Property in Dubai was always famous for its rare shapes that sometimes are even shocking. Architectural bureau  Faulders Studio is presenting a new idea which will ideally fit Dubai’s market – living building GEOtube.

Born from unique environmental conditions, GEOtube is a new kind of urban sculptural tower. Gravity-sprayed with adjacent Persion Gulf waters, its building skin is entirely grown rather than constructed; is in continual formation rather than fully completed; and is created locally rather than imported. The world's highest salinity for oceanic water is found in the Persian Gulf (and the Red Sea) - local salt water is supplied to GEOtube via a new 4.62 km buried pipeline and misted onto the tower's exposed mesh.

As the water evaporates and salt deposits aggregate over time, the tower's appearance transforms from a transparent skin to a highly visible white solid plane. The result is a specialized habitat for wildlife that thrives is this environment, and an accessible surface for the harvesting of crystal salt.

Italian property experts are more and more confident to announce the price growth in a few months. Some old-established real estate agencies of Italy predict 5% rising.

Italy was one of the very few countries in Europe which practically didn’t feel the world crisis and that influenced greatly on the real estate market and interest to Italian property. Today investing in real estate in Italy is one of the best ways to save your money. And what can attract foreign customers better?

According to MostProperties.com requests the most popular regions for purchasing property in Italy are: Tuscany, Liguria, Lakes and, lately, Sicily and Calabria.

Israel Tax Office decided to decrease real estate purchase tax. The customers who bought apartments in Israel priced up to 1,084,935 shekels (approximately 289,700 USD) will not pay purchase tax (mas rehisha).

This news came unexpectedly after Tax Office differentiated property prices and costs that should be paid according to the given amount and raised property tax by 5.7%.

The new tax law started on 16th January and since on the purchaser doesn’t pay any taxes if the property cost was up to 1,084,935 shekels. If a client buys the only apartment and the price starts at 1,524,770 shekels (approx. 407 150 USD), the tax amount will be 3%. And for apartments that cost 2 mln shekels (approx. 534 000 USD) – 5%.

If a client decides to buy second apartment in Israel that costs up to 932,070 shekels (approx. 250 000 USD), he/she should pay extra 3.5% tax. While selling this apartment at higher price the owner must pay additional 5%.

Pattaya is the premier area for property development on the eastern seaboard of Thailand. But it is not the only prime spot, projects in picturesque and peaceful locations, like the popular Jomtien area, highly sought after Pratamnak Hill, around scenic Mabrachan Lake and further along the coast at Sattahip are proving to be very sound investment opportunities.

Picture of Pattaya at NightWith the 1997 Asian financial crisis, precipitating the collapse of Thailand's property market, the sector was a little stagnant for a number of years. But in recent years there has been tremendous growth, and due to favourable reports in numerous local and international publications, investing in property on the eastern seaboard is gathering more and more attention, from well-to-do Thais, foreign retirees, international companies and consequently, international property agencies.

In recent years, the eastern seaboard has become an industrial centre, made up of approximately 12 industrial estates, with Laem Chabang deep sea port nearby and the new international airport roughly an hour or so away. There are at least 10,500 expatriates working locally and in Chonburi and Rayong provinces, with a large number of permanent residents living in the area on business and retirement visas.

Real Estate in Pattaya has become one of the fastest growing and most sustainable industries.

The Pattaya property industry is now well developed and quite sophisticated and with prices rising at one of the highest rates in South East Asia, it is looking extremely positive for profitable investment opportunities. Real estate development in Pattaya has become one of the fastest growing and most sustainable industries and looking at the number of property developments currently under construction are a clear indicator that this trend is set to continue. The Daika Estate Company has announced that it will start the construction of a new luxury condominium development at Wong Amat beach, north Pattaya, in the first quarter of 2010. The value of this new project is estimated to in the region of 2 billion Baht. The development will consist of at least 100 condominium units with an average price of 80,000 baht per square metre. Executive Director of the Daika Estate Company, Dr Suebpong Atichartakorn explained that due to the current lack of high-end condominium developments in Pattaya the company has been prompted  to continue its construction ventures in the area.

The buyers from Bangkok and all over the world, that are attracted to the many luxury condominium developments are also proving to be equally attracted to the housing market.  Housing development has continued steadily over the past few years. The number of housing estates around Pattaya and Jomtien are now in excess of 150 in total and there has been numerous new openings recently, with more on the way. Pattaya and the surrounding area are seeing many new top quality residential housing developments coming onto the market. Packages can start as low as several million Baht but many cost up to and far beyond ten million Baht. In fact the housing market has been strong for the past couple of years with average house prices increasing between 5 and 25 per cent each year. The very best properties have doubled in price each year. A standard 150 square metre two-bedroom condominium, with a sea view, in one of the new luxury apartment developments will cost in excess of 10 million Baht. The same amount will buy a four-bedroom house of over 400 square metres with its own swimming pool, in a tropical rural setting. The same house close to the  beach would cost at least double that. It is clear that many expatriates, with families, are going for a bigger house away from the sea rather than an ocean-side apartment.

The very best properties have doubled in price each year.

According to Suwanna Buddhaprasart, the Senior Executive Vice President of Thailand's third largest developer, Quality Houses is expecting a 30 per cent rise in revenues during 2010, entirely due to rising demand. An article in the BangkokPost published on 29th December 2009, reported that in 2010 local property developers will be allowed to provide mortgage services after the Financial Institutions Act of 2008 permitted them to offer mortgage loans as long as they do not raise funds from the public. Early this year the Secondary Mortgage Corporation, under president Duangporn Arbhasil, will meet leading property developers and three real estate associations to discuss implementing this process. The SMC mediates between banks, other financial institutions and investors to develop liquidity in the mortgage loan market through the issuing of mortgage backed securities. It plans to make a securitisation worth about 400 million to 500 million baht each for Kasikornbank and Kiatnakin Bank. If they are ready, "Mortgage companies operated by property developers are likely next year" she said. Also, to help stimulate the market, the government has reduced all taxes and fees to less than one per cent of declared value until April 2010 at least.

Land values in Pattaya have been consistently increasing over the past ten years and all the signs point to this trend continuing. All the relevant experts predict a very bright future indeed for Pattaya and the eastern seaboard.

The new property tax law in Egypt will be finally implemented in 2010.

The idea of introducing new property taxes in Egypt appeared several years ago. The main aim of it is to upgrade the taxation system in the country. Today it is still possible to overcome taxes on purchased real estate and that hurts greatly the budget of Egypt.

According to the innovation the annual tax on property that is worth starting LE 500,000 (approximately 62000 Euro) to LE 1 million (approx. 124000 Euro) will be LE 30 (approx.4 Euro). And the annual tax on property that is valued from LE 1 million will be LE 660 (approx. 82 Euro).

MostProperties in the Russian capital of Moscow has changed its office. The new, comfortable location is at Makarenko Street 5, bldg.1, office, in a central Chistiye Prudy location.

The other contact data remains unchanged.

Russian network of MostProperties.com Parntership got stronger. New affiliate office has just opened in the city of Arkhangelsk. Thanks to this addition, MostProperties.com is ready to service its customers in the regions of Russia, ofeering even greater quality of service.

This year 2009 is finally ending. It brought large changing in almost every field and overseas property wasn’t an exception.
Mr. Greg Kwolek Sales and Marketing Director of real estate agency MostProperties.com kindly agreed to answer our questions and provide his commentaries on what had happened on the market this year and how he sees the year coming.

1.    Greg, what were the major changes that MostProperties.com came through this year? As far as I know the company grew a bit. Does this mean that the demand is increasing?
The company grew, indeed. We’ve increased the sales numbers, thus hired more sales professionals, we became recognizable brand in Russia and Poland, as well as we made major improvements in the UK market. The company website is recognized by the industry, which was a goal of the company for a long time already.
We managed to sign the number of the partnerships – in Russia with Grand Invest Capital, who became Most Properties Partner in Arkhangelsk, in Egypt, where we now have the local representative in Hurghada, as well as in Spain, in the Costa del Sol region. We found good, solid partners in Thailand, France, Italy and numerous other countries. This gives us a solid basis for the future work.

2.    Can you point out the most important events of 2009? Did the year bring you more positive or negative experience?
For us this was a very important year. When the market was shrinking, we were expanding. The timing was good for MostProperties.com, as we didn’t enter the crisis with overblown cost structure, so we didn’t require a shock therapy.

3.    Greg, what’s your feeling on the market situation? Which destinations got much better during the year? Can you name the countries where the real estate market is practically recovered? Are there any?
I don’t think any country fully recovered from the last years events, but the ones which took a lighter blow are pretty visible – Italy, Egypt, France. These markets did notice a slight decrease in sales numbers and even smaller in the price decrease. Our feeling on the market – this is a right time to buy. The pricing won’t go significantly lower anywhere and the choice of the properties at the moment, as well as the bargain margin stays vast.

4.    Do you think that the coming year will bring more stability and higher demand on the overseas real estate? Or the crisis will keep on influencing the property prices and the interest of the purchasers?
As stated above, we, and in general nobody, predicts the fluctuation similar to theses witnessed over the last 12 months. Even if some risks still remain (Dubai, due to the latest negative news; Spain, where structurally the situation is not healthy), we consider this to be the best time to buy.

5.    Greg, what are your main stakes in 2010? Which countries will have the most buyers’ attention?
There won’t be any major changes - Bulgaria and Spain will lead, traditionally. Germany will still be very attractive. We expect more interest in some more exotic destinations, like Bali, Thailand, Vietnam. The core sales will remain, though.

6.    It’s only 2 weeks left to the New Year which is, you know, the most adorable holiday among the Russians. What can you wish your customers?
I wish all of them to find a new home overseas.

Greg, thank you very much for the interview! Best wishes to you and to MostProperties.com in New 2010 Year!

A spokeswoman of Egypt's Tourism Ministry Omayma El Husseini reported that revenue from tourism has fallen 3.1% in Egypt compared with last year’s takings.

El Husseini said that the figures revealed 11.45 million tourists visited Egypt in the first 11 months of 2009, down 3.4% from the same period a year ago.

The figures were higher than expected according to tourism officials, however still represented a “negative figure at the end of the day” El Husseini noted.

Egypt is one of Africa’s largest and most diverse tourism markets and many of the country’s citizens rely on the industry to make a living.

The sector has been hit heavily by the global economic downturn with revenues down 13.2% for the first quarter of 2009, however the market has dug in and has began to show signs of improvement for the rest of the year.
The country’s minister of tourism, Zoheir Garranah, revealed that the tourism sector started the year down 17%, however this has “lessened” throughout the year.

“I think we'll see full recovery by the third quarter of 2010,” he predicted.

The optimism has been echoed by other industry professionals, while senior officials at the Ministry of Tourism revealed they have spent between US $40 and $60 million on marketing and promotion activities this year.