Foreign Property News | Posted by Shwe Zin Win
Tamra Ransom thought she was one step closer to her American Dream when she purchased her home in Polk county, Florida in May 2023. But less than a year later, she had already listed her property — which she pumped all her savings into — for sale. What caused that sad and sudden u-turn? A property tax hike of 174%, which — when combined with other rising costs of homeownership, specifically soaring home insurance costs in the Sunshine State — means she cannot afford to keep her new home. “I felt like I’d been baited and switched,” she told WFLA-TV, implying that she bought the property without expecting the future costs of maintaining the...
Foreign Property News | Posted by Si Thu Aung
When Michael Bodei went into construction 31 years ago, it was a faster way to make the kind of salary he wanted than becoming a lawyer, the other career option he was weighing. Bodei's family has been in the construction business for generations, so he'd seen how lucrative it could be to build and renovate upscale single-family homes in affluent suburbs. At 22, Bodei started his own general and building contracting company, Bodei Contracting, in Morristown, New Jersey. By 25, he'd done well enough to buy a lake house, a boat, a new Corvette, a motorcycle, and two trucks, he said. "It wasn't because I was a genius, it was because it was that easy to get into my...
Foreign Property News | Posted by Shwe Zin Win
A group of around 1,500 homebuyers in the Chinese city of Tianjin, near Beijing, have yet to see — let alone move into to — the apartments they said they paid for about eight years ago. As is common in China, the apartment complex in Tianjin sold the units before they were completed. The promise was that they would be ready by 2019, but the majority are still unfinished, according to five of the homebuyers, who spoke to CNBC via telephone but requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation. The buyers are a mix of people who paid in full upfront but also in smaller installments. Their concerns are just one example of the wider challenges that persist in pockets of...
Foreign Property News | Posted by Si Thu Aung
AN IMPOSING country home with its own miniature railway running around its garden is on the market for £1.395m. Foxcombe House was built for Graham and Wendy Miles in 1999 and then eight years later railway enthusiast Mr Miles started building a track with the help of his son. (Foxcombe House was built for Graham and Wendy Miles in 1999.Credit: BNPS) (The five-inch gauge railway currently has a battery-operated locomotive and a steam locomotive.Credit: BNPS) (The couple's grandchildren, aged ten and six, have enjoyed running the trains around the garden.Credit: BNPS) (There is a pretty summerhouse in the garden which serves as the station.Credit:...
Foreign Property News | Posted by Aye Myat Thu
A 31-year-old woman rented her $1.675 million Los Angeles home to a musician who then turned it into an illegal Airbnb cash cow while living in the United Kingdom, according to a lawsuit seen by the Los Angeles Times. The Times reported that Nikeeta Sriram bought the property, which consists of a main house with three bedrooms and a separate one-bedroom back house with a loft, in March 2022. At the time, Sriram was renting in Los Feliz and didn't want to break her lease, so she decided to rent her home to 36-year-old Nicholas Jarzabek, according to the Times. "He seemed like the perfect tenant until he turned into a nightmare," Sriram told the outlet. According to the Times, during his...
Foreign Property News | Posted by Shwe Zin Win
The Tuscany house revamped by Amanda Holden and Alan Carr on their BBC's Italian Show has been reportedly sold for an eye-watering sum. The house that the TV duo restored from scratch, which was bought for €1 (85p), has been sold for the staggering amount of £187,777 after two months it was listed on the market. In the show, BGT judge Amanda, 52, and the comedian, 47, are seen joining forces as they bring crumbling homes back to life, and all the proceeds go to Children in Need and Comic Relief. The now-stunning home, located in the gorgeous central region of Italy, had an impressive makeover transforming the 17th century, three-storey house into a dream home boasting the...
Foreign Property News | Posted by Hnin Ei Khin
WITH a council £1.3 billion in debt and services cut to the bone, most people in hard-up Tilbury have given up on voting. The port town in Essex, which has no pub or public toilets but plenty of boarded-up shops, has one of the lowest turnouts for elections in the country. (Tilbury, in Essex, has one of the country's lowest voter turn-outs.Credit: Peter Jordan) (The area has no pubs after crime-plagued venues were shuttered.Credit: Peter Jordan) Even though it is home to London’s biggest dock, a terminal for cruise liners and a huge Amazon distribution centre, the town’s unemployment rate is close to twice the national average. New...
Foreign Property News | Posted by Si Thu Aung
The number of vacant houses in Japan has surged to a record high of nine million – more than enough for each person in New York City – as the east Asian country continues to struggle with its ever-declining population. Abandoned houses are known in Japan as “akiya” – a term that usually refers to derelict residential homes tucked away in rural areas. But more akiya are being seen in major cities, such as Tokyo and Kyoto, and that’s a problem for a government that’s already grappling with an aging population and an alarming fall in the number of children born each year. “This is a symptom of Japan’s population decline,” said...
Foreign Property News | Posted by Shwe Zin Win
He fell in love with Thailand while traveling in his 20s. Now 40, he's back and has built his dream 'James Bond' luxury villa. https://www.businessinsider.com/millennial-built-luxury-home-thailand-relocation-debt-free-chiang-mai-2024-5The first time Johnny Ward went to Chiang Mai, Thailand, he was 22. He paid for his one-way flight with money he earned from participating in a five-week medical-research study. It was the first time he'd traveled anywhere in Asia. (Johnny Ward on a scooter in front of his house in Chiang Mai, Thailand.Johnny Ward/onestepforward) Over the next year and a half, Ward taught English at a local school and fell in love with Chiang Mai's...
Foreign Property News | Posted by Si Thu Aung
A waterfront home in Miami Beach with a history of notable owners, including one who installed a gold toilet worth $2 million, is headed back onto the market for a hair under $35 million. Previous owners of the sprawling mansion on Palm Island, which has round-the-clock police security, include record producer Scott Storch, Rockstar energy drink founder Russell Weiner and rapper Birdman, who is the party responsible for the gilded lavatory, which still remains in the home. The current owners, who aren’t particular fans of the bathroom fixture, have kept it nonetheless “because it’s in a bathroom, in a corner—it’s not affecting their eyes,” said listing...