Waterfront Properties
67Properties on the waterfront have traditionally been in high demand – at least since the middle classes began to think of vacation homes and holidays in the sun. Previously the only ones with access to such properties were either extremely wealthy or the servants thereof.
There is something special about living on the waterfront – whether that is an apartment overlooking the Thames in London or, a Villa on the Mediterranean, or a lakeside cabin in North America. Water is in our blood – literally – and being close to it is what makes most waterfront real estate more valuable than any other.
Having said that – overbuilding is killing the idea. Spain is over built all along their coast line to the point where all the rivers are dry and they are importing containers of water from Scotland, and the Cote D’Azur, where I currently live is getting so polluted as to be uncomfortable. The landfills are all full to over flowing so they have resorted to burning the trash at night – as though by doing it under cover of darkness it will not have happened. The pollution issue is not exclusive to France either – Dubai had to close most of their beaches last year after a blue algae bloom threatened the water.
Still – I suspect the monstrous “Dubai World,” had something to do with that. You cannot kill every living creature for miles around without some sort of payback. Thankfully, the financial crisis has put paid to Dubai World, which is now being described as “The World’s Most Expensive Shipping Hazard,” by everyone and the sea will take back what is hers.
One of the biggest private investors in Dubai World, John O’Dolan, who had agreed to buy “Ireland and England,” islands killed himself earlier this year after his investment company went bust. Oddly – this went almost unreported by the mainstream media – when one considers the feeding frenzy that ensued when the luckless Mr. O’Dolan agreed to buy the islands, the least they could have done was a mention somewhere other than the inside 47th page underneath the classified goldfish ads. But that is the media for you.
Nonetheless, there are millions of waterfront properties sitting for sale at the moment – all around the world. The real world that is, not Dubai’s, soon-to-be-reclaimed one. I wonder how long it will take for it to fall into the sea? Any guesses anyone?
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Interesting as always. Never thought real estate could be this interesting to me, but your topics are enlightening. Thanks Mark for the dirt on our global dirt :)
Very informative oiece. I like your new photo.
Another culprit catering to the "less than rich & famous" is the time-share craze that is going on. Everyone under the sun is getting people (who really can't afford it) to buy into time-shares, pay for them, and then only 20% to 30% of them end up using them...
All of that land being developed - just to get the developer rich...
Yup - But they are called, "fractional ownerships" now ;)
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awsydney 2 years ago
The Gold Coast in Australia is over built and investors are hard pressed to find tenants unless they have something different to offer. It's also a seasonal market as it is a holiday destination not to mention the affects of development on the Great Barrier Reef. Some waterfront properties in Sydney have felt the effects of the crisis although generally it has been holding up and this is because it is a matured market built upon "old money" rather than Dubai's being supported by the newly rich, which in most cases is more vulnerable to any downturn in the world economy.