Is there still an active international buyer market in the Greater Sarasota Area? There are certainly a number of factors that play into that question. One of the most important right now is the strength of the dollar and its impact on the buying power of foreign nationals.
The US Dollar has been strong particularly over the last year or so. What does that mean? It means the buying power of foreign nationals has decreased. Alternatively, you can think of it as US real estate becoming more expensive for foreign nationals presuming they are converting their currency to US Dollars to buy. There are many caveats to this general premise – if that foreign national is holding US Dollars already then they would not be as impacted.
There is also the political arena. Having lived in Europe for eight years and having created a great network or friends and colleagues, I have certainly fielded my share of concerns regarding politics from that network. Not to mention the political dynamics in many other countries such as the UK. It is very hard to quantify this impact on the market.
However, I would dare to say that the international market continues to be reasonably healthy in the Greater Sarasota area. In my opinion, an important factor is that many international buyers already have a strong connection to the area. They have family or friends already here. Their children are going to IMG or perhaps they want their children to participate in our amazing school system. Perhaps they have a business or professional interest in the area.
I will say that we have worked with a number of international buyers recently. This week we worked directly with an international buyer on the purchase of one of our bayfront properties. We sold another bayfront property to a foreign national last year and have worked with a number of additional foreign nationals on home and villa purchases recently. Within the mix – Brits, Russians, French, Poles and Canadians.
We have also been proactively showcasing our properties in Europe. In cooperation with VistaBee based in the UK, we are able to showcase some of our properties in their TV series titled Million Dollar Dream Home. We have been working with the producer of this show for several years. Here is a link to one of the videos they produced for us on our listing at 4401 Midnight Pass Road, Siesta Key, Florida https://youtu.be/_CzmRIJSZX8.
