Fort Myers 'developing as hotspot'

The city of Fort Myers in Florida is developing as a major new hotspot, it has been stated.

Carlo Walther, the head of business development at Rightmove Overseas, said the Gulf Coast region has been seeing the benefits of large scale investment in recent times.

He noted that a particular attraction of Fort Worth from the property investor's point of view is the fact that it now has around 60 golf courses.

Another is the large retired population, which requires more hospital services and therefore more hospital staff who need rental accommodation.

Summarising the prospects for investors in the city, Mr Walther stated: "Places like Fort Myers has a fairly educated population, there are other businesses there as well and it's good for long-term rental prospects."

The Gulf Coast region of the US has been in receipt of large amounts of federal aid and also private investment as a result of measures put in place by the government following the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005.

This included the establishment of the Gulf Opportunity Zone, involving grants, loans and tax breaks to encourage investment and aid reconstruction.