Real Estate

Bloomberg Mort Zuckerman, who co-founded Boston Properties Inc. in 1970 and has been its chairman since 1997, will leave the company’s board next month following its annual election of trustees. Zuckerman, 78, won’t seek re-election at the company’s annual meeting, Boston Properties, the biggest U.S. office real estate investment trust, said. In honor of his “long and dedicated service,” Zuckerman ...

Reuters Anbang Insurance Group Co’s unexpected withdrawal this week of its $14 billion offer to buy Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc is a wider blow to the unprecedented drive by Chinese companies to acquire North American and European assets. Fresh disclosures by Starwood on Friday showed how Anbang’s hard-charging Chairman Wu Xiaohui backed out of the deal even after ...

Bloomberg U.K. mortgage approvals fell less than expected in February, a sign that demand for housing remained resilient before tax changes take effect in April. Banks advanced 73,871 loans, compared with 74,085 in January, which was the highest level in two years, the Bank of England said in London on Thursday. While this was the first fall in five months, ...

DUBAI / Reuters Kuwait Projects Co (KIPCO), the Gulf state’s largest investment company, expects revenue growth to pick up this year, helped by its core investments in banking, insurance, broadcasting and real estate, it said on March 30. Vice chairman Faisal al-Ayyar said in a statement the company expected revenues to rise by a high single-digit percentage in 2016. That ...

AMMAN / EMIRATES BUSINESS Following the debut of its dedicated on-site sales centre and residential mock-up units, Saraya Aqaba has announced the official launch of sales for the project’s idyllic residences. The launch of residential sales was underscored by the debut of Saraya Aqaba’s new marketing campaign, and was celebrated during a stylish cocktail event that welcomed an array of ...

RIYADH / REUTERS Australia’s largest privately owned hotel management company StayWell Hospitality Group (SWHG) On March 29 announced the signing of a management agreement to open and operate the company’s first Park Regis properties in Makkah Saudi Arabia. Expected to open in the second quarter of 2018, the remarkable two hotels boast 286 and 344 guest rooms respectively (630 rooms ...

Bloomberg Han Fantong, an accountant, beat almost 60 other bidders to buy a three-bedroom home in Melbourne in November for A$930,000 ($709,000). He had an advantage — full funding from his parents back in China. Han, 32, an Australian permanent resident, bought the house on 688 square meters of land in Ringwood East, about 30 kilometers east of Melbourne’s business ...

Bloomberg Home values in 20 U.S. cities kept climbing in January, a sign the limited supply of available properties may push prices out of reach for some buyers. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values increased 5.7 percent from January 2015, following a 5.6 percent gain in the year ended in December, the group said on Tuesday in New York. Nationally, ...

Bloomberg Lennar Corp., the second-largest U.S. homebuilder, reported a higher-than-forecast profit for its fiscal first quarter as U.S. job gains bolstered demand for real estate purchases. Net income for the three months through February was $144.1 million, or 63 cents a share, compared with $115 million, or 50 cents, a year earlier, the Miami-based company said in a statement. Lennar ...

RIYADH / Reuters Saudi Arabia-based investor Al Murjan Group has bought London’s Kinnaird House office building for 85 million pounds ($121 million) from German fund manager GLL Real Estate, executives involved in the transaction said on Tuesday. Al Murjan plans to refurbish the 71,500 square foot building, located at 1 Pall Mall East near Trafalgar Square, and exit at a ...