Actually in India a lot of $$ is know coming into real estate (some coming from black money) and is creating a huge bubble. I know there is argument being made that population density if way more than US so there is demand so the bubble won't pop but still there are people there buying multiple units and using it as investment (deja vu). Also while prices have sky rocketed the building quality has plummeted.
My wife is from SE Asia, and I have travelled there. For all of these countries, their wealth is going up. They have a history of getting burned in stocks, currency, and most generally with anything to do with the financial industry. Therefor, most do not trust bankers, investment bankers, and their own currency. What they put their money into is gold and land primarily. So both posters above me I completely agree with. Its crazy expensive. We looked at buying property in Chiang Mai and the land there was more expensive than Minneapolis or Chicago. This while the average income in the area is 1/10th that of the US.
medoraman is correct. And in countries with high inflation, the land prices may be quoted in bullion instead of the local currency. Given a choice, the seller probably wants gold. they usually have govt or state sanctioned jewelry/bullion shops that sell bullion. I think their bullion buying is a good mix of bars & jewelry. Some of the 24k bullion jewelry coming out of SE asia is very beautiful.
I actually quite like how jewelry is done in SE Asia. Its completely different than here. They weight the jewelry, calculate its gold value, then negotiate a small amount above that for it being a necklace, ring, etc. When you sell they pay you gold value. I hate buying jewelry here since its such a ripoff, but always buy my wife jewelry when we go back there. Actually most gold purchased in Thailand at least is in jewelry form. I am not aware of any government sanction except I believe they inspect shops at random to check for cheating.
Hmm it shows me as the thread starter i assume that post got deleted and the OP re appears again with same post? What's going on.
The OP had been banned several times under different IDs, and keeps re-registering every day or so. This is not allowed. I can't delete the post and substitute a new Post #1, so second post is bounced up to #1. Jim
Haa, Then I would have others asking where their valuable post had gone I feel that every opinion on the forum that follows the rules is important, even though I wouldn't have written some myself. Jim
