Now is the time to invest in Florida property, according to one lucky owner who has himself snapped up a bargain apartment.

Investor Andrew Vitch, who already owns seven properties in the US, bought his first Florida property, a two-bedroom, 1,300-square-foot condo, in the south-west coastal town Fort Myers last December, according to the Toronto Star.

Mr Vitch tells the newspaper: "The property was listed at US$189,000 [£115,600], down from $389,000 three years earlier."

However, the investor had other ideas and offered an even lower price for the dream Florida property. "We offered $170,000 and paid $177,000", he adds.

The amount of cut-price Florida property available to investors has been attributed to the high rate of foreclosures in the state, which is the highest in the US, the newspaper reports.

Florida property is becoming an increasingly popular choice, it seems, with recent figures from the Florida Association of Realtors showing a 37 per cent increase in house sales in July, compared to the same month in 2008.

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