Dilapidated Houses of Nevis
June 30, 2007 at 10:57 pm | In beach, caribbean, investment, nevis | 1 Comment
With its award winning hotels, Nevis has been one of the hottest and most sought after Caribbean destination for celebrities and the super wealthy.
Although not yet as sought after as neighboring Anguilla, the island has lots of charm and character that keeps tourists coming back year after year.
Recently the islands real estate market has been heating up, with lots of new beachside developments and multi-million villas currently on the market. I had the opportunity to revisit Nevis recently and although most of my friends on island kept wanting to show me the latest beachside development or multi-million dollar villa, I found myself drawn mostly to the dilapidated buildings in and around Charlestown, Nevis’ capital city (town).
Here are a couple shots I took on my mobile phone (forgot my camera in London; excuse the poor picture quality). Although most of these houses are in bad condition, to me they represent the best value for money on island because:
- they’re mostly unoccupied and have been for years, so once legal title (ownership) is ascertained, it should be relatively easy to strike a good deal, since the current owners are doing nothing with the properties
- most of these houses have been built with stones and the structures are incredibly sound, having withstood the test of time, and many hurricanes.
- a lot of these dilapidated properties are beachfront, with similar size plots with no building on them selling well in excess of US$1 million
If you’re interested in any of these properties or Nevis real estate in general, let me know and I’ll do my best to make it happen
Bloomberg makes the right move
June 20, 2007 at 5:36 pm | In bloomberg, manhattan, new york, politics, usa | 2 Comments
By no way do I consider myself an authority on American politics, but I do believe it was a very smart move by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg to quit the embattled Republican party and reposition himself as an independant.
By politically disassociating himself with Bush and pals and furthermore, by not returning to his old party, the Democrats, Bloomberg positions himself strongly for the White House as a true independent. Bearing in mind that in 2001, right after 9-11, Bloomberg joined the Republicans when New York and the rest of the country was standing with Bush and Rudy. Now however, for the most part, the Republicans are a bunch of losers, and there really is nobody in the Democratic party that’s looking much better either. So Bloomberg proves himself to be politically astute. Besides that, he’s done a pretty good job in managing New York City these past 6 years. Just look at the Manhattan property market, when compared with the rest of the country.
Viewing properties using Google Earth
June 15, 2007 at 11:41 am | In foxtons, google maps, nestoria, search, trovit | 2 Comments
This week both Nestoria and Trovit announced their new Google Earth feature, allowing users to view properties in 3D. Interestingly, Foxtons is also claiming Google Earth on integration on their blog, but when I tried a search on their website, it didn’t seem to be working properly.
update: Foxtons web team had a small problem with the KML feed, but they’ve managed to fix it and it’s now working ‘like a dream’
Zoomf’s new logo
June 6, 2007 at 7:06 pm | In marketing, property2.0, search, start up, zoomf | 2 Comments
It’s been a while since we’ve heard anything from Zoomf, the London based 2.0 property search company that recently got a major round of VC funding. Since then, it seems things have gone pretty quiet for Zoomf but while browsing the site this afternoon, I noticed their new logo which in my opinion looks a lot more grown up than their old one, but also reminds me of Redfin’s old logo, before they switched to their current one (apparently because of a legal challenge from Move.com )
Oodle shortlisted for NMA 2007 ‘Effectiveness Award’
June 4, 2007 at 8:52 pm | In oodle, property2.0 | Leave a Comment‘Tis the season of award nominations and this year property 2.0 companies are blazing the trail; Artemi and Extate, Properazzi in Europe and now Oodle.co.uk is shortlisted for an NMA Effectiveness Award in the Best New Business category, described as “the biggest prize in new media.”
Fingers crossed for Oodle, although I’m not sure who they’re up against in the category. The award ceremony takes place later this month at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.
From Mashup to Business (Nestoria.co.uk)
June 3, 2007 at 11:48 am | In google maps, nestoria, search, start up | Leave a CommentIt’s been about a year since Nestoria first entered the property search market in London. In a relatively short period, the service has extended UK wide and last month entered the Spanish market with great fanfare.
Mike Astle, Nestoria’s Head of Engineering, was on hand at last weeks Google Developer Day; to explain that Nestoria’s business and technical model is way more than just “plotting pins on a map.” Among the highlights of Mike’s speech included his revealing the company’s plans to
- expose more data via the Nestoria API
- implicit personalization (learning from users)
- international expansion
- improved user experience
Below are the complete slides of Mike’s talk at the conference, and Youtube Developer Day video is here
[via Nestoria blog]
Art (the artist) Krymski shortlisted for Europe Young Entrepreneurs 2007
June 3, 2007 at 10:22 am | In extate, search, start up | Leave a Comment
Congratulations to Artemi Krymski (aka ‘the artist’) for being shortlisted at Businessweek’s Europe Young Entrepreneurs 2007. Art is the technical genius behind extate which is stealthfully becoming one of the most innovative services on the internet.
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