Author Archive
Egyptian banks, including HSBC Egypt and Commercial International Bank (CIB) are being accused of helping the country’s military government crack down on activists. The Independent’s Alastair Beach wrote that, “[human rights groups and NGOs] which hold accounts with the global banking giant, say that over the past two months HSBC has contacted them requesting documents […]
Remittances from Italy fell 2.9% in 2010, to EUR 6.6 billion, even as worldwide remittances increased 5.5%. The statistics were released in the 2011 Statistical Dossier on Immigration put out by Western Union and Caritas, which aims to provide an accurate picture of the financial state of Italy’s migrant population. The fall in remittances was […]
Britain’s cheapest house has gone up for auction, reports The Daily Mail‘s Simon Tomlinson. Paul Fosch Auctions is asking just GBP 7,000 for the home, which is a classic “fixer-upper.” Still, hopeful expat property moguls should think twice about placing a bid in tomorrow’s auction. According to Paul Fosch’s Heidi Wangemann, the interior is a […]
Prague may be making a comeback as a hot property market, according to Brett Tudor on The MoveChannel. The country has spent the last ten years building a reputation as a sound investment location, and its performance has outstripped many other former communist bloc countries. In some ways, Tudor writes, the Czech Republic’s communist past […]
Expats rate Singapore as the best country to open a business, followed by Hong Kong and the US. These were the results of the fourth annual NatWest International Personal Banking (IPB) Quality of Life Index. NatWest found expats in Spain, Portugal and France least positive about their business environments. The study, conducted in cooperation with […]
I currently have the equivalent of USD 3,000 trapped in a current account in Egypt. This is my story, which I tell to illustrate the potential pitfalls when dealing with local banks as an expat. Banking is high on the list of things an expat needs to sort out when moving abroad. He needs an […]
The Spanish government has reduced VAT on new build homes, cutting it from 8% to 4% in an effort to stimulate the country’s struggling housing and construction industries. According to the most recent statistics new home sales in Spain are down 26% compared to last year. Government spokesman Jose Blanco described the measure as “extraordinary” […]
Expats investing in London property could improve their yields by 10% just by researching the market more carefully, found a recent report from Offshoreonline.org. Many overseas buyers look at average figures for the city when making purchases, ignoring critical variances across specific neighborhoods. Expat Wealth spoke to Erica Evans, Director of Expatfindaproperty.com, to get the […]
Cyprus has seen a marked increase in property sales to foreigners, reported Overseas Property Professional, particularly to Russian and Chinese buyers. The most recent figures put the volume of land sales up nearly 20% over 2010–43% in the Larnaca area alone. This despite the looming storm clouds of the eurozone’s ongoing debt crisis and Cyprus’ […]
Expats in Saudi Arabia face the prospect of frozen bank accounts as the Kingdom tightens up its immigration laws, reported Arabian Business.com’s Elizabeth Broomhall: Foreign workers, whose bank accounts are frozen during visa renewals, fear rules aimed at forcing private sector firms to increase their quota of Saudi employees will leave them unemployed, unable to […]
Can't find what you are looking for?