Real Estate

  AP U.S. renters are seeing their housing costs rise at a much more manageable pace, as new construction has tempered years of runaway increases in rent. Real estate data firm Zillow says that median rent rose a seasonally adjusted 2.6 percent in June from a year ago, matching the gains in average hourly wages. Rental costs have decelerated after ...

  AP Long-term U.S. mortgage rates edged higher this week, remaining near historically low levels as a continued enticement to prospective homebuyers. Mortgage giant Freddie Mac said Thursday the average for the benchmark 30-year fixed-rate mortgage rose to 3.45 percent from 3.42 percent last week. The average rate is down sharply from 4.04 percent a year ago. The 15-year fixed ...

  Bloomberg Ireland’s National Asset Management Agency plans to sell real estate loans with a face value of about 4 billion euros ($4.4 billion), two people with knowledge of the matter said. NAMA is expected to seek bids for the portfolio, known as Project Gem, toward the end of 2016 and the portfolio will sell at a substantial discount to ...

  Bloomberg It’s a good time to buy a home in New York’s Hamptons, especially for shoppers with more than $3 mn to spend. Sales of luxury homes in the area, known as Wall Street’s beachside retreat, fell 20 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier to 57 deals, while the number of high-end listings climbed, according to ...

  Bloomberg Home prices have hit record highs in some major US metropolitan areas, and house-flippers are behaving like it’s 2005: It’s no wonder people are chattering about another housing bubble. But residential real estate isn’t in a speculative bubble, industry observers contend. Instead, a low inventory of available homes is driving prices higher — prices, however, will eventually recede ...

Bloomberg Real estate has been the obvious sell in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. Publicly traded real estate developers are trading at a steep discount to value of their portfolios, reflecting fears of a downturn in office demand, while commercial property funds are rushing to sell assets. Even London home builders are offering would-be buyers ...

  AFP China’s property and entertainment giant Wanda has agreed to sell a historic Madrid skyscraper, a source close to negotiations said, after feuding with city authorities over plans to renovate the landmark. Wanda acquired the 25-storey Edificio Espana, completed in the 1950s under the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco, in June 2014 for 265 million euros (now $292 million) ...

  Bloomberg A group led by US real estate investor Hines plans to sell a Dublin shopping mall and adjacent land for about 600 million euros ($660 million), three people with knowledge of the matter said. The venture, including the Grosvenor Group Ltd. and HSBC Alternative Investments, hired Eastdil Secured LLC to broker the sale of Liffey Valley Shopping Centre ...

  Bloomberg Blackstone Group LP expects to take its Invitation Homes unit public in the first half of next year, capitalising on a rally in US single-family rental landlords to list the biggest company in the industry, according to two people familiar with the matter. The size and exact timing of an initial public offering haven’t been decided, said the ...

  Bloomberg BGC Partners Inc., a brokerage serving financial and real estate markets, agreed to acquire Sunrise Brokers Group to expand its equity-derivatives business. Sunrise Brokers, founded in 1991, reported $90 million of consolidated revenue for last year, BGC said in a statement, without disclosing the terms of the deal. “This transaction enables us to further expand our equity derivatives ...