October already and I did not get a newsletter out in September. Summer seems to have slithered away in a damp grey mist and the grape harvest is just about over , the big blue and yellow machines have sucked the juice from the fields like a budget edition of “War of the Worlds” – now the cooperatives are murmuring as the presses and machinery squeeze every last drop from the musty mushy bunches.
Thanks for all the mail from newsletter readers, I have tried to answer personally a lot of the queries, from tax problems to rugby matches, I will publish some as soon as I get organised.
I have been busy with showing property to clients and sorting out my Internet businesses – these are “interesting times” for both activities. Property throughout the world is in a state of flux it seems with – scandals in Spain, upsets in the USA, busting bankers in Britain and dramatic developments in Dubai. In France, I am seeing a lot of asking prices being reduced, but overall there is a strong demand for good property, at least in Languedoc which is booming with strong growth in new building and for large classic properties.
The Internet is preoccupied with looking at it’s own navel and has created hundreds and hundreds of “community network sites, ” Web2″ or “Web2.5″ “social networks”. It seem every venture capitalist and web designer has been making an indespensible website for you to “share” with all your “friends” . I have been joining and reseaching many of these – at the last count I had logins for over 150 social networks. This may explain why I have not had time to write my blogs for a month.
I have also been spending a lot of time looking into the legal and finacial aspects of Fractional Ownership in France. A year ago I was keen to launch a new specialist Fractional Ownership site, but as I have been saying in this blog, I have tried “to make haste slowly” as, in France, things are done in a precise and structured way which may not fit well with some of the parameters of Fractional Ownership structure as applied in other countries.
My plan is now to concentrate on only key projects and clear away the myriads of waffling, time-wasting and pointless “applications” cluttering up my inbox and hard-drive – although you can always see me on Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.