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HUNDREDS OF IRISH people in the last two years have turned away from the property market at home and instead invested their money in rental properties close to Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida.
Up to 200 Irish clients in the last two years have made investments through one company alone, according to Irishman and Florida-based real estate agent, Kevin Brady.
He left his hometown of Dublin when he lost his job in 2007 and moved to Florida to find work. Now he deals increasingly with Irish people who are looking to make some money in property – but not at home. He and his business partner Liam Hogan are back in Dublin to give a seminar on property investment in the Clayton Burlington Hotel this afternoon.
His clients include members of An Garda Síochána and farmers, company CEOs and Irish celebrities, and the properties they invest in range in price from just under $60,000 to millions.
“We have the families who want to buy a house for themselves, and those sorts of vacation homes as we call them, a decent one you’ll get for $200,000, so about €180,000, and with that most families will use them for say winter months and then when they’re not here we’ll rent them out. There are always people travelling to Disney, so you’ll always fill them.”
He and Liam Hogan have built four ‘mega mansions’ in a luxury complex, the biggest of which is a 12-bed with its own spa and bowling alley.
It rents for between $1,500 and $3,000 a night – and up to $5,000 a night for a wedding. Most of the people who rent these expensive holiday homes are American holidaymakers.
Every so often you’ll get a snide comment from an American, like ‘who do these Irish people think they are?’ but it is what it is.
“I can’t tell you who the Irish people are who bought them, but they’re pretty well known. In that development, it’s called Reunion, there are basketball players, Eastenders stars, who own houses there. The funny thing is that 12-bed mansion rents more than a four-bed small house, the profit on it so far this year is $140,000, just profit, it’s just nuts.”
The investments are made through a holding company of which the owners are directors – Brady stresses this is all completely legal in the US – and this means there is little or no tax to pay.
Though they will not bring in quite as much as the knock-out mansions in the Reunion development, there are homes on the lower end of the scale that will still make decent money for the owners, Brady said.
“I could find you a condo for $65,000 (€55,000) – there are a couple of tertiary cities, say where Legoland is, that’s called Winter Haven, and the other is Lakeland and they never took off as much as Orlando, but there is a huge population of people who live there and it’s cheaper.”
A serving member of An Garda Síochána recently invested in a $92,000 condo, which already had longterm tenants in place. He comes away with about $1,200 a month on that property. Another client is a farmer who sold land and is looking to reinvest the money.
Brady said there has been a surge in interest from Irish buyers – particularly middle income families – in the last couple of years.
“People have money again and I wouldn’t say they’re getting risky again exactly. People got burned and they’re smarter now. We’re doing this in a way where we lead by example – Liam [his business partner] and I have both done it and our families have too so we can prove it works.
“The other thing about America which I think is very important is it is one of the most stable economies at the moment. In four years’ time, whether you like Trump or not, he’ll either be voted back in or he won’t but the system won’t change significantly.”
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Great idea – similar laws in other countries. Should give people the right amount of time in between jobs to find their feet.
Or, maybe we could introduce a system of universal healthcare so that healthcare is accessible and affordable for everyone, and not just those who can afford insurance!
A yrs health insurance every 18 months from now on then
@Misanthrope: I take a break of 13 weeks every year when it comes up for renewal and I do not lose cover or waiting time.
You are allowed 13 weeks to shop about
@ryan3939: I should too but couldn’t be arsed. Going to start doing it now.
@ryan3939: How can you not lose cover if you take that 13 week break ? Do you mean that the insurance company will honour anything within those 13 weeks even if you haven’t paid you renewal ?
@Nosmo King: No, the current system is that, if you cancel a policy from today, you have 13 weeks from today to take up a policy again, before being slapped with waiting periods as a new customer.
So, if you cancel today, and in a month you find out that you need surgery soon, you can call up, set up a policy from the date of the call, and continue on as if nothing happened.
you can also backdate that 13 weeks if you want, but you do have to pay for the time.. which is fine, if you needed cover during the 13 weeks, but if you didn’t, then just setting up from the date of the call is a good option.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: Thanks for that. I’m surprised that insurance companies of all businesses allow such an anomaly to exist.
@Nosmo King: I’d say they would say you knew about whatever illness it was and that it was a pre-existing condition so not covered, so basically you don’t have cover for the 13wks your not paying for
@Alison Sheppard: if you’ve completed your waiting periods your free and clear on that score.
@Nosmo King: Np, i spent 6 years in health insurance. This is something that was set out by the likes of the health inurance authority, in order to be fair to health insurance holders
That stamp duty is 444 per adult and 148 per child. 1184 for the typical 1 adult 2 kid family. Ridiculous really
@lavbeer: it’s disgraceful how much of it goes straight to the government. If the tax on the cost of the policies was reduced or removed, health insurance might be more affordable to most.
@lavbeer: but will the saving REALLY be passed on – it rarely is! Remains to be seen.
@cars: For the government health levy (this is the 444, rather than the separate lifetime community rating levy), most of that money actually goes to VHI.
The health levy goes into a pot, and is then divvied up between the insurers. VHI gets something like 80% of the pot, based on how many older (over 65) members they have, and the remainder is split between Laya and Irish Life Health.
@Mirabelle Stonegate: yea it does but it’s up to 50% of my premium which now generally is worthless.
@lavbeer: Totally agree. Its just under 50% for me, and the kicker is that i am with irish life health.. Yet i am still paying vhi a substantial amount, in essence.
The levy was introduced and set out this way, because of the fact that vhi was previously fulky government owned.
Nice to see some bits and pieces coming our way for a change.
What happens if you get sick during the break
@Dave barrett: you won’t have cover if your on a break, but means when you restart you won’t have waiting period again
Say what you will about our health service but our Health Insurance market is actually regulated quite fairly all things considered.
@ForeverFeel1ng: Is that why it goes up every year and is that why the insures never question a hospital bill which is mainly makey uppy in the first place? People in wards being charged for private rooms etc, that kind of regulation?
have your say