Madrid, istanbul and tokyo race to host 2020 olympics

Photo credit: Jonno101101

The announcement of the new host city is just days away as the International Olympic Committee meets this week in Buenos Aires. The competition heats up, even as the economic climate in Europe continues to look patchy.

Indeed, Madrid is in the middle of heavy recession, but remains keen to take on the added cost of the Olympic Games – a direct result of the success of London 2012. Turkey, meanwhile, has promising prospects for property investors, but has only just made international headlines thanks to political protests in Taksim Square – as far away from the spirit of the Olympic Games as possible.

In recent years, the hosting of the Olympics has been seen as a burden, but the UK’s wave of positive buzz has boosted the country’s appeal to international investors and given citizens something to smile about. For Istanbul and Madrid, both are valuable commodities.

“There are many reasons why people want to organise the Games. But there is one common denominator," Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, the son of a former IOC president and a pivotal figure in the Madrid bid, told The Guardian.

“It is the utmost party of youth, it is the best phenomenon in the world nowadays that delivers inspiration for the youth. It means good news, it means healthy competition, the youth of the world coming together. All of that represents much more than money, much more than investment, new stadia or new airports. It is a dream. It is such good news in a world that has so little good news to offer.”

Tokyo, meanwhile, is the odds-on favourite to win the bid. The capital of Japan hosted the Olympics in 1964 and, according to OddsChecker.com, has 44 per cent of the bets placed backing it. But as the decision day draws nearer, people will recall both the UK and Brazil’s bids for the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, which were won in the final home stretch.

For real estate investors, putting money on an Olympic city will be an equally frantic dash.

“Property investors are waiting to see which city the International Olympics Committee names as the winner of the 2020 Games at a meeting in Buenos Aires on September 7,” comments Richard Way, Editor at The Overseas Guides Company.

“For Spain, winning the bid would be a shot in the arm for the whole nation, currently suffering from dire economic hardship, as well as pump some optimism into the struggling property market around the Spanish capital.”

 Indeed, it is worth remembering Spain’s last hosting of the Olympics in 1992, a games that set Barcelona on course to become a fashionable holiday and residential destination.