5 Interesting Real Estate Facts From Around The World
Real estate is a serious business. However, certain findings from studies bring out some unusual facts that can be fun and interesting to learn. Here are five such interesting facts from around the world that you must know of:
Embarassing names, cheaper homes
In a study conducted by the students of the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the University of Sydney and a Melbourne real estate agent together unveiled that a list of localities in Australia with embarassing names. This included Wanke Road, Fanny Street and Butt Street. The study further unveiled that localities with such silly names offered cheaper homes when compared to similar localities. The findings were taken by studying the property prices in the past 47 years in about 27 such localities and streets with 'silly' names. It was unveiled that the prices here were almost 20 per cent lesser. A majority of people surveyed said that they did not like to give such addresses when asked for.
Paint the door red!
According to Feng Shui, a red-coloured door is considered to be a warm welcoming gesture for the guests. In the early American tradition, a red door was a signal that weary travellers and guests could knock and the home owners won't mind providing them a place to rest. However, in Scotland, the meaning of a red door changes completely. When homeowners finish paying off their mortgages, they paint their door red signifying they are mortgage-free. On the other hand, homeowners use an image of winged eagle to show they are free of mortgage payment.
Spot the home for the homeless
There is a clear disparity in the number of homeless and the number of unoccupied properties. Countries like Malta, Greece, Mexico and Spain have the highest number of unoccupied properties, while in Switzerland and Sweden, there are only one per cent of properties that are unoccupied. On the other hand across Europe, 11 million homes are lying vacant while there are 4.10 million homeless people.
The picture is completely different in the US. There are five times more unoccupied properties than the homeless in the country. And in India, according to the Census 2011, there were 1.77 million homeless people in India while nine million homes remain vacant.
Bitcoin transactions make a debut
The governments across the world are trying to roll out guidelines and rules for the blockchain technology and the use of cryptocurrency. While bitcoin transactions are still looked at with suspicion, it could be revolutionary just as the Internet. The blockchain technology is a secure database that can record digital transactions and owners across Australia are willing to transact this way. In India, however, the Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) has not accepted it as legal tender and therefore, such transactions are not valid. Also, cryptocurrency is volatile. The value keeps fluctuating and therefore, there are such risks too but you never know, the ease of using it may be appealing for many.
Housing first
Japan and Denmark are among the countries where housing crisis is not severe. In fact, the Denmark government has homeless hostels, cemetries etc and works around to keep them away from the streets, especially the young ones. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in Japan had recently said that the number of homeless people in the nation has decreased. A separate survey, taken annually, shows the homeless population had dropped from 25,296 in 2003 to 6,235 as of January 2016.