Florida Realtors resume sales pitch to Britons
By SHELLEY EMLING
Palm Beach Post-Cox News Service
Monday, July 14, 2008
LONDON — With Florida's property market in the doldrums, the state is casting about for buyers anywhere it can - and there's no better place than Britain.
Four representatives of the Florida Association of Realtors are in London this week with a message for property seekers: Come to Florida if you want to find a real steal.
"We're here to tell people that prices in Florida have never been lower and that there's a huge inventory to choose from," said John Sebree, the association's Tallahassee-based vice president of public policy.
"The British are extremely important to the Florida real estate market," he said.
Britons boast great buying power because the pound is so strong against the dollar.
This is the Realtors' second trade mission to London in the last four months.
In April a group of 14 Florida Realtors visited Britain. John Mike, chairman of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches, led the group.
Mike is here again this week, meeting with representatives of British media outlets to pitch stories on Florida real estate.
The Florida Realtors met Monday with editors at A Place in the Sun, a British magazine featuring overseas properties. The Realtors planned to meet Wednesday with Overseas Property Professional, a trade magazine and Web site.
The American market has piqued the interest of foreign buyers.
And Palm Beach, not surprisingly, has been a focal point. Donald Trump is reportedly selling the former Abe Gosman mansion at 515 N. County Road to Russian fertilizer billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev for $100 million.
A 2007 survey by the National Association of Realtors found that nearly one-third of its members had worked with an international client in the past year.
One-third of such buyers were from Europe, with 12 percent of the total from Britain. Florida accounted for 26 percent of all international purchasers, leading the nation.
"There are still concerns (from Britons) about property taxes being too high in Florida, but they are actually pretty low compared to places like New Jersey and Connecticut," Sebree said.
"Insurance is higher than we want it to be, but it's stabilized from where it was a year or so ago."
Realtors also are focused on working with the U.S. government to loosen visa restrictions that prohibit foreigners from living in their properties for longer than six months of the year, he said.
Still, foreign buyers are free to rent out their Florida properties when they're not being used.
Sebree said: "We think buying in Florida is pretty much a no-brainer."
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