Assetz® is pleased to introduce to you the Property Investment Tracker™. This is designed to provide analysis of the relative investment performance of property in different countries over the last 12 months, taking into consideration property prices, mortgage rates, deposits required, legal costs and recent capital gains. The results are not necessarily what you would expect so please review the tables below :

April 2008 Release

Guide to Columns :

A) Investment : Type / Country of investment

B) Typical Price : Typical price of a quality 2 bed apartment for rental purposes - Not the same sq m or specification per country but typical of what is bought. Student let is a larger 5/6 bed en-suite unit.

C) Legal Costs : Typical costs of purchase for new-build property including stamp duty, overseas legal services, company formation if required and some UK legal advice.

D) Likely Interest Rates Direction : Assetz view on interest rates direction based upon all available data.

E) Min Deposit Required : The minimum % deposit mortgage available in the country for this type of investment.

F) Total Cash Invested : (E+C) - the % of the property price required in cash to buy the property including deposit and legal costs.

G) Total Cash Required : F*B - The £ value of the property price required in cash to buy the property including deposit and legal costs.

H) Gross Yield : The typical rental income as a % of the purchase price that can be achieved if the property is marketed well. Overseas properties are assumed to be on holiday-let unless this is not the norm for that country in which case local let yields are assumed.

I) Typical Mortgage Rates : Current variable rates (ignoring incentive rates) for that country/ investment type.

J) Typical Management Cost : Typical cost of delegated management service including cleaning, changeovers, marketing etc. This could be lower if the owner does their own marketing.

K) Yield Remaining After Interest : % of the purchase price represented by the income after deducting mortgage interest and management costs. Many countries insist on repayment mortgages so this profit could be being used to repay the mortgage and may not cover the whole repayment amount depending upon term of the mortgage.

L) Net Rental profit on Cash Invested % and £ : The profit K as a % and £ of the total cash invested including legal costs, G. Can be compared to the return on the cash invested if it was left in a savings account.

M) Capital Gain Last Year : Last twelve months capital gains for this country. Many countries report different figures and we have taken the most accurate source where known/ available or the conservative average opinion where no exact data exists. If current data is not available we have taken the most recently available 12 months growth, otherwise 2004 growth.

N) Likely Capital Gains Direction : Assetz view on likely direction of capital gains growth - ie are prices going to rise faster, slower or stay the same ? An arrow downwards does not necessarily mean prices will fall merely that the rate of growth is predicted to lower.

O) Capital Gain as Return on Cash Invested % and £ : Based upon M this is the return on the total cash required, G, and can be compared to the return on the cash invested if it was left in a savings account.

P) Total Returns on Cash Invested % and £ : This is the total return on total cash required, G, per year - ie it is the total of L and O and can be compared to the return on the cash invested if it was left in a savings account.

Other important information :

Net rental income is often a small part of the overall profit per year at present with such large capital gains taking place recently. However rental income is needed to be at least slightly profitable to pay all costs and any income tax on a property purchase from the rental income rather than your own resources. Rental income for many countries relies upon effective marketing of the property and large swings in the rental yields quoted are possible if someone has above or below average marketing abilities or if a poor or excellent letting agent is used.

Capital growth is a very difficult figure to identify in many countries - Jones Lang LaSalle property price transparency analysis shows only five countries have reliable data. The rest of the data is gathered from the country directly using the most reliable sources we have available.

Please advise any feedback you may have to improve the accuracy of the data in the Property Investment Tracker Here

This table is a historic performance table over the last year and is not necessarily a guide to future profits. E&O.E. It is not recommended that property investment is carried out merely on this data.