Las Vegas Offers Great Opportunities to Global Real Estate Investors. Attention Europeans, Arabs and Asian real estate investors

February 18th, 2008 · No Comments

Las Vegas real estate is now offering opportunities to global real estate investors that they couldn’t imagine in their wildest dreams a couple of years ago. At this moment many large projects are in distress and anyone with a few million dollars can find unbelievable bargains that I do not see repeating soon. Las Vegas today is similar to after 9-11 and although I am not an economist, I can see big appreciation in real estate prices in the next five years. This is due to several factors:

1: The dollar loosing value vs. the Euro and other currencies like the dinar and pound. The dollar has lost nearly a third of its value since late 2005, so even if there was no price drop for Las Vegas real estate, they would be building Las Vegas real estate at a 33% discount.

2: But Las Vegas homes and condo prices have dropped by about 40% plus in some areas and Las Vegas land prices have started to drop drastically. Las Vegas office sector is overbuilt and has a 12% vacancy so prices are dropping there. Retail and industrial properties are holding their value better but the prices on these have started to come down too. So if one can say that the Las Vegas real estate prices have come down an average of 25% since mid 2005, there is more savings for investors. Arab and European and Asian investors will pay 30% less for a property due to dollar depreciation plus the 25% price drop on the real estate.

4: Since the Las Vegas real estate market crash, prices have gone up in many parts of the world. I have read that the home and condo prices in places like London and Paris have doubled in the last year and half, and United Arab Emirates real estate has appreciated considerably. Now you can get a high-rise condo on Las Vegas Boulevard (Strip) which has been selected as one of the five America’s Streets cheaper than a London or Paris flat. How you could skip such an opportunity is beyond me.

3: Multi-millionaire special: a few large projects like the two billion dollar Cosmopolitan righ-rise condo and retail project have financing trouble and the Focus Group, which is one of Las Vegas’ largest land holders is in talk with their lenders to re-structure their financing. There are other owners and sellers in distress and looking for a white knight to rescue them. Two and a half years ago there was little distinction between cash buyers and those who needed financing. Today, cash is king and could be optimally leveraged in contract negotiations. If you have a few tens of million dollars sitting in the bank, you should call me ASAP.

Seems like all the doom and gloom stories about Las Vegas real estate are being replaced by stories that recommend buying Las Vegas properties, such as Forbes Magazine, who selected Las Vegas as one of the top ten cities in United States to buy a home or condo.

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