Real Estate

  Bloomberg Japan’s real estate investment trusts have soared in value to become the priciest in the world. More purchases by one of the biggest investors in the landlord business — the Bank of Japan — may help propel prices even higher. Buying by the BOJ has helped boost premiums on J-REITs, which manage rental properties such as apartments, offices ...

  Bloomberg Scorching prices in Canada’s top housing markets are unlikely to see declines because the major drivers are beyond the reach of traditional monetary policy, according to Bank of Montreal’s top economists. “Monetary policy can’t do anything about the inferno,” according to the draft of a report led by Douglas Porter, the bank’s chief economist . “None of the ...

  Bloomberg Berkeley Group Holdings Plc said reservations for new homes dropped 20 percent in the five months through May after the developer offered fewer projects for sale ahead of the U.K.’s vote on membership of the European Union next week. The shares fell. “After such strong market conditions for our industry, transaction levels in both the second-hand and new-homes ...

  Bloomberg In 2005, George Fontini, a co-founder of Mudd Jeans, had recently sold the business for a reported $45 million to Iconix Brand Group and was looking for something to do. “A friend was doing real estate out here,” Fontini said, “and talked to me about a property [in Amagansett, Long Island]. I came out, looked at it, loved ...

  Bloomberg While some investors have been quick to blame next week’s Brexit vote for the slowdown in U.K. commercial property sales, there are growing signs the market will stall, whatever the outcome of the referendum. Investors spent £16.9 billion ($24.4 billion) on offices, stores, warehouses and other commercial properties from January through May this year, according to Real Capital ...

  Bloomberg Canadian consumer leverage remained near a record in the first quarter as rising mortgage liabilities offset a gain in disposable income. Credit-market debt including mortgages was 165.3 percent of after-tax income, slightly lower than the 165.4 percent reading in the fourth quarter, Statistics Canada said Tuesday in Ottawa. Persistent strength in the Toronto and Vancouver real estate markets ...

Bloomberg China’s use of administrative measures to control property prices can have painful repercussions for its swelling ranks of homeowners. Just ask Shanghai resident Yi Miaowen. Yi had to cut the price of the apartment he was selling by at least 8 percent after local authorities in March restricted purchases by non-residents, causing two prospective buyers to pull out. “I ...

  Bloomberg Canada should consider further housing-market restrictions to avoid a crash, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said, adding another voice to the recent chorus of those warning rapid price gains may be unsustainable. The country has the highest ratio of residential investment to gross domestic product among the 34 OECD nations, and household debt equal to 168 ...

  Bloomberg Consumer confidence hit a fresh high this year as the number of Canadians expecting a decline in real-estate prices dropped, telephone polling shows. The Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index rose to 57.9 from 57.8 a week earlier, reaching the highest level since November. The gain was driven by increased housing optimism: the difference between the share of those ...

  Bloomberg Foreigners buying homes in Sydney will face a new property tax from next week when New South Wales becomes the second state in Australia to impose such a duty as soaring demand from China helps drive record prices. Australia’s most populous state plans to introduce a 4 percent stamp duty surcharge from June 21 and from next year ...