Dear Investor
We are all now back after a long weekend of rest which my staff thoroughly deserved after a hectic few months with property sales, strategy meetings and the Jet-to-Let Magazine Annual Conference. I spent a few days in the west of Ireland and am now back in Liverpool ready for the flurry of activity of the launch of The Palm Spa Resort on 10th July 2008.
I would like to welcome Jerome Bergaud to the Group. Jerome is a French business student studying at the Ecole Superieure des Sciences Commerciales d’Angers and is with us on a work experience placement. He is working with Henry’s team at Jet-to-Let Investments.
We will be shortly issuing a press release of investor sentiment surveyed at our annual conference 10 days ago, which I will also publish here when it is ready. The survey highlights that investor confidence is still very high, even with the obvious media assault on property prices and the doom and gloom over the credit crunch. We had seasoned investors in the hall, many of whom started investing in property in the 1970s. They have been through the ups and downs of the market, but their considerable experience has allowed them to “cut through the noise” and continue to invest in property around the globe. Investors at the conference had properties in 27 countries and are looking to invest in 17 different countries this year. Combined property holdings could be measured in the many hundreds of millions.
I don’t want to steal the thunder of the press release, but Jet-to-Let Magazine subscribers clearly believe, as I do, that it is “business as usual” and certainly the amount of property reserved at the conference is testament to that.
One reason it is business as usual is that inflation, which is running at 6%-10% per annum for everyone except the statisticians is seriously decreasing the value of any cash holdings you may have, but on the plus side is also eroding the real value of any debt you also have, such as a mortgage. At the conference I showed the relative performance of £50,000 invested 11 years ago in cash, the FTSE 100 or UK property. Excluding rent, dividends, taxation or inflation, then the value today of that £50,000 would be:
Cash = £62,000
FTSE 100 = £60,000
UK property = £1,000,000 (less £283,000 debt) = £717,000
Food for thought.
If you want to explore any these concepts further, then please join me on our Fundamentals of Property Investment course in London on Saturday 26th July 2008.
Places are limited and allocation will be on a first come first served basis.
To secure your place and for details of our special offer, phone Karon on 0151 244 5444
