For instance, when you default on a mortgage in Spain, there are certain consequences. In the past, such defaulting used to be very simple. People who were not Spanish citizens but owned a vacation or second home in Spain could default on the mortgage with little or no cost or repercussions. However, this is no longer the case, as Spanish banks can and will pursue non-residents to fulfill their mortgage obligations.

In case a homeowner must default on a mortgage in Spain, turning over the home to the bank is often an option. Turning the home over to the bank will save you a lot of money, as the bank will not have court costs associated with pursuing you for the mortgage, and your interest will stop accruing sooner. But although this is an option, it must first be discussed with the bank. The bank has to accept your offer, and they are under no obligation to do so. They will be rather unlikely to take the home back without good reason such as a hardship. If your spouse dies or your income has dropped due to another cause that is no fault of your own, the bank may consider that a valid hardship and allow you to turn in your keys to the home.

If you cannot negotiate a home turnover with the bank that holds your Spanish mortgage, you will need to sell the home as soon as possible. Try to get a final sale price that will cover the remaining amount on your Spanish mortgage or one that will come as close as possible to paying it off, as the bank will still expect the full amount from you in any case. They are more likely to do so if the shortfall is large. But the bank can legally attempt to collect any amount from you. This means you may face liens on any assets you own, including your primary home and investments..

If you must default on your Spanish mortgage, it is vital that you contact the bank as soon as possible to work with them. Showing a willingness to work with the bank can allow a homeowner to walk away from a Spanish mortgage with as little financial cost as possible and still retain full ownership of all his or her other assets.

According to sources at Cushman and Wakefield, the real estate consultancy, Google is reportedly looking at an office space in the region of 145,000 sq ft, while oil major Shell needs around 220,000 sq ft for their London operations. In the beginning of 2009, a number of prospective buyers were looking at office space but held of due to the downward trend in the market. Serious buyers now seem to have finally made their presence felt, with the value of property set to rebound.

Take-up of offices to rent London in the third quarter of the year were almost two-thirds higher than the previous quarter, when rates hit their lowest in ten years. The new demand is likely to raise the valuations and position of a number of large real estate management firms like British Land, Land securities and Hammerson. Apart from Google and Shell, other serious buyers in the market reportedly include media publishers Centaur and insurers Aon Corp.

According to sources at C & W, rising demand for commercial property is expected to reach about 9 million sq ft in London alone, a marked rise of over 20% against the low point in January this year.

In order to figure out the truth of the matter, I sought out Bryan Ellis, whose experience in the fledgling industry is truly impressive.

“I began using the term ‘virtual real estate investing’ in the late 1990’s when I realized the clear similiarities in profit strategies, regardless of whether the “real estate” is “virtual” or “physical” said Ellis.

One example of the parallels between virtual and physical real estate Bryan Ellis cites is the similarity between the monetization of domain names versus physical property. “There’s a huge difference between a website and a piece of real estate, but the ways you can profit from them are similar: ‘flipping’, rental/leasing, advertising sales, etc…all of these apply to both markets” he states.

The similarities really are obvious. Consider: A valuable piece of real estate is valuable largely due to the interest that other people have in that specific location. Similarly, ownership of a desirable domain name is valuable for the same reasons. Regardless of the type of asset, you can sell or lease or use any number of strategies to turn the assets into cash.

In our next installment of this series on virtual real estate investing., Bryan Ellis will share the internet analogies to the physical concept of real estate development.

With good all year round temperatures enticing many buyers for the winter months as well as the summer, driving on the left and a warm welcome from the local population who nearly all speak English, Malta has been popular for some years among overseas property buyers.

“A home from home in the Med is often the comment we hear from overseas property buyers” comments Michael Johnson of Malta property specialists Tribune Properties.

“With countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia opening up their property markets to overseas buyers there is a chance that the Maltese property market could see a decline in sales this year.

But it hasn’t happened in the first quarter of 2005 at least. Malta has an appeal that never really attracted the bargain hunters in the past who tended to look more at rural France and Spain where the low cost airlines fly to, and it is these buyers who are now considering the new markets rather than the buyers we see in Malta.”

Risk Factor

Malta joined the EU last year, and this has helped maintain Malta’s popularity among overseas property buyers.

“Malta has economic, legal and political systems that are established, and might be viewed as less of a risk than countries where title deeds might be more questionable”, adds Johnson, “And we advise buyers wherever they ultimately decide upon to appoint an independent lawyer who can converse in the buyer’s own language to oversee any property transaction to help avoid any potentially expensive misunderstandings.”

For details of over seventy apartments and villas for sale in Malta visit http://www.maltaproperty.info where details are available by email.

Michael Johnson, Tribune Properties, Malta

Malta Estate Agent, domestic and overseas property buyers catered for.

If you have just purchased a residential letting property and have a mortgage you naturally have to cover the payments, but regardless of a mortgage to service, if your property is over priced renters will not pay a higher price. The only time when this can happen is when there is a small supply of property and big demand for that that type of letting.

In the UK a tenant will still have to pay gas, electricity, water, Council tax, telephone and insurance on top of the monthly rent. In other words a rental of £650 per month means £900 per month of total outgoings. Many Landlords do not realise this and think that all the renters have to pay is the rent to them.

A landlord who insists that their property is “worth” £X per monthand in reality they have been advised by the professional agent it is only worth £-X can have problems. If it stays on the rental market for a while at a price that is too high they will never make up the lost rental (unless there is galloping inflation). It can of course be a totally different scenario with a property that is being sold; particularly if property prices are rising in the area or country.

With a self-catering holiday rental you have to offer the property on what the “market will pay”. Your property just might be located in area whereby there are seasonal or (one time) events when beds are at a premium and to be able achieve a much higher price. (Wimbledon- England for the tennis, Monaco for the Formula one Grand Prix, Cannes, France for the film festival, Cheltenham-England for the horse racing in March etc.) At other times unless your property’s price is competitive it will remain empty more often than full.

If you are using an agent, take advice from the agent. They are normally local to market conditions for long-term rentals and for holiday rentals a specialist agent will have studied your area and keep rental values up to date. If you are using the Internet as a guide spend some time researching. Use a search engine to find a rental agent in the area your property is located in or for a self-catering holiday rental get comparables from a site like jmlvillas.com.

Finally remember with the long term rentals market that although some people are prepared to make an offer, don’t pitch the price high so that you think you will get a Tenant wanting to make an offer. They don’t necessarily do that. Many people wanting to rent think that prices advertised are fixed and the owner won’t negotiate or they don’t even think to go down that route. They will look at the next available property in “their price bracket”. This is rather like shopping in the High Street. They will only pay the price the “goods” are being offered at in the window.

With a holiday rental,it is very rare for a holidaymaker to make an offer; they just purely search in their price bracket.

Philip Suter is a Director of JML Property Services http://www.jmlproperty.co.uk a UK based company offering Insurance products on line at http://www.jml-property-insurance.co.uk and a holiday home advertising service http://www.jmlvillas.com and management training within the uk. He is a very experienced property consultant with over 30 years work in the Residential letting business in the UK and served on the National Council of ARLA. He is a Fellow of the National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) and a Member of The association of Residential Letting Agents (ARLA)