Bloomberg It’s a good time to be a tenant in Singapore. Rentals across the city-state’s home, office and retail properties dropped in the quarter ended March as an oversupply and weak demand dragged down prices sought by landlords. Singapore’s home rental index dropped 1.3 percent in the three months ended March 31 from the previous quarter, data from the ...

  Bloomberg Home sales in New York’s Hamptons fell to the lowest level in three years as would-be buyers of beachside mansions stayed on the sidelines during a turbulent first quarter on Wall Street. Purchases in the Long Island resort towns, a second-home market popular with financiers and celebrities, totaled 437 in the three months through March, down 19 percent ...

  Bloomberg Blackstone Group LP, with real estate assets that have surpassed $100 billion, is considering tapping individual investors as it expands its push into owning high-quality buildings with steady income streams. “The prospects for growth in that business are huge,” Chairman and CEO Steve Schwarzman said on the company’s first-quarter earnings conference call. “At some point as we move ...

  Bloomberg The Australian state of Victoria will more than double a property tax for foreign buyers in a move that may undermine surging home prices in the nation’s second-largest city. The stamp duty surcharge will increase to 7 percent from 3 percent and will apply to contracts signed on or after July 1, according to a statement from state ...

Bloomberg Denys Laroche has been trying to sell his 18th century one-bedroom apartment just off the Champs-Elysees for six months. If the €3.75 million Paris home doesn’t attract a buyer soon, he may decide to wait for a new president next year. “We have a socialist president who’s increased taxes,” said Laroche, a business owner who’s about to retire and ...

  MILAN / REUTERS Banca Popolare di Vicenza faces legal claims of upto 1.65 billion euros ($1.9 billion) from clients who allege they were misled into buying its shares, potentially undermining a state-backed rescue of the loss-making bank. Italy’s eighth-largest bank revealed the legal risks in a 950-page prospectus for its initial public offering, aimed at raising money to shore ...

  Bloomberg Apollo Global Management LLC said it plans to use its purchase of Nova Kreditna Banka Maribor (KBM) to build a regional “champion” that will compete with three other main banking groups in a streamlined industry. Apollo, which completed the 250 million-euros ($284 million) takeover this week, wants to merge Nova KBM with Postna Banka Slovenije and Raiffeisen Bank ...

  Bloomberg The European Central Bank (ECB) said it plans to start buying corporate bonds in June as it unveiled more details of its purchase programme. The bank will start buying corporate bonds maturing between six months and 30 years, according to a statement on the bank’s website. Purchases will include bonds issued by insurance companies, while excluding those sold ...

  Toronto / REUTERS Trading activity in North America’s first yuan hub, Toronto, has fallen short of the heightened levels expected at its launch and local banks should be doing more to spur growth, an Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) executive said. The hub was launched more than a year ago to foster increased trade and investment activity ...

  New York / AFP The yen weakened sharply amid reports that the Bank of Japan (BOJ) is mulling cutting the rates on some loans to banks into negative territory. Such a move would support the banks’ earnings but also serve as stimulus by possibly pushing more money into the economy. The news sent the yen tumbling 2.1 percent against the ...