PolicyMap Offers Tons Of Info For Investors And Developers

PolicyMap is a new online service that was created by The Reinvestment Fund, a non-profit organization that funds neighborhood redevelopment. I read about PolicyMap on Future of Real Estate Marketing blog and thought it sounded like an interesting service. When I went to check it out, I was astonished by the amount of information and customization they offered.

Real estate investors or developers who need to do extensive demographic research should definitely check this site out. They offer more than 4,000 different demographic variables for which you can customize maps and reports. They cover the standard ones such as crime, income and so on, but they also have powerful ones you can’t find anywhere else, such as an estimation of a neighborhood's population in the year 2012 and many others I just don’t have space to mention.

All of this information does not come cheap, however.

They offer limited data and customization for free upon registration, but for the real goodies you have to be prepared to ante up. Their standard subscription starts at $200 a month, and they don’t even publish their premium subscription price. If you are a developer or real estate investor who does a significant amount of deals, though, I think their service is well worth the price. This is especially true if you have to put together presentations for money partners or others as part of your investments. PolicyMap offers data that would make your presentation much better, in addition to tools that should make gathering the data and putting into presentable format much easier.

Dubai World: Developing The Modern World In The Image Of Dubai

Just over a couple of decades ago, Dubai was a proverbial ghost-town with an economy almost solely reliant on a tiny supply of oil. But today, with a 20% GDP increase in 2006 and significant economic development thanks to its ports, Dubai is now considered one of the world’s busiest marketplaces for development and international commerce.

This article from CNN money, claims that Dubai World, a holding company with over 100 billion dollars in assets including retail, port operators and real estate developers, is seeking to develop ports and cities on par with Dubai throughout the world.

What does this mean for investors?

There is big investment potential in underdeveloped coastal and port cities. What may have once been small shipping, import and export ports may now become prime building ground for luxury hotels, resorts and commercial real estate.

Considering the rags to riches story that Dubai has to tell, investors should keep a close eye on Dubai World, and the places that they are considering for real estate development.