Art Nouveau Villa for sale in Vienna - €5 million

A new website marketing luxury properties launched this week - EliteAlps.com The site focuses purely on properties in the tourism hot spots in Austria. People who are interested in buying property overseas find a selection of luxury properties, castles, villas, chalets, apartments and houses, in Vienna, Lake Attersee, Salzburg, Kitzbühel, Zell am See, St. Anton and Ischgl. EliteAlps.com is the first Real Estate Website offering Austrian properties in Russian and English. In the near future an extension by Arabic, Danish, Polish and German is planned.

Luxury Investments Ltd. sees plenty of opportunity in the Austrian Luxury Real Estate segment. Due to Austria´s attractiveness as a tourism destination, hosting more than 50 million people each year, this county is the global tourism capital, per capita putting it ahead of any other country in the world. This popularity has also shaped Austria´s real estate market. “Anything goes” seems to be the motto since a change in regulations has made it easier for foreigners to acquire properties in the Alpine Republic. In hot spots like Vienna, Salzburg, St. Anton or Kitzbühel property prices have skyrocketed in the last years. Despite the present real estate crisis those Austrian places seem to stay untouched as an increasing number of wealthy individuals from Russia, UK, Germany, Poland, Israel and Arabic countries is acquiring a second home in the center of Europe. Georg Singer, CEO of Luxury Investments Ltd. says, “Despite the present tension in real estate markets we are recognizing an unexpected number of requests for high end properties. Demand is often outstripping supply”. More on Austrian Luxury Real Estate - Multilingual website launches

Underlying reasoning for the ups and downs in the luxury real estate market

There seems to be a lot of ups and downs in the luxury real estate market this week, and if any one is wondering why that may be, this chart should clear things up nicely.

Two brothers in Montreal are embroiled in what appears to be a gangster-related murder attempt after the failure of the luxury condominium project, “One Avenue du Port.” As little as 8 years ago, the brothers Magi were riding high on the crest of the luxury real estate boom, now one of them lies in a hospital bed fighting for his life after being shot by a professional hit man while his car waited at a traffic light and the other faces extradition to the US and a lengthy prison term if he is convicted of charges filed in a Los Angeles court alleging he was part of a large-scale Montreal-based fraudulent telemarketing operation that targeted elderly people.

While the attempted killing of Tony Magi came only months after the U.S. indictment was filed against his brother, police investigators interviewed by The Gazette see nothing that links the two events. But the events highlight a number of problems the brothers have experienced in recent years, despite once appearing to be on successful paths as real estate developers. Full story.

The India Times reports that one sector in the Indian real estate market is still strong - the luxury property sector. Of course, announcing projects and selling them are two entirely different animals.

Even in the midst of low sentiments haunting the real estate sector, there is one segment that is totally unfazed by it all. Luxury homes continue to dazzle in the face of robust demand and keen investor interest in the segment. Full story.

Knight Frank’s latest report suggest that London luxury homes worth over £10 million have become “completely detached” from the property slow down in the UK, with “super prime” London real estate climbing nearly 3% in price during August alone, in the face of falling prices in the rest of the city (and country.)

There are now signs that the gap between this sector and the rest of the market is growing. Liam Bailey, Knight Frank, residential research. Full story.

Bloomberg reports that Los Angeles and San Diego luxury real estate prices fell the most in more than ten years in the second quarter of 2008, but San Francisco is hanging on.

The average price of a luxury home in Los Angeles dropped 3.8 percent in the quarter from a year earlier, the most since 1996, according to a survey by First Republic Bank, a unit of Merrill Lynch & Co. Luxury homes were defined as those costing more than $1 million with up to 6,000 square feet (557 square meters), six bedrooms and six bathrooms. Prices fell 7.8 percent in San Diego, the most since 1997, while San Francisco prices rose 0.2 percent. Full story.

Nine luxury model homes come up for auction in Waddell/Surprise, Buckeye, and Gilbert, Arizona following Trend Homes Chapter 11 reorganization. The homes will be sold alongside 21 other model homes with starting prices at 50% of the original sales prices.

If you’re the first, last and only bidder at $90,000, you get the property. Rhett Winchell, president of Kennedy Wilson Auction Group

The auction will be  September 14th - Auctioneers site with full details.

According to Christof Birkhofer, Managing Director of Engel  & Volkers, a German-based real estate company, the luxury real estate market in Qatar is thriving,. Despite the massive increases in construction material prices and housing rents recently.

Engel & Volkers specialize in luxury real estate world-wide and launched it’s operations in Qatar last week at the opening of the 3rd Qatar International Real Estate and Investment Exhibition (Q-Rex) at the Doha Exhibition Centre.

"The demand for local and international properties is very high. People that are visiting us at our booth are genuinely interested in the properties being showcased at the exhibition,” he said.

 “There is high demand for properties in the Doha real estate market, including rental space in residential and commercial estates, but Qatari buyers are also looking for properties overseas,” Birkhofer told The Peninsula yesterday. Many Quatar nationals are enquiring about luxury property in London, Cyprus, Switzerland and Germany.

"The real estate market in Qatar as in the whole region is booming. Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain are all witnessing a real estate boom and the demand exceed the supply for properties," said Birkhofer.

 The company’s most luxurious properties are being shown at the exhibition - a $42 million residence in Miami, traditional antique castles in Europe and a private island in Seychelles, to mention just a few.

 The luxury properties that Engel & Volkers handle in Quatar sell from as little as $275,000 for a condo in The Pearl Qatar to more than $11 million for villas and penthouses.

 Birkhofer went on to say, "The Doha real estate market is a perfect location for our company. We will provide clients not only access to international properties, but we will also provide a gateway to our large client network."

Engel & Volkers is a leading European luxury real estae company with branches situated in 25 countries around the world, including Florida, South Africa, Majorca, Phuket, and now Doha.

Their Middle Eastern website is here

.