Overseas Property: Where Would I Invest - The Wrap-Up

The overseas property where would I invest series covered the reasons that I would make property investments in 6 countries and I could have gone on. In reality -- as I have said in other posts -- property in any and all of the emerging markets is worthy of examination by overseas property investors.

This is because emerging market property is comparatively cheap for the type of asset it is, and the emerging nature of the economy means property price growth is almost guaranteed over the mid-long term.

I say emerging markets because they are my personal favourites, because of the low prices of the property, and because they have the potential for short-term gains, but also promise the biggest growth over the long term.

Yes, short-term growth is possible in some established markets; prime property prices in London were seeing exceptional annual growth during the last boom, and there were reports of people selling for 15% more than they bought for a few months down the line.

I still favour emerging markets because the growth is based on the rising internal wealth of the countries' residents, and the rising value of their currency. This is a stronger footing than the UK price rises, which were based on agents exploiting demand and over-inflating prices for maximum profit -- leaving them open to correction.

Emerging markets and the property therein should be chosen based on economic growth past and forecast.

Last year I was recommending the emerging eastern European economy of Albania, Latin American economies of Brazil, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, and the Asian economies of India, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Thailand. For me, all of those have and had the potential to show strong and sustained economic growth for the next 5-10 years. With the exception of Brazil, Cambodia and Thailand, those countries are all to see growth this year, and only Thailand is to contract by more than 1%.

Not that this year is important in the grand scale of things, all the countries above, like most if not all the countries labelled as emerging market have the potential to see impressive if not exceptional economic growth over the next 5-10-20 years.

Therefore if you choose an area with rising demand for housing from the local population, either for occupation or buy-to-let investment down-the-line, any emerging market is a great place to make a mid-long term property investment -- just do your research on an individual region and individual property basis.