The biggest meeting in the UK overseas property industry will soon be upon us.   The Property Investor Show and OPP Live begins next week in London and with more than 160 stands and 50 seminars it will be easy to miss the best opportunities. Here is a summary of some of the most interesting bits.

1. Throwing tomatoes at the Spanish Minister for Housing.  Not the official title but Beatriz Corredor Sierra, Spanish Secretary of State for Housing and Urban Development will be presenting the case for Spanish property – a worthwhile exercise that should be applauded but for those of you who accuse the Spanish government of not doing enough to help the industry, there’ll be an opportunity to ask some difficult questions – bring your own fruit and vegetables to seminar Room 3 at 3.15 on Thursday 13th October.

2. Motor Homes.  It sounds like crazy talk but caravans are big business in the city.  Why?  A tax loophole allows higher rate tax payers to claim back virtually all their tax in capital allowances.  Buy a caravan for £100,000 and get nearly £40,000 cash back.  Rent it out and secure mortgage finance and there’s a lot of cash and commission for everyone.  Motor Holme are on stand 100.

3. Turn dormant pensions into active investments.  The most interesting part of this year’s SIPP Zone is arguably a service that extracts money from people’s corporate pension accounts.  Many people have cash dotted in different schemes.  This service extracts and consolidates the money, placing it into better performing assets (like property and alternatives) giving the client a better return and also paying a commission to you the introducer.  For advanced information on this and to book a meeting click here.

4. Spanish Invest section – Spain is still the top mass-market overseas property destination for Brits.  The following firms will be exhibiting in the Spanish Invest section.

5.  Should you sell through IFA’s?  Selling through pension funds is big business but achieving sales is incredibly difficult in practice and is not right for everyone.  The two seminars that attempt to answer this question are:

6. Indian Pavilion - An incredible 20% of floor space is dedicated to the Indian Pavilion.  The benefit?  It has been the top request by investor visitors for three years as a large segment of landlords are non-residential Indians.  The organizers believe this audience will be extremely interested in purchasing in the US as well as the UK and India.

There are 13 exhibitors from “alternatives” categories this year, up from 6 last year and 3 the year before.  It’s a growth area.  Cash flow is good but generating buyer leads can be difficult. On show this year are:

Global edge will be exhibiting as usual.  Come and find us on stand 492 (back right of the hall by seminar room 6).  We have a few places left for the Global edge Russian Summit on 17th & 18th November in Moscow.  If you feel you might benefit from securing Russian agent partners, please come and have a chat.

To register and gain free entry to the trade seminars, please click here