Bloomberg London is famous for its numerous parks and gardens, but even those green spaces aren’t safe from pollution. The air in many city parks surpass legal limits for nitrogen oxide set by the European Union, according to data website Asiopendata.com. The pollutant is largely from vehicle exhaust. The finding’s support Mayor Sadiq Khan’s effort to keep the issue at ...
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Homeowners have real estate agents over a barrel
Bloomberg You just sold your home for $400,000. Good going, nice job, congratulations. Kudos are also due to the real estate agents who helped you close the deal. If you live in a part of the country where the standard commission is 6 percent, you probably just paid them $24,000. Or maybe not. Real estate commissions are set by ...
Read More »Brooklyn rents fall for first time in 2016
Bloomberg An apartment-construction boom in Brooklyn is putting a cap on rents in the New York borough as a surge of new units erodes landlords’ pricing power. The median monthly rent declined last month for the first time this year, dropping 0.8 percent from last July to $2,826, according to a report Thursday by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and ...
Read More »Evergrande signals bid to control rival developer Langfang
Bloomberg Billionaire Hui Ka Yan’s China Evergrande Group, which last week made a surprise entry into an ownership tussle for the nation’s largest residential developer, signaled its ambition to obtain control in another Chinese firm. Evergrande, which boosted its stake in Shanghai-traded Langfang Development Co. to 15 percent in the past four months, plans to further increase its holdings ...
Read More »Brexit hits UK housing as sales come down
Bloomberg Brexit is undermining the near-term outlook for the UK housing market, with both demand and sales dropping in July, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. The London-based group said new buyer inquiries fell for a fourth month, while its index of sales is pointing to the fastest decline in transactions since the global financial crisis in ...
Read More »Manhattan sees realty slowdown
Bloomberg According to real-estate website StreetEasy, 12 of the condos in Manhattan currently listed at over $20 million have had their prices cut by 5 percent or more in recent months, while only 2 of them have seen any increase in their listing price. Among the cuts is a condo at 1 Central Park South. It’s been on the ...
Read More »NJ approves $800mn bond plan to complete Mega Mall
Bloomberg New Jersey’s Local Finance Board approved a plan to use an out-of-state lending agency that specializes in risky securities to finance an $800 million bond sale to resurrect American Dream, the unfinished mega mall begun more than a decade ago. The project in East Rutherford, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Manhattan, has failed to fulfill several ...
Read More »Paris rooms with views get price cap
Bloomberg What is the price of a view of Paris’s best-known monuments? France’s Socialist government will tell you. For all Saint-Germain-des-Pres’ charm, long gone are the days when a tiny 11 square-meter (118 square feet) furnished studio flat commanded 656 euros ($724) in monthly rent. Real-estate agency Inter Immobilier last month had to explain to the new owner of ...
Read More »Obayashi falls on unit’s link to San Francisco leaning building
Bloomberg Shares of Obayashi Corp. fell for a seventh day after a unit of the Japanese construction company was found to have done work on a San Francisco tower that is sinking. The shares dropped 4.9 percent to 956 yen at the close in Tokyo Tuesday after earlier falling as much as 8.6 percent, the largest decline since May ...
Read More »Land prices surge in Karachi amid rising demand
Bloomberg Pakistani financier Arif Habib’s bet on Karachi’s real estate is paying off as land prices in the nation’s financial capital surge amid rising demand and an improving security situation. Prices for Habib’s development in a 1,300-acre property at the northern tip of the city have more than doubled since 2012. Habib’s Javedan Corp.’s project called Naya Nazimabad offered ...
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