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To: jlallen who wrote (19)	5/2/1998 7:54:00 AM
From: Henry Volquardsen	Respond to of 3536

John, Money to buy real estate is a capital flow, so the observation is definitely on topic <G>. Interesting idea as well. At some stage of the process it has to be done. The problem I have is as a foreigner trying to get a good handle on real estate as an asset class. You really need to be able to understand local conditions and where the value is. The US is a great example. Remember the real estate downturn of the mid to late 80s. There were some great bargains to be had. One of my better p a trades was buying into depressed real estate partnerships. There were great profits to be had but you had to be able to understand the market enough to distinguish good value from the partnerships that deserved to be depressed. A lot of foreigners made some very bad choices because of not understanding the market. Just look at the Japanese. I am also not very comfortable with the legal environment in some of those countries. Not certain how they may or may not discriminate against foreigners. I have in the past bought listed stocks in a couple of those countries. I got very frustrated with the way local regulation stacked the deck against non-insider equity investors, both foreigners and their own citizens. I decided not to direct investment in those environments but, if I had the urge, invest with a fund or other group that has sufficient insight into local conditions to make good choices. BTW I think we are beginning to see some activity along this line by US investment banks. The ones who do the right research will make a lot of money. Henry