MOYRA GROUP REAL ESTATE BLOG

Obama to detail broader housing refinance plan

Obama to detail broader housing plan to allow more borrowers to refinance their mortgages

It’s official, Turkey has crossed the long-anticipated threshold of 30 million visitors, a year later than expected. During the boom the government set the tourism target that Turkey would be receiving 30 million visitors per year by 2010. Then the credit crunch happened.

Most tourism markets were completely derailed by the crisis as it engulfed the world, but Turkey barely lost its stride. Well, tourism growth did slow; after visitor numbers grew by 4.8 million year on year in 2007 and by 3 million in 2008, 2009′s growth of around 700,000 was a hit, but by 2010 growth was already accelerating again, with visitor numbers of 1.5 million compared to 2009.

The data above comes from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. According to the same data Turkey welcomed 28.63 million visitors in 2010. So we are talking about a growth of around 1.5 million visitors again this year.

Another story that is important to the property market also came this week, according to the Environment and Urbanization Minister, Erdogan Bayraktar, the draft law to allow all foreign nationals to buy property in Turkey is to be looked at in the first days of next year. Turkey currently allows people from countries where Turks can buy to buy property in Turkey, but the new law would scrap that clause allowing nationals from a further 89 countries to buy in Turkey. The law is expected to be passed in the first quarter of 2012.

“Turkey offers an excellent investment location for foreigners. The new legislation will make obtaining property easier with the lifting of the reciprocity principle. Citizens of other countries will be able to buy any kind of property, including homes and office space,” said Bayraktar at the sidelines of a conference he attended in Istanbul.

The limits to a piece of land that a foreign national can possess will be extended considerably as well, the Minister remarked, saying that the 2.5 hectare limit (25,000 square meters) will be raised to 30 hectares (300,000 square meters).

London's new social season

Catch them while you can - the hottest places to eat, drink and dance in the capital are elusive and exclusive, from rock-and-roll debauchery in Mayfair to eccentric dinner parties in Shoreditch.

This winter sees a flurry of exclusive new clubs and pop-ups for anyone who wants a classy alternative to the office festive party.

In Shoreditch, the best parties seem to be those where the venue is kept a secret until the very last minute. At Too Much this week, you can join the hipsters in the know for a warming, dinner-party-style meal around a shared dining table in the eclectic, decadent surroundings of 123, a great clothes and accessories shop at 123 Bethnal Green Road. Starting with canapés and cocktails in vintage teacups on the top floor, you work your way down a floor for every course. If nothing else, go there for inspiration if you’re considering a new look - the shop is open all evening, and there are some unusual stocking-fillers on the ground floor. Book at www.disappearingdiningclub.co.uk.

Finally, Covent Garden Market has got somewhere decent to eat - at least for the next few days. In the old covered market itself, Canteen has a kind of Blitz spirit about it, with its fish ‘n’ chips, British cider, signs in Gils Sans and bunting in red, white and blue. It’s a good place to recharge in the middle of your Christmas shopping.

The Met Bar was once the most covetable ticket in town. Its strict members-and-hotel-guests-only policy kept its clientele truly A-list for years: royalty and rock royalty, YBAs and supermodels - non-members would check into a £200 room at the Park Lane hotel just to get into the bar. Then it lost its cachet and you were lucky to see an Appleton sister. Now older and wiser, it recently relaunched after a £1.4-million facelift, and this time it’s open to all.

Not so The Arts Club on Dover Street, which also reopened recently with a brand-new music venue,Club Nouveau, where Mark Ronson is director of music and the launch party was a whole rock-and-roll weekend long. Club Nouveau is strictly members-only, but if you book in advance you can visit The Arts Club on Wednesdays and Saturday mornings, if only to pretend you’ve been there with Ronnie Wood since the night before.

Also in Mayfair, 5 Hertford Street is tipped to open soon. A private venture by Robin Birley, it is apparently inspired by Annabel’s - which has managed to retain its prestige since the 1960s - and it’s not the only one. Opening on 1 November in the basement underneath Home House, private club The Vaults takes its inspiration from Annabel’s and Studio 54, with its anything-goes policy and nods to debauchery in the leather cladding and gold chainmail detailing.

BEST-KEPT SECRET London’s own outpost of Le Baron, the legendary nightclub created by André Saraiva that’s a big hit in Paris and New York so far, is coming soon. So hot that the details are still under wraps.

Aquatic Villa featured in “Modern Home” & “Emirates” Magazine

Unfortunately, transferring money out of South Africa involves far more than making an electronic transfer or standing in a queue at a bank. This is because the South Africa government uses a system of exchange control regulations to regulate the movement of money into and out of the country.

Listed below are the requirements that you will need to meet in order to send money out of South Africa.

* Tax clearance on the amount to be transferred
* You must declare that you have adhered to the prescribed allowances
* You must be able to provide the audit trail on money that came into South Africa if you wish to repatriate the money
* You must be able to supply all relevant invoices
* You also need clearance from the South African Reserve Bank (SARB)

In order to transfer money out of South Africa, only an authorized dealer of the SARB can grant clearance. It is therefore virtually impossible for a foreign-based institution to make such a transfer out of South Africa. Your choice, then, is as to which South African bank or currency company to make use of.

When making your choice, you should keep the following in mind. Banks typically charge between ZAR300 and ZAR500 to perform the transfer, regardless of the amount involved. Also, they cannot tell you the rate at which your money will be exchanged. And, because you approach the bank as an individual, they will only be able to exchange your relatively small sum of money. A currency company, on the other hand, can offer you a significantly better rate of exchange through a bulk transfer (transferring many people’s money at the same time) and also typically do not charge administrative fees for making the transfer. Currency companies also handle the paperwork pertaining to tax and SARB clearance for you, saving you time and effort. It may be well worth your while to make use of a currency company instead of a bank, as in the case of the bank you may spend a lot of time just trying to get to speak to the right person, whereas a currency company specializes in such transactions and can assist you right away.