One of the ladies in the BBC news article had invested £100,000 into a “Cautious fund” and she quickly lost £40,000… unbelievable! Not only this, but the lady’s money was also decreasing at a faster rate because of the fact it was shrinking against the rate of inflation.

At a time of inflation coupled with low interest rates, ideally you would like to be in a position where you have an asset which is making you money and your borrowings on that asset are also, in real terms, shrinking while inflation is present. Your asset will be making you an increased amount of money with inflation and in comparison to your borrowings against it; the time at which you will have no outstanding finance will approach quickly. I am, of course talking about property.

It is no surprise that property investment has, for a long time, served as the main entry route to the forbes 100 rich list. The process of buying property in the right location at the right time and making sure the rent is going to cover the repayments you have on any borrowings, is just the start of it. The distance you can make your money stretch in property is insurmountable, by refinancing and keeping the cash flow on each property positive every month.

I have seen an article today from a top economic forecaster predicting that interest rates will remain at 0.5% until 2014; you may have also seen that the UK economy grew faster than expected last month inflation is at a rate of around 3% this typically means that the price of most goods and services are increasing at that rate and, ideally, your wage at work, as opposed to your borrowings on your property, which will be shrinking in comparison. Ideally I would be looking to invest in property now, take advantage of very little new build stock, the low interest rates available and use some of the positive cash flow generated every month to reduce my borrowings, so when interest rates do finally rise I am less susceptible to increased repayments.

See some of our UK investment opportunities here

As we all know, possibly the largest challenge facing the new government will be our economy. The 3 big parties have outlined the steps they will take to try to deal with the £170bn deficit in the UK’s finances.

With it looking increasingly like a hung parliament, what will be the main points of debate from these parties on our property market?

Listed below are some of the key points of each party.

Conservative:

• Scrap home information packs
• Keep the £250,000 stamp duty threshold for the foreseeable future
• Add a new 5% stamp duty threshold for £1m properties from April 2011
• Increase inheritance tax threshold to £1m
• Regards Northern Rock, they have not stated whether they will consider remutualisation
• Include more local initiatives rather than large scale regional building plans
• Will look to split state and part owned banks into 2 parts, retail and investment

Labour:

• Add a new 5% stamp duty threshold for £1m properties from April 2011
• Keep the homebuyer direct scheme for low earners
• Keep Home Information Packs
• The £250,000 stamp duty threshold is due to expire in March 2012
• 10,000 affordable homes to be built a year by 2014
• Northern Rock: Manifesto pledge to consider remutualisation as an option, ‘while ensuring the sale generates maximum value for the taxpayer.’
• Will look to break up large banks but probably not into retail and investment
• Maintain the standard interest rate on the Support for Mortgage Interest Scheme at 6.08 per cent until December 2010.

Liberal Democrats:

• Charge VAT on new homes
• 1% “supertax” on homeowners with properties worth over £2m.
• Create a new “Safe Start” mortgage that keeps buyers from slipping into negative equity
• Propose a green loan for people to invest in home energy efficiency and micro-renewables
• Get rid of home information packs and keep energy performance certificates
• Consider remutualisation regards Northern Rock
• Will split state and part owned banks into retail and investment
• Concentrate on local rather than large regional building plans.

Fresh Invest is a property investment company with the aim of maximising our investor’s funds whilst minimising their risk. For more information see www.freshinvest.co.uk or phone 0800 043 69 56.

The reason for this is simple:

When the banks dropped their interest rates, UK home owners on a tracker or variable rate mortgage had 2 choices:

-          Spend their increased discretionary income as they wish living a better lifestyle with luxury goods or,
-          Invest their increased discretionary income back into their property.

Now this piece of news shows that the majority of UK homeowners have chosen to do the latter…

Well done UK! The reason this is so good for us as a nation is that we, and therefore the banks, are now not so heavily leveraged on our properties and when the Bank of England inevitably raises the interest rates, we will still be able to afford the repayments on our now smaller borrowings.

This piece of reassuring news can put your mind at rest that the UK house prices should remain buoyant and we will not see the “dead cat bounce”

Others will argue that the idea of lowering interest rates is to get the UK homeowners to spend their increased discretionary income in the consumer markets, However, I don’t agree.

As interest rates dropped UK homeowners continued to keep the consumer markets ticking over as they paid off their mortgages. It would seem we have got through the hard stage and now we are in a good position to continue spending in the consumer markets, whilst maintaining our now lower mortgage repayments… Either way we see this as good news!

Rather than buy to let investors paying stamp duty for an entire bulk purchase, the government is looking at charging bulk buyers per individual property. Because of this, bulk purchasers of property are more likely to stay below thresholds for higher stamp duty rates.

Current stamp duty rates are as follows:

£125,000 – £250,000 = 1%

£250,000 – £500,000 = 3%

£500,000+ = 4%

See below for some figures on how this new policy would help you if you are looking to purchase multiple properties.

The current figures:

10 properties @ £150,000 = £1,500,000

Current stamp duty bill = £60,000

Anticipated figures:

10 properties @ £150,000 = £1,500,000

Anticipated stamp duty bill = £15,000

As you can see, on this particular transaction you would be saving 75% from your stamp duty tax bill!

Another new policy from the government could lead to barriers for Real Estate Investment Trust’s being lifted, this would allow REIT’s to invest in residential property and owners would hold shares in actual bricks and mortar rather than the REIT itself.

For a list of our bulk investment opportunities see here

See the article in The Times here

Now many people may think this is a major set back to investors investing in student accommodation, but in actual fact that could not be further from the truth.

What this actually means is that Universities have to concentrate their funding on their core facilities. For instance, up keep of their academic buildings is obviously very important, where as building accommodation for students is secondary.

You may argue that without the accommodation, attendances will drop. Actually this may not be the case.

What the university is hoping for is that third party developers will step in and build for them.

This has always been a much maligned area for Universities because they know that the more accommodation they own, the more revenue they will generate.

Problems arise when spending is cut, they can’t afford to develop so are almost completely reliant on commercial developers.

In short, third party commercial developers have the universities over the proverbial barrel!

Take a look at our Student Property Buyers Guide for more information!

Unless you have had your head buried in the sand for the past few months you will know that climate change is the “Hot Topic.” The reason climate change is a hot topic, is that world leaders have finally opened their eyes to reveal a world that is years away from possible catastrophe.

Leaders of the world are gathering in Copenhagen from the 7th of December to the 18th to “thrash out” a deal whereby rich westernized countries will have to pay the less economically developed countries for what we have done to the planet while we were growing.

You’re a property investment company why are you interested in climate change?

Well apart from the obvious -  This affects all of us!

The reason we have taken such a serious interest in these climate change debates is that, we know that when all the world powers are getting together to discuss climate change business opportunities are going to arise… and they have, but luckily we have a readily packaged investment for you to:

1. Profit by up to 100% pa
2. Make a real difference to the environment by saving the rainforests.

Have a look at our Carbon Credit Investment or read our Carbon Buyers Guide.

“Climate talks near deal to save forests” New York Times

Shopping at the weekend I was amazed at how busy all the shops were, now I know it’s christmas and all that but perhaps this could be the final piece of the puzzle that will lead to us climbing out of recession.

It does seem for the first time in months that the public are not as worried as they were about the economy.

According to the times, people are more optimistic about the economy than at any time over the last 18 months.

What are the reasons for this?

1. We have just had the highest october high street sales for 7 years.
2. The pound rose to it’s highest level against the dollar.
3. The ftse closed up 92.5 points, at a two week high.
4. Alistair Darling is looking at cutting business taxes to encourage people to have faith in labour.

What do people think about these facts?

Is this a result of the “quantitive easing” which we (the public) are going to be penalised for after the elections?

or

Is this the start of Britain pulling itself out of recession?

Could the points above be the catalyst that leads to us out of our economic quagmire?

What does this mean for the property investment market?

In my opinion it means that the worst is now firmly behind us, the increased confidence on the high street coupled with the low supply of new build property coming on the market means robust values.

Investors can now take advantage of a unique position in the property investment market. There are still a small amount of reposessed property and good discounted new build units available which if bought now are sure to increase in value over the next year.

Investors purchasing these can then re-mortgage on much better loan to value rates.

The property investment market is ripe at the moment, will investors choose to invest or wait until the moment has passed and lament on a missed opportunity?

As always, we will probably see both.

If you want details of some of our UK Buy to Let Opportunities at the moment please let us know, they are selling fast!

“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

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.

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:

1. Use the money to purchase forestry which has sequestered CO2.
2. Pay indigenous or local people to look after this forestry thereby stopping it from being cut down for monetary gain.
3. 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