Europe travel guide

Latvia property slump hits investors

Only a year ago, Riga was one of the property boom cities of Europe with British and other investors buying up apartments and houses as the local econony grew rapidly. All that seems to have come to a sudden halt with the news that Latvia suffrered a mssive 20% drop in property prices in the twelve months to 31st March.

Out of 33 nations surveyed, Latvia was the hardest hit. Many Britons had bought holiday homes in the Baltic states, notably Latvia and Estonia, over recent years. The latter saw a 10% deterioration in prices.

Few major countries have avoided a fall in average property prices as the international credit crunch hits home. In western Europe, Irish homeowners have seen an 8.8% fall while France, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland, Poland and Denmark have all seen falls, albeit generally less than 3%. Compared with these, Latvia seems to have been by far the worst hit .

The few areas that have seen rises include Bulgaria, Singapore, Hong Kong and Jersey. Clearly, in today's troubled financial world, you have to be very careful where you buy. And, with dramatic increases in fuel costs now added to the mix, you'll have to take into account rising transport costs to get to that holiday home.

This article was written for TravelSavvy Europe by Bob Cartwright. If you know of an interesting European travel related news story, please get in contact.