Appreciating Assets Media Coverage »

The Sunday Business Post – Irish property firm targets Russian buyers

Nov 142011

Last week we announced details of the success we have had at the invest show, the investment exhibition that was held in Moscow last month, where we sold 17 of our clients’ properties with a total value exceeding €1m for details see here. We got some recognition for our trip to Moscow in yesterday’s paper leading Irish newspaper, The Sunday Business Post, which have covered us before here. The article that featured is below, please click to zoom if you would like to read it in full.

Click above to read the article

Mortgage Maze: An Asset if Selling Bulgarian Property – Belfast Telegraph

Jun 232011

The Belfast Telegraph, by Helen Carson, Property Editor

Thursday Jun 23 2011

Dublin-based Appreciating Assets, which specialises in helping people sell property to investors from Russia and the former Soviet Union, is looking for property owners across Northern Ireland who bought in Bulgarian during the boom.

Call to Realise Foreign Property Assets – The Belfast Newsletter

Jun 222011

Call to Realise Foreign Property Assets – The Belfast Newsletter

The Newsletter’s claim to fame is the oldest consecutively published English language newspaper in the world. Richard Sherriff, the business reporter on the paper interviewed Dylan Cullen our Managing Director last week what UK investors should do with Bulgarian property investments.

The benefits at the moment that UK investors from Eurozone is that the British pound has strengthened thus reducing the impact of the reduction in property prices. The pound is still hovering about 15% higher than it was two years ago, so may be worth UK investors, selling their overseas property prices whilst the pound is still relatively strong, thus giving them the added benefit of being able to purchase property in the Britain and Ireland whilst prices here are delfated.

Here is a copy of the article, please click to zoom in.

Dylan Cullen on RTE Radio 1′s ‘The Business’ with George Lee

Apr 182011

Dylan Cullen on RTE Radio 1′s ‘The Business’ with George Lee

On Saturday Appreciating Assets Managing Director, Dylan Cullen, appeared on the RTE Radio 1 show ‘The Business’ hosted by well known Irish broadcaster George Lee.

Dylan was invited to appear as part of the Business Review slot along with Siobhan Creaton, journalist with The Irish Independent. The section talks about the guest’s business then analyses the national issues of the week.

Click below to hear the full interview.

Please click here for details on how to sell your Bulgarian property to Russian investors.

Russian hope for Irish investors in Bulgaria – SBPost

Nov 212010

Russian hope for Irish investors in Bulgaria – Sunday Business Post

Appreciating Assets appeared in the renowned Irish newspaper The Sunday Business Post today. To view the article on their website click here or below is the entire article.

The Sunday Business Post – Russian Hope For Irish Investors

21 November 2010 By Michelle Devane

The Irish obsession with overseas real estate became so extreme that, at the height of the market, people were buying properties abroad without ever stepping foot in the country where they were purchasing.

Sell-off Lifeline to Bulgarian Property Owners – Irish Independent

Dec 152009

Media coverage in The Irish Independent (15th December 2009)

By Charlie Weston Personal Finance Editor

Options available for Bulgarian Property Owners – Irish Examiner

Dec 052009

Options available for Bulgarian Property Owners – Irish Examiner

Article from The Irish Examiner 5th December, 2009.

Irish Examiner covers Appreciating Assets

Options available for Bulgarian property owners

If you are currently stuck with a Bulgarian property on your hands that you no longer want, or for one reason or another you can’t complete on a property to which you committed some time ago, then there may be some festive good news in the air.

It may seem like a strange time in the strangest economic year seen in a lifetime to consider selling an overseas property but some people have no choice, they simply must get rid of what has become a considerable milestone around their necks. The financial strains inevitably brought by the Christmas period might just be final push property owners need to force them to consider selling their property in Bulgaria.

According to Dylan Cullen of Appreciating Assets, there is still a supply of Russian buyers in the Bulgarian market but, of course, it’s nearly impossible for the average investor to reach them. Cullen has therefore stepped into this breach. Through his connections in Bulgaria and Russia he’s extending a previous initiative aimed at buying beachfront property in coastal Bulgaria to include ski properties in the mountains.

For most Russians affluent enough to travel abroad Bulgaria is one of the first choices – it is easily accessible and relatively cheap. At only three hours flight from Moscow, and with Russian widely spoken, the former Communist country provides winter snow breaks for many Russians who spend Christmas and New Year away from home.

Wicklow-based Cullen has specialised in Bulgarian property for a number of years. He says he has experienced the popularity of Bulgaria as a winter holiday destination for Russians and knows the opportunities. Cullen says his aim is to provide an exit strategy for Bulgarian property investors by using the holiday period and ski season to seal deals with Russian property buyers.

Cullen says “Russia has a very robust economy, so Russians are still holidaying abroad and also very active in the Bulgarian property market.” He says the IMF has forecast that by 2013 Russia will be the largest economy in Europe in terms of purchasing power, making it one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

Christmas has become a large holiday for Russians since the fall of the Iron Curtain as its celebration was not allowed under the Communist regime. Orthodox Christmas is celebrated on January 7, so the New Year onward is the most popular time of the year for winter breaks. Cullen says he needs property owners to send on details of their properties now for consideration and promotion to Russian buyers while they are in Bulgaria over the holiday period.

According to Cullen the big problem with the property market in Bulgaria is that buyers are mostly Russian and the sellers are mainly Irish or British; with no established second-hand resale market it is difficult for buyers to find sellers and vice versa. With offices in Dublin and Sofia, Cullen says he is attempting to address these issues by connecting Russian buyers to Irish property owners – this approach, he maintains, appears to be working, as he claims to have sold 200 properties since the beginning of the year.

It should be remembered, however, that the Bulgarian market is currently very depressed, so those currently in the position of having to sell their properties will not be able to achieve premium prices. The Appreciating Assets offer should only be seen as a safety valve for those willing to take a hit on an asset that they have to sell in what is, without doubt, the biggest buyer’s market see in our lifetime.

Ends

Buy Back Hope For Property Investors – Evening Herald

Mar 022009

Buy Back Hope For Property Investors – Evening Herald

EVENING HERALD
by Fiona Dillon

2nd March, 2009

Buy-back hope for property investors who lost in slump

An innovative scheme could be the answer for people who bought an investment property on the Bulgaria Black Sea Coast during the boom times but now want to sell it.

An Irish investment company, Appreciating Assets Ltd, has released a new buy-back scheme to purchase completed properties owned by overseas investors on the Bulgaria Black Sea Coast.

The initiative is being backed by funds raised from a syndicate of their existing international client base.

“This is the first syndicate of its type, which buys back completed properties from overseas investors; it aims to capitalise on the unparalled levels of ownership achieved by Irish and British property investors on the Black Sea in recent years,” according to spokesperson.

It also addresses the major flaw in the overseas property market in markets which is the difficulty investors have in selling their properties due to the lack of a second hand resale market.

EXIT

This issue is now solved with the launching of this new buy-back scheme, which provides an exit strategy for investors, the spokesperson said. Dylan Cullen, director of Appreciating Assets, said: “There has been a huge amount of interest in the Black Sea by overseas property investors due to the low prices.”

He added: “As a result of over development along the coast, and the current economic climate, it is proving difficult for many investors to sell their properties. Our company is confident in the long-term success of the region and we are buying property there to hold for five-to-10 years.”

The offer is only open to those owners who have completed properties located on the sea front. The syndicate is aimed at investors, rather than developers with large portfolios of unsold properties.

DETAILS

For further details of the scheme, property owners can get further details on: www.appreciatingassets.ie.

Dublin-based Appreciating Assets was set up in 2006 to focus on alternative investments that have a unique angle compared to main opportunities in the market.

The directors have funded and developed several successful projects in the south of France, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria

HOPE: Lifeline for boom-time buyers in Bulgaria