The Insider Scoop - British Perspective...

I am in San Diego with my family vacationing at the moment. My brother John, his wife, and three girls are here visiting from London also. John owns a Electrical Contracting company in London, and is also a real estate investor. I talked him into flying back to San Jose with me for the Mid-Peninsula meeting on Tuesday evening to chat with him on stage. His company is an electrical contracting one, and they are working on the Olympic tube station currently, as the Olympics will be held in London in four years.

This financial crisis that we are experiencing is not limited to the US - it is becoming more and more apparent that certain European countries have been similarly impacted. John shared his insights particularly on the Irish and English real estate segments. Britain historically has had under-supply with housing, and this is present today also, the one difference is that the financial markets have tightened up so dramatically that it is very difficult to get loans.

Ireland, on the other hand, has been over-build and economically there are lots of issues - larger companies are relocating from there to cheaper locals. Foreign nationals are leaving, chasing the work to other areas, including areas like Poland/Eastern Bloc countries which are beginning to develop economically and create vibrant economic climates for their own citizens. The huge growth that the Irish economy has experienced over the last several years was dubbed the "Celtic tiger" because it took off like a roaring tiger and created a huge amount of wealth there over the years. The foreign nationals that came to work there needed housing, but now those jobs are evaporating, they are moving onto greener pastures, and vacancy rates are increasing. There should be some solid investments available there in the next couple of years.

It is always interesting to hear from someone on the ground what is going on in a given market. John also chatted about the socialized health care system that Britain enjoys, the costs involved, and the high taxes that people pay for that - he pays 45% in taxes...everything comes with a price.

Our speaker Tom Wilson did an excellent presentation on DFW, and the reasons why that market continues to attract a lot of interest. What a great meeting!