Where is Cape Verde anyway?
As someone selling investment property in Cape Verde (Dunas Beach Resort) I welcome this question. This is because it proves to me how undiscovered the country is, and how far it has to come before it reaches the prices of its comparables. As any investor will appreciate buying in a market that has all the right ingredients for growth, but just hasn’t grown yet will be a great investment.
The main reason this is a good question for us to hear and how it relates to our investment is that, our opportunity is to purchase the freehold of an apartment which is run by the top resort operator in the world. Your rental yields will be governed by the occupancy that your resort operator can achieve and in Cape Verde this should lead to some outstanding rental yields.
The yields we have worked out on our investment come in somewhere around 10%, now this is working on a 68% occupancy. However the current on island occupancy is 80% and the only other 5* resort on the island is seeing occupancy levels of 98%. This could mean rental yields of around 20%+ for our investors.
Rental yields are not the only attractive part of this investment. For the last 10 years Cape Verde has seen an average capital growth year on year of 30%. Now if we were to assume only 15% growth pa, we have worked out that upon completion you could have equity in your property whilst still retaining up to a massive £100k cash-back!
Why would this continue? Well here are some points you may or may not know about Cape Verde and the developer of Dunas Beach Resort:
- Cape Verde has EU special status ($1.2 billion investment from the EU for tourist development)
- “It has been weathering the global economic crisis from a position of strength.” IMF
- The number of direct flights is increasing everyday.
- Tourism figures rose 27.5% last year and are still rising with more flights from new countries everyday.
- The resort has double the build cost of any other “on island” development at €1400 psqm.
- Land is fully unencumbered.
- Developers can only build 4 floors high. This means that land available for building on will deplete quickly and therefore it is likely that prices will rise quickly, as supply and demand tips in favour of demand.
- 1 hour time difference to the UK.
- 5 and a half hour flight time from the UK.
- Phenomenal white sand beaches
See our Cape Verde Investment
Want to hear more? e-mail or freephone Fresh Invest on 0800 043 69 56
Act on CO2… with a high yielding investment
The Carbon Credit Investment market is a hot topic at the moment owing lots of thanks to the words “Act on CO2” and the Copenhagen climate change summit or “COP15”
“Act on CO2” is the slogan of the governments advertising campaign to try and cut the emissions of UK households. It is big news from the TV Commercial to the News.
For this reason Fresh Invest are offering a fantastic opportunity to participate in this phenomenal growth market, for an entry price of just £25,000
The Carbon Emissions market is expanding rapidly year on year; in 2008 it doubled to an estimated value of more than $126 billion.
Research conducted by New Energy Finance claims the carbon market will reach $360 billion by 2012 and if the US introduces its own cap and trade scheme, as expected, it could rise to circa $1.9 trillion by 2020.
How would this effect investors in Carbon Credits?
The increase in market size is being driven by one thing….demand.
Reasons for an increase in demand include:
- Carbon Reduction Commitment – introduced next April. This will rank 5000 UK businesses according to their net carbon emissions.
- US Cap and Trade – companies will be encouraged to cut emissions, whatever they can’t cut they must trade.
- Less economically developed countries becoming more westernised in their day to day lives, carbon emissions per head will dramatically increase. These will need to be offset.
- Public Relations – Companies are beginning to lose business as they are seen as “dirty”. The only way to change this will be to cap and trade.
- Advertising – From much publicised conferences, to television commercials and news, “ACT on CO2” are the “buzz words” for the 21st century.
- COP-15 – 192 nations will be represented at this climate change conference in December that will put in place guidelines for countries to reduce their CO2 emissions.
So what is a carbon credit?
Each carbon credit is equivalent to 1 tonne of carbon dioxide. It is a commodity tradable on markets similar to the stock market. *You will not have to trade your credits yourself.
How do you make a carbon credit/where do they come from?
A carbon credit is issued by either the Voluntary Carbon Standard or the CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) Executive board.
Credits are issued to projects which are, in effect, carbon negative so they actively reduce the amount of CO2 in our atmosphere
What do they do and what are they used for?
At the moment it seems carbon credits are becoming more and more important everyday.
Put simply – Everybody has a carbon footprint which is measured in tonnes. So say I do 7,000 miles in my car per year – by doing these 7,000 miles my car will have emitted 2.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide, now if I wanted to offset this I would have to buy 3 carbon credits. (Probably at a price of around £11 each)
How do big companies use Carbon Credits?
A big company will use their carbon credits in much the same way as an individual would. However they have more emissions to offset than you or I.
Where you or I would be offsetting 1 car and 1 house a major supermarket chain would need to be offsetting the emissions of: All of their stores, All of their lorry delivery fleet, all of their production lines etc… you get the idea?
How can I, as an investor profit from Carbon Credits?
Fresh Invest are offering its investors the opportunity to purchase Carbon Credits at 50 pence per credit!
The minimum investment is £25,000 and for this you will receive 50,000 credits at 1,000 credits per year for 50 years.
For the first 3 years our partner will guarantee you a return of 12%.
From years 3 to 50 you will sell directly to the end user through our partner who is also a carbon broker.
free phone on 0800 043 69 56 or go to www.freshinvest.co.uk
3 Reasons why you should start investing in property again.
Property Investment….over the last 18 months probably the furthest thing from your mind!
So why start investing now?
1. Mortgage rates are relatively low.
Ok so the ltv rate isn’t great but the actual rates are pretty good and with our economy suffering i believe there is little chance of the boe base rate increasing.
An average 65% ltv mortgage on a new build flat is around 5% with second hand property mortgages available from 75% at 5% rate.
In historical terms the rate is a lot lower than it has been for a long while.
As ever, if you are building a property investment portfolio you need the mortgage rates to remain fairly low to allow you to repay the mortgage loan, another up shot is that when buy to let mortgages recover the ltv rates will increase, allowing you to remortgage.
2. Property supply is at an all time low!
With most new build developers choosing to stop building last year we now face the fact that it will take these housebuilders a year to get new schemes out of the ground.
This will mean that for around a year from now new properties will be some what of a rarity. New build property accounted for a massive part of the property bought last year, without this supply and with increasing demand prices are sure to increase.
UK Property Investment has always relied to a large part on developers willing to discount their property for either bulk sales or quick completions but if they have no stock….
3. It’s cheaper to buy than rent.
Recent research has shown that for the first time in ages it is actually cheaper to buy than rent, well outside of London anyway!
Abbey found the average rent of £434pm compares to a mortgage payment of £382pm (with a 25% deposit). That’s a saving of £52pm. People in Wales and the north west would save on average £90pm. We can also overpay or save whilst interest rates are low.
So for those looking to start in property investment now looks like an ideal time.
Hotel Managed Resorts – The key to overseas property investment.
We all have heard the horror stories that some overseas property investors have experienced.
Developers going bust, part finished developments, shoddy workmanship, differing specifications…the list goes on.
So how do you negate these risks?
In my opinion the answer is by buying on a hotel managed development.
We offer a number of overseas property investments that will be managed by successful hoteliers on completion and have been overwhelmed by the stringent regulations that these hotel companies put in place prior to completion.
For most overseas developers, the pinnacle of success is being able to sign up a world renowned hotel operator to take over the day to day running of your development.
Many developers try and fail, taken back by the sheer level of attention to detail the hotel operators need developers to adhere to.
On average a hotel operated development would need:
- Higher specification
- Much more amenities i.e. public space, leisure facilities
- Higher standard of customer service
- Bigger room sizes
- Larger patio’s or balconies
- Better site locations
- Regimented time scales regards completion
Many investors are put off investing overseas by the unknown, lacking the know how to conduct the desired level of due diligence on their chosen development.
If a developer signs up with a 5* hotel operator the finishing must be exactly that….5*!
If investors have any reluctance in investing in an opportunity where a hotel operator is included, take a look at their other hotels, this is the standard that they must maintain.
For instance, the hotel operator in talks with The Resort Group on Dunas Beach Resort is called Sol Melia. Sol Melia is the largest hotel resort operator in the world with over 120,000 hits on their reservation systems per day!
Dunas Beach will be part of their Melia package meaning 5* plus, so for an understanding of the finish needed take a look at their other hotels in the Melia package.
It may be in the best interest of a developer to cut corners and save money but I can assure you that there is no way that a 5* hotel operator would accept this.
Also bear in mind that all of the developers we use retain an interest in the commercial elements of each site they build, so making the very best development possible is the only way to drive people to the development there by making money on the commercial sales.
Many investors may know all of these points but I think they are worth focusing on to alleviate some scepticism that goes with a lot of overseas developments.
I predict it in september, the halifax and sky news predicts it in october!
Looks like my predictions were true, as the halifax reported on october 6th – article.
If you remember i wrote an article last month predicting that with most developers only just starting to build again there will be a massive drop in supply of property.
The Halifax states “a combination of increased demand and a shortage of properties on the market had pushed prices up in recent months”.
Now i think we all know that this increase is definitely due to ease, its supported by a lack in supply but against that you need to show an increase in unemployment and a definite lack of competitive mortgage products.
My further prediciton is that we will see a mini blip in prices followed by a mini crash then probably stability for the future.
Carbon Credits and Forestry Offsets
A blog about Carbon Credits as: An investment, A growing market and a possible lifesaver.
Did you hear about San Francisco Airport being the first airport to install carbon offset kiosks in their terminals? HOW EXCITING IS THAT?!
As far as I am concerned this is a fantastic idea. The easier it is for people to offset their carbon emissions the better! The carbon offset kiosk is about 5ft tall and fully automated so doesn’t need anyone to run it on a day to day basis. Now bear in mind that around 18 million flights are made per year carrying around 1 billion passengers… How’s that for a target market? 1 billion bored passengers waiting for inevitably delayed flights. Nothing else to do but think about how the flight they are just about to embark upon is going to damage the planet that little bit more.
Now I know what the worry in this process will be. “So I pay around £10 for this credit, in the understanding that someone, somewhere has stopped 1 tonne of co2 entering the atmosphere.”
I will explain why this works in terms of a forestry project.
When you give money to the offset company they will:
- Use the money to purchase forestry which has sequestered CO2.
- Pay indigenous or local people to look after this forestry thereby stopping it from being cut down for monetary gain.
- By preventing the logging of this forest you will stop trapped CO2 from entering the atmosphere.
The opportunity:
This is where we come in.
As you can see the carbon credit market is growing and this latest piece of news alone could bring a further £10 billion per year of income to the market. Obviously this is a massive claim and it would mean that every airport would have to install many of these kiosks and every passenger would have to purchase around one credit for each flight, even though, the chances are, they are using more than this.
Now we are offering an opportunity, in this market where you could make returns of 100% pa for 47 years!
How can we do this?
One of our partners has started a company which purchases land out in the Brazilian rainforest. The trees on this land have a massive amount of carbon stored in them and if he wasn’t preserving these trees they would be illegally logged and then the carbon which is currently stored would be released, furthering the damage to our atmosphere.
For our partners fantastic efforts he is rewarded with 1 carbon credit by the voluntary carbon standard for every tonne of CO2 which he prevents from entering the atmosphere. These credits currently trade at around £11 each in the market.
This is where you come in.
- We will offer you the chance to buy these credits from our partner at a price of 50 pence per credit!
- The minimum investment is £25,000 and for this you will receive 50,000 credits at 1,000 credits per year for 50 years.
- For the first 3 years the project manager will guarantee you a return of 12%.
- From years 3 to 50 you will sell directly to the end user through our partner who is also a carbon broker.
- The price for these credits is currently hovering around the £11 mark this would lead to a return of 44% pa on your invested money. Not bad hey!
There are 2 types of carbon credit: CER’s (certified emission reductions) and VER’s (verified emission reductions).
CER’s can trade at anything up to around £30 per credit.
VER’s can trade at anything up to around £15 per credit.
By purchasing from our forestry offset you will be purchasing VER’s
How could you make returns of 100% pa?
For the last few years there has been a lot of controversy over what category forestry offsets should be traded as. At the Copenhagen climate change summit in December this year, it is highly likely that forestry will be named as a “clean development mechanism” or CDM therefore producing CER’s. The reason for this is that current clean development mechanisms such as wind farms or solar farms actually create carbon when they are built as I’m sure you can appreciate. However forestry does not emit any carbon to put in place, the trees are already there, all we are doing is making sure they are not forested for monetary gain.
If forestry offsets become CER’s the project managers or investors can sell the credits at a higher price. This money can then filter through to the local people looking after the forests. Furthering the need to sustain rainforests rather than deplete them. Basically “the forest will be worth more alive than dead”
p.s. It’s already started. The UNFCCC have already named 3 forestry projects as clean development mechanisms.
If you would like more details on our fantastic forestry opportunity Click here
Further reading
This is the website for the Copenhagen climate change summit and articles relating the forestry. http://en.cop15.dk/Frontpage/Search+result?query=forestry
