secure you title on an actual property (as with the UK scheme). But the effort involved is simply to sign a contract and hand over your cash, after copious amounts of due diligence though! I know of an innovative company that is going to ‘re-package’ these schemes and offer a lower return but with an insurance scheme bolted on, protecting your cash and reducing the risk element.

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As well as the whole world to choose from for location, there are a number of different ways to directly invest in property. What is a little daunting is the number of variables this creates – 175 by my reckoning! (7 ways to invest multiplied by at least 25 countries). So, once you have decided what to invest in, you can then get on to deciding where to invest (which has been covered elsewhere in HPA).

There are really three key factors to consider when deciding how and where to invest – risk, reward and effort involved. How you invest is important because it affects all three key factors; where you invest only really affects risk and reward. The reality is that many people only concentrate on the (potential) reward, and often become blind to the risk involved. Even more frequently though, people do not factor in the effort required for certain types of investment. This can then lead to frustration, despondency or panic, and at worst, a desire to stop investing completely.

I have ranked each of the 7 in terms of the level of effort required (The Hassle Index!). Coming in with the lowest ranking is Guaranteed Return Investments. These are simply a cash investment in to a project or scheme, you receive a monthly, quarterly or annual fixed return on your investment. As an example, a scheme investing in UK buy to lets has been delivering a 32% return for over 3 years now, paid monthly. Another in Turkey is delivering a 25% annual return. The risk element is high with these types of investments, especially when your cash does not secure you title on an actual property (as with the UK scheme). But the effort involved is simply to sign a contract and hand over your cash, after copious amounts of due diligence though! I know of an innovative company that is going to ‘re-package’ these schemes and offer a lower return but with an insurance scheme bolted on, protecting your cash and reducing the risk element.

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ewhere in HPA).

There are really three key factors to consider when deciding how and where to invest – risk, reward and effort involved. How you invest is important because it affects all three key factors; where you invest only really affects risk and reward. The reality is that many people only concentrate on the (potential) reward, and often become blind to the risk involved. Even more frequently though, people do not factor in the effort required for certain types of investment. This can then lead to frustration, despondency or panic, and at worst, a desire to stop investing completely.

I have ranked each of the 7 in terms of the level of effort required (The Hassle Index!). Coming in with the lowest ranking is Guaranteed Return Investments. These are simply a cash investment in to a project or scheme, you receive a monthly, quarterly or annual fixed return on your investment. As an example, a scheme investing in UK buy to lets has been delivering a 32% return for over 3 years now, paid monthly. Another in Turkey is delivering a 25% annual return. The risk element is high with these types of investments, especially when your cash does not secure you title on an actual property (as with the UK scheme). But the effort involved is simply to sign a contract and hand over your cash, after copious amounts of due diligence though! I know of an innovative company that is going to ‘re-package’ these schemes and offer a lower return but with an insurance scheme bolted on, protecting your cash and reducing the risk element.

The

more frequently though, people do not factor in the effort required for certain types of investment. This can then lead to frustration, despondency or panic, and at worst, a desire to stop investing completely.

I have ranked each of the 7 in terms of the level of effort required (The Hassle Index!). Coming in with the lowest ranking is Guaranteed Return Investments. These are simply a cash investment in to a project or scheme, you receive a monthly, quarterly or annual fixed return on your investment. As an example, a scheme investing in UK buy to lets has been delivering a 32% return for over 3 years now, paid monthly. Another in Turkey is delivering a 25% annual return. The risk element is high with these types of investments, especially when your cash does not secure you title on an actual property (as with the UK scheme). But the effort involved is simply to sign a contract and hand over your cash, after copious amounts of due diligence though! I know of an innovative company that is going to ‘re-package’ these schemes and offer a lower return but with an insurance scheme bolted on, protecting your cash and reducing the risk element.

The

y a cash investment in to a project or scheme, you receive a monthly, quarterly or annual fixed return on your investment. As an example, a scheme investing in UK buy to lets has been delivering a 32% return for over 3 years now, paid monthly. Another in Turkey is delivering a 25% annual return. The risk element is high with these types of investments, especially when your cash does not secure you title on an actual property (as with the UK scheme). But the effort involved is simply to sign a contract and hand over your cash, after copious amounts of due diligence though! I know of an innovative company that is going to ‘re-package’ these schemes and offer a lower return but with an insurance scheme bolted on, protecting your cash and reducing the risk element.

The

secure you title on an actual property (as with the UK scheme). But the effort involved is simply to sign a contract and hand over your cash, after copious amounts of due diligence though! I know of an innovative company that is going to ‘re-package’ these schemes and offer a lower return but with an insurance scheme bolted on, protecting your cash and reducing the risk element.

These investments appeal to cash rich/time poor individuals willing to place a percentage of their cash for a high return, especially if they are unable to obtain mortgages enabling them to gear up.

The second lowest ranking in the ‘Hassle Index’ is Syndicate Investments. Here again you invest cash along with a number of other individuals, which is then invested and managed on everyone’s behalf. You are rewarded with a return based on the level of success of the whole scheme. The timing and level of returns are not guaranteed. The structure of these schemes varies; at one end you have the hugely popular schemes run by Ready2Invest, which are fully regulated and offered via a prospectus, investing in Montenegro, Bulgaria and Croatia. Alternatively Alan Forsyth runs excellent syndicates focussed in the emerging markets of Estonia and Latvia. These are smaller schemes and you are buying shares in a listed company and effectively becoming a ‘mini developer’. The current scheme aims to deliver 30% p.a. returns with initial payment after only 18 months.

These investments appeal to a similar type of investor as the Guaranteed Returns, but the risk is reduced because the syndicates spread their investments across a number of projects and the set up of them is often far more structured and professional.

A potential downside of the Guaranteed Returns and Syndicates is that your growth does not have the benefit of leverage. As an example, if you invested ?100,000 and achieved 30% return in one year, you’ve made ?30,000! If you invested t