Overseas Property coverage UK: Times & Express Keep the Vibe Alive

Most of the UK National newspapers (not counting the tabloids) have almost completely stopped covering overseas property; especially overseas property investment. The Express and The Times are the only two still making regular posts to their overseas property sections, but even they are tending to stay away from overseas property investments.

This time last year all the major UK newspapers had bustling overseas property sections, and were frequently covering articles on various countries investment potential, but now they are mute.

An article in the Times today even went as far as scoffing at overseas investors, Karen Robertson writes:

"All those optimistic souls who, in more financially buoyant times, could be persuaded by sales sirens brandishing glossy brochures and cocktails with umbrellas in them that you can have fun and make money if you invest in a second home are finding that the banks will no longer fund the dream."

Portraying lifestyle buyers in a much better light she continued:

"So it's the 'lifestyle' buyers -- the ones with the cash to get themselves that secluded little beachfront hideaway with all mod cons, and don't need the marketing men's exaggerated promises of '7% rental yields' -- who are coming to the rescue of developers and agents in these credit-crunched times."

None the less the article was portraying a destination overseas as still doing well despite the credit crunch, a stretch farther than most papers are willing to go in these 'credit-crunched times'.

In fact the Times are currently publishing more stories on a daily basis portraying locations in a positive light for property purchases than any other paper, but the Express is the only one to recently recommend overseas property investment in 2009: at the beginning of last month the Express' Jane Slade wrote a particularly positive piece on the prospects for Crete as a property investment destination for 2009.

The Express piece is particularly promising. I believe the flow of positive information is almost, if not as important as the flow of credit in increasing UK purchases of property abroad. Of course no one is considering buying overseas property if they are in fear of their jobs, but the Times piece shows there are still plenty of buyers out there spending their savings on expensive holiday homes abroad. An increased flow of positive information may have them putting some of their savings into overseas property investment.

Overseas property investment has become a sore subject but in reality, compared to 1% interest on savings it is still the better option. Not all markets have experienced drastic price drops. In fact prices are holding in most (if not all) of the markets I was recommending last year; places like Montenegro (then -- now, now) and Albania (then -- now).

Maybe they aren't seeing the spectacular growth they were, but their resilience to the credit crunch shows a robustness, that makes projections for property price growth in the mid-long term all the more reliable.