Sunshine state provides hope for US property

Those thinking of investing in property in the US will have good reason to feel optimistic right now, at least according to some people in Florida.

As it happens, those people in question are delegates at the National Association of Realtors (NAR) annual conference in Orlando. Visiting the event, National Association of Estate Agents chief executive Peter Bolton King found that many were highly optimistic about the future after the election of Barack Obama as president.

Mr Bolton King told the Times: "They [realtors at the conference] think that just having the election behind them will have an effect on the real estate market. Realtors in Washington expect prices to rise from next year; one realtor told me that there is typically an upturn in Washington real estate when a new administration arrives in the White House in January. Realtors believe that if the economy starts to stabilise, buyers will jump back in."

These delegates are not the only ones to be optimistic. Research manager at Hamptons International Rob Bruce predicted that Mr Obama's leadership on the issue of housing will "instill the buyer confidence that the market is crying out for." Furthermore, he predicted, there will be benefits elsewhere too, with Britain's own market gaining from the "ripple effect" that an American recovery will have.

As well as the presidential election, of course, there has been the matter of elections for Congress, the Senate and a number of local referenda on the constitutions of individual states.

Some of these were about property. In Florida, Amendment Three offered something that could be very valuable to investors in property: exemption from higher property taxes based on the raised value of a home, if that increase in worth is based on the installation of renewable energy devices or measures to protect against hurricanes. For those who invest in a property and then add these, there is the prospect of being greener, safer, saving on fuel bills and possibly insurance premiums too. Alternatively, those who want to buy properties with such items in them should find a larger supply if existing owners are given the incentive to add them.

As it happens, the poll on this point has registered 60.4 per cent support. This amounts to more than the 60 per cent required to pass the bill, but under Florida's election rules - so famously invoked eight years ago - the narrowness of the margin means a recount is mandatory.

Unless the result is overturned, the decision will provide another new incentive in Florida, possibly helping to regenerate the market in a state where the problems of the US housing market in recent years have hit hard. Florida's vote in favour of Obama helped send him to the White House and raise the hopes of delegates in Orlando this week. Barring a shock from the recount the state that has seen so much bad news for property may be centre of some much more pleasant tidings.