A HOMEOWNER who is losing £12,000-a-month while trying to sell his £1million property hopes to beat the credit crunch by selling it in a RAFFLE. Brian Wilshaw, 64, is selling 46,000 tickets at £25 each for a chance to win his 11.5 acre Oldborough Retreat. The estate comes with a five-bedroom house, four two-bedroom holiday lodges, 9.5 acres of woodland and a two-acre fishing lake.

Situated in countryside near Morchard Bishop near Crediton, Devon, the estate is a former holiday complex but Brian is now retiring and wants to sell-up. Winner The dad-of-three decided to raffle the retreat because the housing market and credit crunch have seen the market stagnate. If you would like to buy a ticket please see link at the bottom.

Brian said: “This has been our dream home but now we are retiring we want to let ordinary people have the chance of a lifetime to live here. “Rising house and land prices have put property like this one way out of the reach of most people. “We put the house on the market last year but it was already becoming obvious that the market was slowing down. “We’ve had this idea for a number of years now. Everyone who came here on holiday used to say ‘If I had the money I’d buy this place’.

“I would absolutely love to see the face of the person that wins it when they walk in because it’s going to change their life.” The house has two ensuite bedrooms, one master bedroom, whirlpool bath, a double garage and a large lounge, small study, dining room and kitchen. Nearby are four holiday lodges each boasting two double bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen and dining area, which can be rented out or sold off individually. All five properties are situated in woodland with a private drive, gates and a lake with carp, tench, perch, roach, rudd and eels. Heating engineer Brian and his wife Wendy, 49, bought the estate 14 years ago and ran it as a small holiday park until 2006.

Advertisement Brian said: “It’s well worth £25 a ticket. At 46,000-to-one our odds are a lot better than winning the Lottery.

For more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1349439.ece

Commercial real estate prices in the U.S. dropped by almost 15 percent in 2008, more than home prices, with fourth-quarter depreciation the greatest in the national apartment market, Moody’s Investors Service said in a report.

The price decline eliminated the gains seen in 2006 and 2007 and returned values to 2005 levels, according to the Moody’s/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices. Prices fell 2.2 percent in December from November, said New York-based Moody’s.

Commercial values are now down more than 16 percent from their peak in October 2007, said Moody’s. The deepening recession is causing tenants to cut jobs and vacate space, bringing down building incomes, while the credit freeze is making it difficult to finance property purchases.

“The commercial real estate market has followed the larger economy into a downturn that is likely to last through 2009 and possibly into 2010,” Prudential Real Estate Investors said in its quarterly outlook in January. “With unemployment rising, consumer spending falling and home prices dropping, the recession will impact all sectors of the real estate market.”

Commercial real estate prices fell more than home prices last year. The median price of a U.S. home declined 12 percent to $180,100 in the fourth quarter from a year earlier and sales of properties with mortgages in default accounted for 45 percent of all transactions, according to the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors.

London luxury home prices had the second-biggest decline on record in January as would-be buyers struggled to secure mortgages from banks hurt by the global financial crisis.
The average value of homes costing more than 1 million pounds in London’s most expensive neighborhoods fell 3.7 percent from a month earlier, Knight Frank LLP said in an e-mailed statement Jan. 31. In the past 12 months, prices have slumped 21 percent, the biggest annualized drop recorded by Knight Frank.

“The sudden restriction of mortgage finance” was the main cause of the market’s decline last year, Liam Bailey, head of residential research at London-based Knight Frank, said in the statement. “This factor is continuing to cause problems for the housing market and the wider economy.”
The cost of buying a luxury home in the U.K. capital has fallen for 10 straight months, declining 21 percent since the market’s peak in March. The biggest drop since the broker started the survey in 1976 was 3.9 percent, recorded in October.

Financial-services companies in London may cut as many as 60,000 jobs by the end of 2010, according to research firm Oxford Economics. As a result, the market won’t rebound soon, Knight Frank said.
“Price falls should begin to level out towards the end of 2009, although 2010 is likely to see prices move sideways at best,” said Bailey. Knight Frank now expects prices to fall as much as 35 percent from their peak, compared with its previous estimate of 30 percent.