All-cash buyers dominate US market

Difficulties securing finance from banks and a large number of distressed property bargains currently on the market mean that all-cash buyers are dominating the US second home market.

This is according to the findings of the 2011 Investment and Vacation Home Buyers Survey by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), which found that 59 per cent of investors used cash to secure properties last year.

Lawrence Yun, the chief economist at NAR, said that second home buyers were also a lot more prolific within the distressed market.

Foreclosure sales accounted for 17 per cent of investment purchases and 11 per cent of vacation-home sales in 2010, the figures revealed.

It follows a recent article by Reuters which suggested that a growing number of North American property investors are looking at the opportunities available to them within the regain's much-maligned residential market.

"Despite extraordinarily tight credit conditions for purchasing, the market share for vacation and investment homes held steady. A sizeable number of buyers made deals with all-cash offerings," Mr Yun added.

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