Real Estate

Bloomberg Shanghai unveiled a package of measures designed to stem a surge in property prices in the metropolis, underscoring how regulators in top-tier cities are shifting gears in an economy where housing has been a brake on growth in recent years. The local government will tighten approval criteria for non-resident homebuyers, raise down-payment requirements for some second homes and ban ...

Bloomberg There are downside risks for the China property market in the second quarter because of the tightening measures that have been reintroduced to some cities, a Chinese government researcher said. The curbs in first-tier cities are limiting property sales’ growth, Zhang Changcai, deputy director general at the Information Research Department of the State Council, said at a conference in ...

Bloomberg The tower designed by Spain’s Santiago Calatrava Valls that will be the centrepiece of Emaar Properties’ Dubai Creek Harbour development will be taller than the 828-metre tall Burj Khalifa. “It will be a notch taller than the Burj Khalifa,” said Emaar Properties chairman Mohamed Alabbar speaking at a briefing at the Dubai Creek Harbour site on April 10. Alabbar ...

WASHINGTON / AP Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates slid last week to their lowest level since February 2015, luring prospective purchasers during the spring home-buying season. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said on Saturday the average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage fell to 3.59 percent from 3.71 percent last week. The benchmark rate was far below the 3.66 percent level ...

Bloomberg In the overheated U.S. housing market, just complaining about a leaky ceiling can land you on the street. Randy Dillard was living with five kids in a four-bedroom house in the Bronx when he informed his landlord of a persistent drip. Dillard rented his $1,800-a-month home near the New York Botanical Garden with help from the federal government’s Housing ...

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 ...