Real Estate

  Bloomberg China’s biggest cities aren’t done trying to tame their soaring property markets. Shanghai, where prices of new homes jumped 27 percent in July, is preparing to discuss a fresh round of curbs including potential restrictions on mortgages and loans to developers, according to people familiar with the matter. Beijing and Tianjin are also contemplating new measures to rein ...

  Bloomberg Blackstone Group LP is in a $1.8 billion deal to buy the US real estate assets of Alecta, the Swedish pension manager that is seeking to exit investments that don’t fit with its strategy, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction. The purchase mainly consists of retail and office properties, said the person, who asked not ...

  Bloomberg After sitting vacant for more than a decade, a 12,000-square-foot mansion on three acres in Berkeley, Calif., is again coming on the market. Asking price: $7.5 million. John Park, the founder of Fortiss, a company that runs casinos and card clubs, purchased the property in 2005 for what he says was about $6.3 million. He’d lived nearby, and ...

  Bloomberg Post Properties Inc. shares rose the most in seven years after Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc. agreed to buy the real estate investment trust for about $3.9 billion, forming a company with about 105,000 multifamily units amid rising demand for rental housing. Post Properties investors will get 0.71 of a Mid-America share for each of their shares, the companies ...

  Bloomberg Starwood Property Trust Inc. plans to sell its European real estate loan servicing business Hatfield Philips International and has chosen Situs Group LLC as the preferred bidder, two people with knowledge of the matter said. HPI, which manages about 11.3 billion pounds ($14.8 billion) of loans in 15 countries, will bolster the European business of Houston-based Situs, which ...

  Bloomberg Canada’s hottest housing market may be cooling. Home sales in Vancouver fell a third straight month in July, the Canadian Real Estate Association said, with price gains also showing signs of slowing. The data should be a relief to buyers and policy makers who have been growing increasingly worried about affordability in the city, and suggest Vancouver’s market ...

  Bloomberg UK construction company Balfour Beatty Plc narrowed its first-half loss and restored its dividend as Chief Executive Officer Leo Quinn’s overhaul of the company advanced, lifting its share price. The company posted a pretax loss of $27 million, after a loss of 150 million pounds a year earlier. “We’ve clearly stabilized the business and are beginning to see ...

  Bloomberg The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is seeking buyers for a minority stake in its C$4 billion ($3.1 billion) real-estate portfolio in Vancouver, including office towers and shopping malls, according to people familiar with the matter. Cadillac Fairview, the real-estate unit of Canada’s third-biggest pension fund, is looking to raise about C$2 billion from the sale, according to the ...

  Bloomberg Chinese home prices gained in fewer cities as local governments joined some of the nation’s largest hubs in imposing residential property curbs to quell soaring real estate values. New-home prices excluding government-subsidized housing gained in 51 cities last month, from 55 in June, among the 70 the government tracks, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. Prices ...

Bloomberg Blackstone Group LP is close to an agreement to buy an eight-building apartment complex on Manhattan’s east side, for $620 million, cementing its position as one of New York’s largest residential landlords, according to a person with knowledge of the talks. The New York-based firm, the world’s largest manager of alternative assets, is planning to buy Kips Bay Court ...