Spain Cuts New Build Property Taxes


Last week, Spain announced a temporary reduction in tax on new-build properties – from 8% to 4% in a bid to stimulate the sale of unsold new properties across the country...

Read all of Spain Cuts New Build Property Taxes

Top 4 Property Investments of 2011


The world’s economy may be all over the place at the moment, but this does not in any way mean that there is not still plenty of money out there for the making in the property market. It is now about four years since the financial problems first begin radiating out from the USA and most markets are still trying their very best to find their feet again.

However, by turning attention away from domestic shores when it comes to property investments, it soon becomes clear that some of the greatest hopes the world currently has for growth and prosperity lie in what would have until recently been described as modestly developing nations.

Read all of Top 4 Property Investments of 2011

Taking the credit


Way back on the third of November, I advocated in this very blog, that central banks needed to slash interest rates in order to help boost flailing economies. And guess what? I was right! So I reckon I’m going to take the credit for this one (let’s face it, this doesn’t always happen, so milk it while the going’s good, I say!)...

Read all of Taking the credit

A New Dawn


Today, we wake up to a new President-elect of the United States of America. Thank goodness. At last, Americans can travel the world and not feel embarrassed to open their mouths, lest someone hears their accent and vilifies them for it (I met an American couple at Heathrow Airport once, who were pretending they were Canadian, just to avoid abuse)....

Read all of A New Dawn

Slash Those Rates!


There’s only one way to curb the current worldwide economic crisis, and that’s by dealing with the problem that started the whole thing in the first place...

Read all of Slash Those Rates!

Banking Blues


Blimey, what a few days it’s been. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry of a financial expert has been jumping on the bandwagon using the word ‘crisis’ to describe the current banking chaos enveloping the United States and beyond. And they’re not wrong. The astonishing collapse of the Lehman Brothers investment bank (the fourth largest in the US) and the even more astonishing bail out of insurance giant AIG has left financial analysts and institutions rooted in the headlights of pure panic, horror, and disbelief.

Read all of Banking Blues

Cyprus is flying high


Skydiving is a cool (if somewhat mad) activity, and I’m told that the island of Cyprus is now a trendy place to do it. It basically entails jumping out of an aircraft at about 10,000 feet, enjoying the exhilaration of freefall, before opening your parachute for a (hopefully) soft landing.

Read all of Cyprus is flying high

On the crest of a wave


And so there we were, messing around in a catamaran in the Mediterranean, taking in the view of the harbour and watching the sun glistening on the sea. There was a cool breeze wafting in across the waves and the sound of the water lapping against the hull...

Read all of On the crest of a wave

Marvellous Morocco


I have just returned from a weekend trip to Morocco. I went partly out of curiousity and partly out of pure shame – after all, here I am living on mainland Spain, almost literally a stone’s throw from another continent, and yet it was to be only my first trip. What was my excuse?

Read all of Marvellous Morocco

Deposit Bonds aim to attract new buyers


A new product has been launched aiming to provide a substitute for cash down payments or deposits, when purchasing off-plan property abroad, particularly in Australia.

Read all of Deposit Bonds aim to attract new buyers