A great tip for finding cheap holiday deals.  With the reduction of VAT and recent fuel price reductions there has never been a better time to book cheap flights for a Christmas break, especially to the warmer climates of the Med. like Cyprus. Travel companies are offering significant festive season savings like never expected on holidays lettings so get booking now to reserve a great deal…

As Christmas draws evermore closer, the off peak travel season in Cyprus continues to enjoy levels of tourism. The weather remains pretty good with temperatures around the 20-25 degrees celcius. Being a 340 days of sunshine per year country, Cyprus offers anyone looking to escape for some winter sun a great opportunity at relatively cheap prices. Just check out the deals online and offline and find cheap flights and accomodation around the Larnaca region of this beautiful island.

Last Saturday BMS Homes took a step back from overseas property in Cyprus to sponsor the RTS British Television Awards. The awards, hosted by BBC presenter Ashley Blake featured many regional and national correspondents from ITV, BBC and independent production companies.

Our CEO, Andy Foote, presented the award for Best Current Affairs Documentary and our table of ten included our Sales Director, Phil Jones, and a handful of our close clients plus partners.

This year BMS Homes has become involved in sponsoring many regional events across the West Midlands supporting the region in as many ways as we can including hosting a wonderful golf day at the Forest of Arden Golf Club for our charity The Joseph Foote Foundation, being a county sponsor for Warwickshire Cricket Club and even supporting the inaugural Hall of Fame Awards Ceremony for England Athletics which saw sporting greats such as Sally Gunnell, Seb Coe and Daly Thompson recognised for their contribution to English Athletics. The evening was brilliant and one our our luxury apartments in Cyprus was up for grabs in the raffle which by pure fluke was won by our of our staff members! Needless to say they kindly offered that the prize be redrawn!

Yesterday we met with a firm of financial advisers based in Stratford Upon Avon, Warwickshire who raised the point that many people in the UK do not know how much they have in there pension pot or how well it is performing. Do you?

4 out of 10 UK pension funds are currently under performing and with the current turmoil of the FTSE now down to 4000 points equity based/stock market linked funds are struggling to even make money at all. A good guaranteed cash bond on the market is only giving about a 7% return, so why have all your eggs in one basket?..one thats falling apart…well you don’t have too.

If you are over 50 and have been contributing to one or multiple pensions during your working life, the chances are you have built up a decent pension pot. Did you know however, that you can access up to 25% of that pot as a lump sum now, rather than waiting until retirement?

Let take a very conservative example of a pension pot of £60,000

The chances are you are probably earning less than 5% per year on your £60,000. So if you were to take your lump sum of 25% or £15,000 and invest that into a product with much healthier returns you would be left with £45,000 in you pot earning 5% and £15,000 earning “x”%

At BMS Homes our minimum investment starts at £13,000 and we seen growth of 19% in 2007 and expect upwards of 26% for 2008 according to recent valuations of our developments.

Which means your £15,000 could give a better return per year by being invested overseas than your whole pension pot.

We can even put you in touch with a Financial Adviser near you so that you can get the right advice for your circumstances.

A recent report by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors has indicated that UK buy to let investors will withdraw almost £18bn worth of equity from their UK properties over the coming years to invest in alternative property, overseas. The European Housing Report 2008 suggested that there are currently a handful of property “hotspots” in the EU of which Cyprus was singled out, highlighting it as “a rare case of a country shrugging of the gloom” and prices in Cyprus “seemed to accelerate during the year.”

The report comes greatly received by BMS Homes and our clients who are already enjoying the benefits of the capital growth seen in Cyprus over the last couple of years, especially after the 19.2% growth in 2007 reported by Reuters in the Guardian Newspaper earlier this year.

Anyone considering overseas property investment in Cyprus can download our free Cyprus Buyers Guide from our website www.bmshomes.co.uk

We are currently undergoing a full refurb of our bmshomes.co.uk website. We want to shout out about the benefits of using our company to invest in property in Larnaca and we think the best way to do it is to build a fully interactive website where people can learn all about our company and our products.

We have the web developers in with us on Tuesday to talk about how we can best demonstrate the benefits that investing in Cyprus has to offer. Especially in the south-east region of Larnaca where 6bn Euros of EU funding will bring better infrastructure and increased tourism.

Not many people know that over the next 5 years Larnaca will be home to a new PGA golf course, a luxury 750 berth marina and a brand new airport, all designed with one objective in mind to increase the tourist trade and drive foreign investment into the country.

On the same note the Government are imposing strict development laws that are designed to stop the property market becoming saturated which would have a negative on future property growth. Over the last 4 years Cyprus has enjoyed double-digit capital growth and this will continue of the next 5 years with the current plans.

This friday we are heading off to Larnaca to check out the progress on the new developments and also to show the build quality to some new clients and introducers of ours. The trips are not advertised and are only arranged when there is a specific need from a client who is looking to invest in our product.

We fly out from London Heathrow on Friday morning, arriving mid-afternoon Cyprus time. On Friday evening we will all be going for dinner at one of Larnaca’s most impressive restaurants, Kantara, where the calamari is exquisite!

Saturday morning we head over to the developments for a couple of hours before having lunch on the promenade in Larnaca centre. Saturday afternoon is time to relax and soak up the atmosphere of Larnaca, whether you wish to explore the shops or hit the beaches, before returning to the hotel late afternoon and getting ready for dinner at one of the open air beach restaurants.

Sunday morning again is free time to take in the rest of what Larnaca as to offer before heading on the opposite side of the town to have a Greek mezze lunch at Ku-De-Ta , a fresh and contemporary restaurant, literally on the sea!

Sunday afternoon we return (grudgingly) back to the UK.

Valuations on our current developments were finished in August this year, recording significant increases in property values for our clients. The valuations were carried out independently by Alpha Bank in Cyprus (Cyprus’ second largest bank.)

The valuations indicate capital growth of over 20% across all property types, the highest being 26%, and needless to say all of us here at BMS Homes are delighted.

This underlines our commitment to the property market in Larnaca and to the investment needs of our clients and with further European investment into the Larnaca region, including the new airport terminal next year, the PGA golf course in 2010 and the luxury marina in 2012, we expect this growth to continue over the next 5 years.

Andy established BMS Finance in 1994 following successful management careers with BMW and Bank’s Brewery. His determination for providing the best customer service grew the company to be the largest, privately owned finance company in the Midlands and in 2002 he successfully sold the company to a major UK bank.

From personal experience in 2004 Andy found the value of overseas property investment and identified how important it is to have the ability to secure future financial stability through this enjoyable and profitable process. From this experience BMS Homes was created to provide a structured overseas investment product to the existing four thousand clients of the original BMS and, of course, the new ones.

CEO - BMS Homes

Using his wealth of experience and knowledge, Andy has been able to hand pick the developments that we pride ourselves on gaining exclusivity for, and has created the foundations on which the business is built on; customer service and value.

“I have carefully chosen my own overseas property investment portfolio, securing the financial future of my family. I intend to offer the same opportunities to our Clients by securing the best quality developments in the best locations at the best prices.”

Source: www.bmshomes.co.uk

Easyjet have taken over GB Airways for £103.5m and will now start flying from Cyprus late 2008. GB Airways will still operate the Cypriot route until Easyjet take over and re-brand the flights to their own name.

Cyprus is becoming increasingly popular with holidaymakers in the UK and Europe including overseas property investors, which spurred Easyjet to take over the route.

This comes as welcome news as more budget airlines open routes to the island, including Monarch airways, already flying from the UK, which will spark price competition and increased flight times, driving down ticket prices.

The airline’s interest comes as a response to the Cypriot government’s plans to increase its tourism industry from 3m visitors to 10m visitors over the next 10 years following significant EU funding to re-develop infrastructure and grow the island’s GDP.

Written by BMS Homes – Source: The Guardian 21/11/2007