the other things British ex-pats miss and someone will have got themselves a nice little cash cow.
If anyone does it, just remember me when you've made your first million from it will you!?