Posted on 12/10/2008 9:57:50 PM PST by Lorianne
If you want to know why I'm optimistic that home builders will eventually find sources of capital to replace bank financing for site acquisition and development of future projects, check this out...
The Middle East's wealthiest private investors may seek to take advantage of collapsing real estate markets in the West by increasing their investments in the U.S. and U.K., according to research done recently by Capgemini and Merrill Lynch. Such investors now control about $1,700 billion in assets, a figure the researchers say will rise to $3,400 billion by 2012. "Our clients are asking us about U.S. distressed real estate, and we've had a lot of interest in the U.K. commercial property market, particularly in London, where prices have declined very, very quickly," Philip Watson, head of Citi Private Bank investment analysis, told London's Financial Times. People can sense there are opportunities."
Citigroup hopes to capitalize on the surge of interest with its newly set up U.K. commercial property fund that aims to raise $150 million from high-net-worth individuals to invest over the next 18 months, said Watson.
The Financial Times didn't report how many billions of Middle Eastern money are heading for the U.S., but you know it's happening. Savvy investors everywhere--including doctors and lawyers on Main Street--are going to jump at the opportunity to invest in U.S. home building once the first signs of a housing recovery begin to appear.
It's going to be tougher, this time, for the U.S. housing industry to perform its traditional role of leading the economy out of a recession because of the collapse of the country's housing finance apparatus. But eventually, we'll solve that problem, and the pent-up demand from four years of under-production will attract investors from all over the world to builders who are able to get this show on the road again.
The time will come when even the banks decide they can't afford to be left out. But for the next three to five years, equity investors will be our primary source of capital.
shhhhhhhhhhhh...
I’ve tried telling people that the oil in the middle east isn’t evil, it is the theocratic regimes there that are.
We believe that we can negotiate peace in our lifetime while the Saudi Islamic Theocratic State is buying up interests in land and media in the West.
CHANGE must come. Religious freedom must be tolerated.
Remember, if a certain percentage of the Middle East gets in here; they own us.
Well they’ll have to fight off the Chinese first. :)
I remember when they were going to "own" Hawaii.
Forgot about them.
If we used the oil and gas that we had ourselves and stopped using foreign sources, Saudi Arabia wouldn’t arm the soldiers that kill our troops or send 18 hijackers into the WTC and Pentagon.
They smile at us, put cash in politicians Swiss bank accounts all while pushing anti-Christian and anti-Jewish rhetoric all over the world.
We need a complete withdrawal from Islamic influence. If we stop using their oil, they will sell it to China or India...their faith is not a religious movement, its a world domination political movement.
Saudi Arabia would still be selling billions of dollars of oil to China, India, and Europe.
THE EVIL ISN’T OIL. The Saudis export Wahabism to the West. We must SHUT DOWN this intolerant strain of Islam and take the Saudis to task for it.
The Left says that we cannot impose our way on the Middle East. Frankly that is what the Saudis are doing to the West. They aren’t here for cultural exchange. It is a one way street. They are here to establish missions and colonize the West. There is no assimilation to our ways.
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