Real Estate

Bloomberg Home prices are surging in London’s outer districts as improvements to rail networks and lower prices lure Londoners further out of the expensive city center. Home values in West Ealing, where the commute time to London Liverpool Street will fall by half when a Crossrail train station opens in 2019, climbed 29 percent in the 12 months through February, ...

Bloomberg Marriott International Inc.’s $12.4 billion acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Inc. was approved by shareholders of both companies, cementing a deal to create the world’s largest hotel operator following a tumultuous bidding war. Holders of more than 97 percent of Marriott shares voting at a company meeting, representing more than 79 percent of outstanding shares, voted in favor ...

MADRID / Reuters The sale of hundreds of subsidised flats by Madrid’s former city council to private equity investors such as Blackstone was riddled with flaws, a preliminary report from a local auditing body said. The 2013 sale has long been a target of public anger in Spain at a time when the economy is still recovering from a deep ...

Bloomberg American household borrowing climbed more than forecast in February from a month earlier, led by financing for automobiles and college education. The $17.2 billion increase followed a $14.9 billion gain in the prior month that was larger than previously estimated, Federal Reserve figures showed on Friday. Non-revolving credit, which includes student and automobile loans, rose while revolving credit, which ...

VANCOUVER / Reuters British Columbia said it had reached a C$480 million ($369.7 million) deal to sell a large swath of land on Vancouver’s exclusive west side to three local aboriginal groups, opening up the property for potential redevelopment. The deal, which includes two parcels totaling a combined 38.8 acres (15.7 hectares), will give the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations ...

Bloomberg Abu Dhabi General Services Company (Musanada) has extended the tender closing dates for the two design-and-build contracts for the proposed crossing that will connect Al-Reem Island, Umlifaina Island and the rest of Abu Dhabi. Contract 2 is now due to be submitted on April 17 and the deadline for Contract 1 is April 27. The original tender closing date ...

Bloomberg Beijing Homelink Real Estate Brokerage Co. is seeking to raise funds in a financing round that will give the property company a valuation of about 40 billion yuan ($6.2 billion), according to people familiar with the matter. Homelink, which focuses on rental and second-hand real estate transactions, is raising about $1 billion and has attracted funding from Chinese Internet ...

Bloomberg U.S. hedge funds may sell stakes in office landlord IVG Immobilien AG in the second half as a turnaround of the once-struggling German company nears completion, people with knowledge of the matter said. The funds are most likely to sell IVG’s main property business in a public offering, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the ...

WASHINGTON / Bloomberg U.S. construction spending fell in February by the largest amount in three months. Weakness in nonresidential construction and government offset the strongest month for home construction in more than eight years. Construction spending fell 0.5 percent in February following a 2.1 percent January gain, the Commerce Department reported. Spending declines on construction of factories, communication facilities and ...

Bloomberg Sales of U.S. vacation homes tumbled last year from record levels as buyers were held back by tight inventory and turbulence in financial markets. An estimated 920,000 vacation properties changed hands, down almost 19 percent from a high in 2014, according to a survey released on Wednesday from the National Association of Realtors. By comparison, sales of primary owner-occupied ...