Is Albania the new hotspot for British property investors? - http://goo.gl/dKXTmi - Albania Property, Albanian Real Estate, Property for Sale, Rent

Labelled one of 2013’s top beach destinations, Albania clearly has much to offer investors who are prepared to accept the risks.

When you land in Albania’s capital city, Tirana, you instantly see it has experienced something of a rebirth.

Gone are the ruined buildings, remnants of the war that ripped through the region in the late nineties. In their place stand brightly coloured modern structures housing a young, thriving city.

With its virgin beaches, fascinating ancient sites and dramatic mountain citadels, it is easy to see why this Balkan state is catching the eye of property investors.

Change is everywhere you look; from the party culture in the super trendy Blloku area of Tirana, to the way politicians are driving initiatives to get Albania back on the global radar.

The Parliament recently endorsed the new Socialist-led government of popular former Tirana mayor, Edi Rama, who has pledged to kick-start the economy, fight poverty, create jobs and move the country towards European Union (EU) membership.

As a member of NATO, the country is now officially recognized as a potential EU candidate country and the Government has even hired Tony Blair as an adviser to help get the country into the EU.

Added to this, Lonely Plant called it one of the top ten places to visit in 2011, and the Guardian recently named Albania as one of its top ten beach destinations for 2013.

For those looking for a property investment, Albania has a lot to offer.

Property is affordable compared to the rest of Europe, and importantly, it has yet to be discovered by the masses.

However, this could soon change.

It is just a 2.5 hour direct flight from the UK and numerous other European capitals and boasts a warm year round climate and 200 days of sunshine on average. Unsurprisingly, visitor numbers are up 20% year on year.

Much of Albania’s 380 miles coastline of sandy coves and bays lay undeveloped, although the more popular Southern Riviera from Vlora to Saranda is more discovered.

Investors in the south can get a well-proportioned two bedroom apartment by the beach for as little as €130,000 (£110,000), but prices and quality of the finished products do vary wildly.

Living costs in Albania are also cheap; a meal at some of Tirana’s finest restaurants costs no more than €10 per head.

On paper, Albania looks like it is coming into its own, but there are a few key issues property investors should be wary of.

Some Brits buying in the country have experienced problems over land rights.

There have been numerous issues with property owners seeking compensation for homes they owned before the Communist regime confiscated private land.

According to Reuters, popular holiday operator Club Med bought land in the Southern part of Albania, only to be tangled up for years in disputes with angry locals protesting that the authorities had had no right to allow the foreign business to develop on the land.

The row highlighted the confusion over title to property in post-communist Albania.

Who owns what remains a major challenge to economic progress and returning property to pre-communist owners is mired in corruption and often based on favouritism.

With no national master plan, there are also fears of overdevelopment by people seeking quick returns.

Therefore, Brits who are interested in buying in the Balkan state are advised to buy new apartments and villas which are built to EU standards, and to ensure there are no claims on the land.

A development like the 5* Lalzit Bay, occupying 49 acres on the Adriatic coast and being developed by a British company, is one such scheme offering 900 villas and apartments on a yet unspoilt spot north of the port of Durrës.

A 32 square metre studio apartment in the resort costs just over €35,000 and a 40 metre square villa apartment next to the beach with one bedroom, a large private garden, and potential for a pool costs around €63,000.

Peter Walshe of Lalzit Bay Resort and Spa, says: “Investors have seen Albania as the next emerging European opportunity and we’ve positioned the product as a quality, international product.

“Since starting building we’ve introduced a few mid-price range products including deluxe apartments and villa apartments. Since 2011, the euro has dropped by around 15-20% so more of our European buyers now have more money in their pockets and are keen to spend a little more on the right property – perhaps closer towards the beach or with a bigger garden for example.”

So far, 70% of stock has already been sold, with the developers confident that the rest will soon be taken off their hands. Buyers have come from Albania, Sweden, Britain, Germany, Finnish and handful of other countries.

A hotel is also planned, plus swimming pools, a spa, restaurants, shops and bars. The complex is just 20 minutes from Tirana airport, which is serviced by year-round scheduled BA flights from London (flights cost around £180-£200 return).

The developer estimates that a 2 bed apartment costing €70,000 will generate a rental income of €500 per week over the peak summer months at 75% occupancy – giving an annual gross rental income of €6,000. This is an overall rental yield of 8.57%.

But considering the debacle with Club Med, people still need to make sure it is safe to invest.

Buyers, especially those who want to buy existing Albanian stock and not from a big foreign development, are advised to have a good lawyer who will be able to navigate Albanian property laws and the issues surrounding them.

They should always check that ownership certificates are genuine and consult a real estate professional – there are a handful of international brands operating in the country at present.

Albanian-Property.com provides you with trustworthy Albania Property and Albania Real Estate assistance on every step of this process. We are the oldest real estate company which has been marketing Albanian properties overseas since 2005 already. We are proud to have served hundreds of foreign clients as well as the large and wealthy Albanian Diaspora that have bought through us.

Through our partners in Albania we will be there for you on every step of the way. Our team in Albania will be happy to provide our services to you. We are present in every coastal city of our country sourcing Albanian properties to the foreign markets. Part of our services is Rental Management, Property Management and Furniture Packages. Our team is best at offering tailor made packages to our clients that have bought a property in Albania.

We consider after sale services a process as important as buying services.

We are present in every coastal city of our country sourcing Albanian properties to the foreign markets. Part of our services is Rental Management, Property Management and Furniture Packages. Our team is best at offering tailor made packages to our clients that have bought a property in Albania. We consider after sale services a process as important as buying services.

Please feel free to contact us for all your Albania Property Investments Questions.

Albanian-Property.com

Adidas Building

Rruga Isllam Alla

Pallati 67, Kati 2

Apartamenti 3

Tirana: +355 672084393

UK: +44 7031927522

Email : info@Albanian-Property.com

 

Is Albania the new hotspot for British property investors?

You are here: ANSAmed Politics Albania: EU Commission OKs status of membership candidate Albania: EU Commission OKs status of membership candidate - http://goo.gl/y5yriu - Albania Property, Albanian Real Estate, Property for Sale, Rent

BRUSSELS – The European Commission on Wednesday granted Albania the status of membership candidate while stressing it must continue to fight organized crime and corruption.

The annual enlargement report published Wednesday warned Tirana that, in order to open membership talks, constructive and sustainable political dialogue remains essential along with progress in administration, the legally constituted state and fundamental rights.

The latest political elections in the country had a positive impact on the EU executive’s report which stressed that, according to international observers, elections were held in a regular, orderly manner. Good progress made on reforms outlined by Brussels also had an along with the first steps taken in improving the fight against corruption and organized crime, the report said.

The EU Commission recommended, among other things, that Tirana take concrete steps to improve the independence and efficiency of the judiciary, reform its public administration and implement laws and policies concerning human rights, especially of its Roma population.

Now the leaders of the 28 EU countries will need to give their green light to Albania at a EU council in December, based on the report released Wednesday by the Commission. Countries who are officially candidates to become EU members are Turkey, Iceland, Serbia, Montenegro and the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia.

You are here: ANSAmed Politics Albania: EU Commission OKs status of membership candidate Albania: EU Commission OKs status of membership candidate

“Albania makes a valuable contribution to NATO" says NATO Secretary General - http://goo.gl/V4PSNl - Albania Property, Albanian Real Estate, Property for Sale, Rent

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen discussed NATO missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo and security in the wider Balkans with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on Tuesday. “Albania makes a valuable contribution to NATO. You make a valuable contribution to our missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo. And through your cooperation with your neighbours, you make a valuable contribution to security across the region,” the Secretary General said. He stressed, “this is a time of hope and opportunity in the Western Balkans, a time to build for the future, not look to the past.”

The Secretary General recalled that NATO is on track to complete its combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of next year. Meanwhile the Alliance is stepping up training and exercises. “We now have the most capable and best connected forces in NATO history and we will keep them strong to ensure that we continue to stand ready to deal with any challenge to our shared security,” said the Secretary General. He said this was particularly important at a time when all Allies face tough economic decisions. “So we need to work even more closely together to maintain and acquire the capabilities that few of us can afford alone and to provide our citizens with the best value for money,” said Mr. Fogh Rasmussen.  The Secretary General thanked Albania’s Prime Minister Rama for visiting NATO so early in his term as a strong signal of his personal commitment to the Alliance. NATO

“Albania makes a valuable contribution to NATO" says NATO Secretary General

Europe's last corner: Beaches and beauty in Albania, the hidden bargain of the Balkans - http://goo.gl/tocVL - Albania Property, Albanian Real Estate, Property for Sale, Rent

Remember Albania? The crackpot Communist country where they used to cut your hair at the airport if it was too long? Where they hated everything Western, but went crazy over Norman Wisdom films?

Well, it has changed.

Once upon a time, the only tourists it welcomed were serious-minded students of Stalinism. Today, it is bucket-and-spade families in search of a bargain beach holiday, and a lot more besides.

Albania is a little like Spain 50 years ago, with prices to match. Take a break on its Adriatic coast, and as well as enjoying miles of sandy beaches, you have timewarp prices that will bring a smile to your lips, too. Coffee at 40p per cup, beer at 90p per pint, wine at £4 a bottle.

What’s more, you don’t have to fly over several different time zones to get there. From Gatwick, there are four British Airways departures per week to the Albanian capital, Tirana, and you’re in the air for just under three hours. Which is less time than it takes to travel to Greece.

And once you have landed, there are no long, stomach-churning coach transfers across the mountains: just a quick, 30-minute drive down the motorway.

Two of the biggest destinations are the holiday town of Durrës (ancient Dyrrhachion), and the nearby resort of Golem. Of the two, Durrës is the more built up. For many years, this was just about the only holiday destination available, both to Albanians and their landlocked cousins in Kosovo and Macedonia.

This makes it the Blackpool of the Balkans, only with dancing bears on the prom instead of  illuminations. Like its Lancashire counterpart, the Durrës seafront is wall-to-wall hotels, bars and restaurants, which means you enjoy a front-row view of the ocean wherever you are staying, eating or drinking. The fact that a steak-and-wine dinner costs just 1,000 Albanian lek (around £6) tends to add yet more lustre to the sunsets.

One thing you cannot expect in Durrës, though, is solitude.

It is busy to bursting in the summer months, so if you find yourself casting envious glances back up to the top of the hill, where the summer palace of Albania’s former King Zog (ousted in 1939) stands in splendid isolation, you might prefer to stay a few miles down the waterfront, at the resort of Golem.

This pleasing hotspot is no less popular than Durrës, but it is not as built-up and more leafy. A £3 taxi ride will take you to lovely Lalzit Bay, where, apart from miles of unspoilt sand, the only building in sight is the Insifa beach restaurant, serving seafood spaghetti at £2.50 a time, with a bottle of surprisingly nice Albanian white wine for £4.20.

Be warned, though, because this state of pre-bulldozer paradise will not last for ever. Already, construction has started on a big, new upmarket apartments-and-villas development in Lalzit Bay, with British buyers on board.

One of them is 65-year-old Chris Esdale-Pearson, a retired ship’s pilot from Harwich, in Essex, who bought a one-bedroom apartment with his wife a year before the development was due to open.

“As I see it, we’re getting in on the ground floor,” he says. “The beach is beautiful, we’re near the mountains, and there’s plenty of places to explore that are off the beaten track. There’s no doubt about it, Albania is an emerging market.”

Some consider it Europe’s last secret spot. Hardly surprising, since for most of the second half of the 20th century, the country was cut off from the rest of the world, ruled by paranoid Communist dictators who brainwashed the nation into believing that Western invasion was a daily threat.

Those brave tourists who did visit the country found themselves subjected to all sorts of indignities, from being tailed by the secret police, to having their hair cut on arrival (Beatle mops were seen as a sign of decadence).

Things did not really improve after the Berlin Wall was puled down. Strikes and demonstrations were followed by a disastrous get-rich-quick craze, in which half the country invested their homes and life savings in schemes paying unfeasibly high interest rates, and lost the lot in 1997, when they collapsed.

Sixteen years ago, then, this was a land in which the streets were ruled by armed gangs and desperate, poverty-stricken mobs. Today it’s a holiday destination which has the winning combination of being both affordable and undiscovered; most Brits only know it from having made day trips from the Greek island of Corfu to Sarande, Albania’s southernmost port (100 miles south of Tirana).

It is not only the beaches that make Albania appealing. It is well worth incorporating  a couple of days in the capital, Tirana.

Despite the decades of economic hardship, the city turns out out to be a metropolis of elegant avenues, boasting plenty of parkland, plus an array of attractively marzipan-coloured buildings, deployed around grassy Skanderbeg Square.

As for the choice of places to stay, you can opt for the upmarket Rogner Hotel, near the Prime Minister’s residence, with gardens, tennis court and swimming pool, or else go for the smaller, homelier Villa Tafaj, a clean and prettily-arcaded hotel in Mine Peza Street.

Either way, you are only a five-minute walk from the city centre, and the lovely, almost Alpine-looking Sarajet Restaurant, in Abdi Toptani Street. Here you can sip a glass of beer in the shaded courtyard, or eat vast veal chops (berxolla vici), beneath intricately carved wooden ceilings. After which, a trip to the top of the (slowly revolving) Sky Tower provides a panoramic view over the rooftops to the surrounding mountains.

At the same time, though, the full force of globalisation and commercialism has not steamrollered into Tirana, ironing out the local peculiarities. Pirimida, the crumbling old ‘International Centre of Culture’, was once a museum to the feared dictator Enver Hoxha, and now awaits demolition.

The fast food outlets retain their own unique identities: there’s AFC (Albanian Fried Chicken) instead of KFC, and there’s Kolonat, which serves burgers, but has as its symbol an exploded version of the McDonald’s M-shaped yellow arches.

What’s more, the language has an identity all of its own. When you’re attempting to say “thank you”, the phrase is ‘faleminderit’. As for “goodbye”, it’s not ‘ciao’ or ‘au revoir’, but ‘mirupafshim’, which sounds more like a sneeze than a farewell.

This is Europe, then, but not as we know it.

Nevertheless. with a million expatriate Albanians pumping money back into the homeland, and with tourist numbers increasing all the time (four million last year), you cannot help feeling that if you want to catch the authentic Albania, you had better go there soon.

Albanian Property was born as a need to provide assistance to foreign friends and clients about Albania Property and Albania Real Estate in general. Please feel free to contact us at info@Albanian-Property.com for any property or  real estate investments in Albania.

Europe's last corner: Beaches and beauty in Albania, the hidden bargain of the Balkans

Albania's Industrial and Intellectual Property rights strengthened by EU program - http://goo.gl/uYjok - Albania Property, Albanian Real Estate, Property for Sale, Rent

The €1,000,000 project to strengthen Industrial and Intellectual Property rights (IPR) in Albania came to an end. Since May 2011, the European Patent Office has supported the General Directorate of Patents and Trademarks (GDPT) to better implement existing laws and has raised awareness of the importance of IPR to businesses and consumers alike. Respecting the work of others, be it a book, a CD, software, or a brand name, is key to fair competition, creativity and innovation.

Pirated works hurt the entire chain of economic operators and creators by diverting reward for works created away from their creators and mandated producers. Disrespect for IPR directly hurts fair competition, jobs and growth, the promotion of which is especially important in times of crisis. Every year, EU customs stop several million products suspected of being counterfeited or pirated at the external borders of the EU. The scale of the trade of counterfeited goods is not possible without the involvement of organised crime. That means millions of euros of damage being caused to honest businesses and consumers.

To protect fair competition, honest business and creativity, the EU has taken action to protect IPR through legislation and enforcement mechanisms. The same is expected of countries aspiring for membership, like Albania. Awareness of IPR and related rights and the recognition of their value amongst economic operators and the general public in Albania is low, as indicated by the relatively small number of infringement cases brought before the Albanian justice system, as well as the widespread availability of pirated CDs, DVDs and other works in the country.

The IPA 2009 project ‘Developing the Industrial Property Rights System in Albania’, implemented by the European Patent Office, strengthened administrative and operational capacities in the IPR sector and implemented actions defined by the National IPR Enforcement Strategy 2010-2015.  The project contributed to the harmonisation of the national IPR legal framework with the EU acquis and to building of capacities of the GDPT and national IPR enforcement institutions. In addition, teaching materials on IP for the high-schools and universities have been prepared in the framework of the project and also significant progress towards establishing the first centre of scientific and technical information in Tirana has been achieved.

The project also increased awareness through a broader public relations campaign underlining the importance of intellectual property rights and their respect by the general public.Speaking at the closing conference, the Head of the EU Delegation to Albania, Ambassador Ettore Sequi emphasised the need to step up efforts to improve legislation and enforcement mechanisms, pointing specifically to the clarification of the inspectorates that are mandated with carrying out inspections on IPR – “An effective system of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection and their enforcement play a key role in supporting innovation, stimulating investments and economic growth and therefore should be strengthened in Albania´s domestic agenda”,  Since 2008, the EU has dedicated about € 7.7 million of European taxpayers’ funds to IPR and copyrights, for consumer protection, for metrology and calibration, and for market surveillance – all issues related to economic and social growth. Source; EU

Albanian Property was born as a need to provide assistance to foreign friends and clients about Albania Property and Albania Real Estate in general. Please feel free to contact us at info@Albanian-Property.com for any property or  real estate investments in Albania.

Albania's Industrial and Intellectual Property rights strengthened by EU program

Albania was one of 10 countries with the highest rise of living standards - http://goo.gl/rRPa3 - Albania Property, Albanian Real Estate, Property for Sale, Rent

In the last two decades, Albania was one of 10 countries with the highest rise of living standards

In the two decades from 1992 to 2012, average living standards in India did rise faster than those in most countries that started from a similar level. In fact, only nine other countries in the world saw living standards, measured by purchasing power, climb more quickly: Albania, Armenia, Bhutan, China, Equatorial Guinea, the Maldives, Mozambique, Sudan and Vietnam. Faster growth was to be expected in countries that started out with lower living standards than India’s, but several of these — Albania, Armenia, Bhutan, China, and the Maldives — actually started out with higher purchasing power.

Albania was one of 10 countries with the highest rise of living standards

Albanian capital introduces free Wi-Fi - http://goo.gl/WjZ98 - Albania Property, Albanian Real Estate, Property for Sale, Rent

Albania’s capital city of Tirana has introduced free access to Wi-Fi for two hours a day. The network covers the main squares and boulevards in the centre of Tirana, and the service is made possible thanks to a collaboration between the Municipality of Tirana and operators Eagle Mobile and Albtelecom. According to Tirana mayor Lulzim Basha, the number of Wi-Fi access points will soon be increased from 15 to 150, with the goal of providing full coverage of the Albanian capital. He also invited other operators to join the project, announcing his commitment to provide free access 24 hours a day to the public.

Albanian Property was born as a need to provide assistance to foreign friends and clients about Albania Property and Albania Real Estate in general.

Albanian capital introduces free Wi-Fi