It's certainly the same in Bulgaria. There's hardly an issue of the Sofia Echo that doesn't have a report of some scandal involving local government officials and property matters.

Even in Prague I had a friend of a friend who got involved with local government simply because of all the backhanders it was possible to get in such positions.

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EGYPT REAL - Your One Stop Shop for Hurghada Property

Author of: Propertastic's Complete Guide to Hurghada Property and Egypt's Red Sea Riviera Real Estate

Hi Nick any jobs going?.....LOL

Is it tax deductable !!!

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Anybody any further info of any new developments coming to light in the new year?

RA's development next to the InterContinental is the one that I'm most excited about.

Royal Mirage is another one 'coming soon'. It's beachfront in Al-Ahiaa close to Regency Beach and is coming from the same developer as British resort.

I'm sure that the developers for a lot more of the plots in Sahl Hasheesh will start announcing their plans shortly as well now that the place is starting to open.

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EGYPT REAL - Your One Stop Shop for Hurghada Property

Author of: Propertastic's Complete Guide to Hurghada Property and Egypt's Red Sea Riviera Real Estate

This will be known as the Samra Resort and will have 800 front line beach units on almost a 1 km strip of beach. Others coming on stream in the New Year are West Side Village (600 units) and Veranda (just behind Ocean Breeze in Sahl Hasheesh).

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PROPERTY SHOP INC. International Property Brokers
EGYPT REAL - Your One Stop Shop for Hurghada Property

The development next to the Intercontinental sounds good..

It certainly seems that the Hurghada area has been "discovered" and it only took 20 years or so ! How on earth are all of the thousands of new apartments being built here going to be filled ? What with the competition from Dubai, Morocco and not to mention Sharm which has overtaken Hurghada (The original red sea resort and lets face it its not the first building boom there !) in the popularity stakes.......oh and all of the established hotels already offering REALLY cheap all inclusive packages !

I see it as there are 2 crude ways that this can go

1) Everyone decides Egypt and Hurghada in particular is THE place to go on an apartment holiday and all of the investors are happy .

2) Lots and lots of people are taken in by wild claims of massive profits and are consequently left with unrentable and unsaleable property . The original developers already laughing all the way to the bank .

On the red sea beachfront is not everything . There are hundreds of miles of undeveloped beachfront . It doesn't mean that it is guaranteed that it is a good buy . Its also misinformed to say that all of the coast will all become developed and "you have to be the first there to make the most money". It's not a certainty and is in fact unlikely .I think anyone who has travelled this road to Cairo will concur. The winter weather is a bonus here but remember people also disregard Egypt as too hot during the summer .

I can also say that a high number of people I have spoken to in Hurghada airport and on return flights from there,when asked about "how they enjoyed it ?" worryingly reply "once but never again !! " and that's what they will tell their friends . hardly good advertising is it ?

Maybe this will all change soon ? Im sure the developers will reasure me ?

The right developments ,in the right location ,with the best range of facilities and the best standards that cater best to EUROPEAN tastes (We know where they are !) will achieve (or continue to acheive) success and others will struggle . Investment here is still risky .

I propose a New years resolution to ditch the rose tinted specs .

Upon arriving for the first time in Hurghada and seeing the amount of construction that was going on, my initial reaction was the same as yours - how on earth are they going to sell everything?

But then, when I looked at the bigger picture, I came up with the answer "quite easily".

When you look at the state of development in Hurghada, it's still tiny in the grand scheme of things.

Take Bulgaria, for example. I don't quite know how much development is going on there in Golden Sands and Sunny Beach, but it must dwarf what's going on in Hurghada many times over from the amount of companies trying to sell it.

Turkey as well is seeing what is, to my mind, an incredible amount of development. At one point I read that there were 16,000 unsold apartments in Alanya alone (this was while everyone was nervous about the results of the summer elections and before it was announced that Alanya is getting its own international airport, so they are probably selling again now).

A recent Datamonitor survey predicts that the number of people in the UK buying abroad is set to increase at 13% per annum over the next four years. A Yorkshire Bank survey revealed that 50% of the UK population is interested in buying abroad.

The Russians have recently picked up the overseas property buying bug and, as their domestic market starts to slide, it will increase. Eastern Europe is starting to get in on the act and Scandinavians are big into Turkey already. I strongly believe that Egypt is to Turkey/Morocco as Turkey/Morocco is to Spain.

Where are all these people interested in buying property abroad going to buy? Spain and Portugal are on their way down, Bulgaria always was the property buying equivalent of the Emperor's New Clothes so where else is there? Morocco is already more than double Egypt and still doesn't have a 12 month season.

I'm not saying that Egypt is the perfect solution for everyone, but if it attracts only 5% of the interest that Spain did a few years ago, then all those units are going to get snapped up pretty quick.

I'm curious as to why the people you spoke to didn't like Hurghada. When I first went there, I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to like it very much. I didn't like Tunisia as there was nothing to do there; I didn't like Turkey as I found it expensive and down-market and I didn't like Dubai because I found it rather fake and 'ghettoized'. But I found that I actually really liked Hurghada.

So much so that I am staking my future career and lifestyle by moving there permanently in a month's time - which should be proof to anyone that I am prepared to put my money where my mouth is.

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EGYPT REAL - Your One Stop Shop for Hurghada Property

Author of: Propertastic's Complete Guide to Hurghada Property and Egypt's Red Sea Riviera Real Estate

also there are the social networking sites like youtube now here are hundreds of happy looking people putting there holiday videos of hurghada on them and all look as if they are having good times that will help to promote the place