Bloomberg Legal & General Group Plc cut the discount investors must accept to withdraw cash from its 2.5 billion-pound ($3.3 billion) UK property fund after applications for redemptions slowed. Investors spooked by Britain’s vote to leave the European Union now face a loss of 10 percent, compared with a 15 percent charge imposed after redemption requests surged in the ...
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US home construction posts solid gain in June
AP Construction of new homes posted a solid increase in June, led by a surge of building in the Northeast and the West. The Commerce Department said that housing starts rose 4.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.19 million from a revised 1.14 million in May. The June reading was the highest level since February, but ...
Read More »Aberdeen’s discounted property sale shows post-Brexit stress
Bloomberg What’s the cost of having to raise money quickly by selling London real estate? Almost 15 percent based on the sale of two properties on Oxford Street, the UK’s busiest shopping thoroughfare, since Britain voted to leave the European Union. Aberdeen Asset Management Plc’s UK Property Fund accepted a 15 percent price cut to sell a building on ...
Read More »CMHC doesn’t see bubble in condo mkt
Bloomberg Developers now are making sure they reach a higher level of sales before they begin construction on Toronto condominium projects, contrary to the housing bubble that unfolded in the city in the 1980s, Canada Mortgage & Housing Corp. (CMHC) said. Work began on 79 percent of condo buildings only after developers pre-sold at least 70 percent of the ...
Read More »Washington state invalidates common mortgage provision
AP Laura Jordan came home from work one day to find herself locked out. She had missed two mortgage payments, and the company servicing her loan had changed the locks without warning. In a ruling this month, the Washington Supreme Court found that action illegal — a decision that clears the way for a federal class-action case that Jordan ...
Read More »RBNZ to rein in housing boom with lending limits
Bloomberg New Zealand’s central bank is moving to quell the country’s housing boom by restricting the amount of money property investors can borrow, paving the way for another cut in interest rates. The Reserve Bank will require investors across New Zealand to have a deposit of at least 40 percent, it said in a statement in Wellington. The new ...
Read More »China home costs dip as cities enforce curbs
Bloomberg China’s home-price gains tapered off last month, as second-tier cities joined some of the nation’s largest hubs in imposing housing curbs to cool surging prices. New-home prices excluding government-subsidised housing climbed in 55 cities in June, down from 60 in May, among the 70 tracked, the National Bureau of Statistics said this week. Prices dropped in 10 cities, ...
Read More »London home values may fall by over 30pc, opines SocGen
Bloomberg London’s seven-year housing boom may be about to end after the UK voted to leave the European Union. “While in recent stress tests, the major UK banks were assessed with declines of around 30 percent in commercial real estate prices, we fear that London residential could experience an even more severe downturn,†Societe Generale analysts including Marc Mozzi ...
Read More »Vanke share slide may spur liquidity squeeze
Bloomberg China largest residential real estate developer Vanke Co.’s shares have fallen below the level that JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts said might trigger a liquidity squeeze at funds managed by its largest shareholder, Baoneng Group. The Shenzhen-traded Vanke shares have tumbled almost 30 percent after they resumed trading on July 4 following a six-month halt. The shares fell ...
Read More »Jamaica, Panama to offer rare luxury of overwater bungalows
Bloomberg It used to be that you had to traverse the Indian or South Pacific ocean to sleep in a thatched-roof, overwater bungalow — the epitome of luxury accommodations. With ladders that descend straight into turquoise waters, four-poster beds with gauzy mosquito netting, and private plunge pools, they’re the stuff of honeymoon dreams. Now you can get the floating ...
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