Commonly made New Year’s resolutions, such as improving your education and getting healthy, can equally be applied to property investment, say experts at the forthcoming Homebuyer Show.

Sticking to the following four key pledges should help investors to make 2006 a prosperous year, they argue:

Further your education

Investors should always be keen to expand their knowledge by learning about any aspects of investment that affect them. For example, with the right knowledge investors can minimise the property tax they pay, helping to maximise profits on investments.

Furthermore, researching market conditions and development plans can help investors to spot new areas for potential investment.

Investors should also keep on top of any changes in government legislation such as REITs and assess the impact these could have on investment opportunities.

Shed the excess weight and get healthy

Property investors can be guilty of keeping overweight portfolios, which contain under-performing investments and reduce the profitability of other investments. The New Year is a good time to review all investments and slim down to only those which have the potential to perform well, releasing extra capital to reinvest into new, more lucrative investments.

Try something new

There are plenty of new opportunities around for property investment not least a whole new range of overseas markets that are beginning to open up more to foreign investors.

As well as ‘new Europe’ of which Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Hungary are proving popular, more long-haul destinations such as Thailand, New Zealand and China are also seeing an influx of investment into their property markets. All of these markets have the potential for strong capital growth as well as good rental yields in the coming years as the markets develop further and more development takes place. However it is crucial to maintain a balanced portfolio of investments and not over-commit to any one single destination.

Enjoy life more

We’d all like more free time to enjoy life and for property investors the easiest way to achieve this is to hand over the management of their rental properties to a specialist management agency.

Property management companies can look after all of the day-to-day issues with rental property such as dealing with tenant enquiries, carrying out minor maintenance and repairs and collecting rent. They also take over sourcing tenants and can look after all the paperwork and technicalities of deposits, inventories and contracts. All that remains is for the investor to sit back and collect their rent!

Nick Clark, managing director of the Homebuyer Show, comments: "The new year is a great time for people to review their investments and decide what they want to get out of them over the next twelve months."

"Property both in the UK and overseas can offer opportunities to investors at all levels, whether it be overseas holiday homes, buy-to-let portfolios or commercial investment, and by looking carefully at the options available, investors can help to turn 2006 into a successful year."

"The Homebuyer Show will be the only place to research all aspects of property investment and get face-to-face expert advice. Over 250 experts will be on hand to provide advice and information on everything from mortgages to new developments to buy-to-let to overseas property, supplemented with a full programme of professional seminars all under one roof."

The Homebuyer Show will be held over Friday 17 March (10am to 6pm), Saturday 18 March (10am to 5pm) and Sunday 19 March (10am to 4pm) at the ExCeL Centre in London’s Docklands, easily reachable by car or public transport. Entry to the show will be free but with an additional admission charge for seminars and debates. For further information on the show including advance booking for tickets and seminars, visit www.homebuyer.co.uk.