Bloomberg The property market is an animal almost every central banker is worried about and hardly anyone can control. As the Federal Reserve downshifts into go-slow mode while the European Central Bank and other monetary authorities ease, expect to hear a lot of concern about property prices. Here’s the dilemma: How do you cut rates to goose too-low inflation and ...
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Shanghai tightens non-local homebuyer rules as prices surge
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 ...
Read More »David Beckham buys land for stadium
MIAMI/AFP Former England football great David Beckham has taken a key step towards his goal of launching a Major League Soccer franchise by buying land for a stadium in Miami, one of his partners said. Beckham’s group of investors acquired land in the Overtown neighborhood northwest of downtown in the Florida city. “Big News: We’ve closed on our #Miami stadium ...
Read More »Why Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch still isn’t bagging any bidders
Bloomberg Almost a year ago, in May 2015, Michael Jackson’s former Neverland Ranch hit the market. The 12,598-square-foot French Normandy-style home sits on 2,698 acres in the Santa Ynez Valley, northeast of Los Angeles. It has six-bedrooms, a four-acre lake with waterfall, an outdoor barbecue, a pool house, three guest houses, a tennis court, and a 5,500-square-foot movie theater and ...
Read More »NorthStar Realty Europe readies $1 bn assets sale
Bloomberg NorthStar Realty Europe Corp. has hired advisers to offer about $1 billion of properties for sale as the New York-based company focuses on fewer countries, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The real estate investment trust, managed by an affiliate of NorthStar Asset Management Group Inc., will sell all of its assets outside the U.K., France ...
Read More »Tahya Masr housing project underway for 60K slum residents
Bloomberg Tahya Masr (Long Live Egypt) Fund, initiated by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, is set to deliver the first and second phases of a social housing project tailored for slum residents in April. The Tahya Masr social housing project is to include 15,000 housing units to place 60,000 slum residents, said Manal Shaheen, the fund’s General Director of Development Projects. ...
Read More »Shenzhen’s banks asked to tighten household mortgage loan standards
Bloomberg A research unit of China’s central bank branch in Shenzhen asked commercial banks in the city to strengthen risk-control practices on household mortgage loans as property prices have soared. Mortgage leverage in Shenzhen has been far higher than in other first-tier cities since 2015, and has accumulated risks, according to the statement from the Financial Society of Shenzhen Special ...
Read More »Chinese buy one-third of Vancouver homes: Toronto also records purchases
Bloomberg Buyers from China comprised about one-third of purchases of Vancouver’s hot housing market in 2015, according to “back of the envelope calculations†by National Bank of Canada. Chinese investors spent about C$12.7 billion ($9.6 billion) on real estate in the western Canadian city in 2015, or 33 percent of its C$38.5 billion in total sales, according to a note ...
Read More »Bigger is better for Singapore REITs facing consolidation
Bloomberg Singapore’s real estate investment trust market is set to consolidate as smaller vehicles merge to cope with rising regulatory costs, according to Cambridge Industrial Trust. “The wave of consolidation for Singapore REITs is about to begin,†Philip Levinson, chief executive officer at Singapore-listed Cambridge Industrial, said. The trust has a market capitalization of S$730.5 million ($536 million) and focuses ...
Read More »China’s urbanities more optimistic despite slow growth
Bloomberg Strength in real estate and labor markets helped consumers in China’s biggest cities shrug off last year’s slowdown, according to a new survey based on 12,000 interviews. RFi Group’s Urban Financial Sentiment Index rose to 101 in the second half of 2015, up from 92.5 in the first half. Readings over 100 show consumers say they’re optimistic about their ...
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