^{Kelvingrove park area of Glasgow [credits: Sherrivokey]}

The new Lloyds TSB Scotland report showed that property prices have risen in the last quarter ending July 2008. In total they went up by 1.6 per cent, which brought the average house price to £172,185.

However, despite this increase in property worth, the actual number of house purchases has dropped 27 per cent since last year.

Chief economist at Lloyds TSB Scotland, Professor Donald MacRae said: “The price boom of the last five years may well have passed into history but so far the effect of its demise is to slow the number of transactions rather than cause a drop in prices.

The Scottish housing market is demonstrating its traditional resilience in the face of an economic downturn.”

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American comedian, game show host and former anchor man on “The Tonight Show”, Ed McMahon is currently on the verge of losing his Beverly Hills mansion due to his inability to make mortgage repayments.

Real estate magnate, Donald Trump is reportedly stepping in to buy Ed McMahon’s mansion in a bid to lease it back to McMahon to ensure he maintains his standard of lush Beverly Hills living.

According to the LA Times, Mr. Trump explained that his ‘conviction’ for helping Ed McMahon was that, “When I was at the Wharton School of Business … I’d watch him every night. How could this happen?”…. it “would be an honor” to ‘help’ McMahon

Perhaps the reason for the shrewd buy was due to McMahon slashing the price on his Beverly Hills house by $1.9 million, to $4.6 million.

_{Photo credits: Alan Light (Flickr)}

It seems 2007 was another massive year for travel as the Deloitte Global Hotel Ranking Report clearly shows. With a 6% increase in global travel over the previous year, 2007 has overtaken tourism forecasts for the fourth year in succession. It seems that despite the property gloom people are still travelling in huge masses.

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Florida has always been a popular playground for city escapees who want to enjoy the sun, surf and of course the popular Mojito cocktail, while they watch the sun set over the ocean. Living in Florida is about the lifestyle and having fun.

Despite the great attraction, Florida seems to suffer too from the global property melt down. Foreign investors aren’t as active as they used to be only a couple of years ago. According to a recent study by the National Association of Realtors, some 25% of foreign buyers were investing in Florida. On first inspection, this figure doesn’t seem too bad. But when we take into account that the overall number of sold properties has gone down, it becomes clear that the market in Florida has slowed down.
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Egypt hailed as the hidden opportunity for property investors, offers interested parties many ways to spend their dollars. Whether you are attracted by luxury, or prefer to buy a budget property, choices are available to anybody who is serious about buying in Egypt.

We wanted to show you exactly what is possible and introduce some amazing property developments to you, both being at two sides of the spectrum to please the budget conscious investor, as well as the luxury one.
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A Russian oligarch is the brand new owner of Villa Léopolda on the coast of France’s Côte d’Azur. The monumental sale of the Villa Léopolda has made headline news when the estate was sold last week for a total of $750 million after being on the market for some time.
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Investing into a property portfolio has been the dream of many would be entrepreneurs. While investors can quietly build a fortune by buying into the right market, the whole process can just as quickly bring you from utter excitement to gloom.

It isn’t enough to simply find a lovely looking property for the right price anymore. There are a lot more factors at stake and much can go wrong. It’s bad enough to own property in the UK if you want to believe the many horror stories about renters from hell, but what do you do if your property is thousands of miles away and you can’t just drive there to see what is going on?

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