Bloomberg Homebuilder Sunac China Holdings Ltd. has temporarily stopped buying land from government auctions in China because prices surged amid a housing rebound, Chairman Sun Hongbin said. “We’ve suspended all bidding recently and didn’t even sign up†for auctions by local governments, Sun said at a briefing. “I feel the risk is too high,†he said without giving a ...
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Canada’s hottest real estate market to end self-regulation
Bloomberg Canada’s province of British Columbia will end self-regulation of the real estate industry as government officials move to rein in unethical practices that may be stoking home prices in Vancouver, one of North America’s fastest-appreciating cities. “The real estate sector has had 10 years to get it right on self regulation and they haven’t,” Premier Christy Clark said. ...
Read More »San Francisco landlords gird for slowdown as startup frenzy ebbs
Bloomberg Office landlords are bracing for a cooling of San Francisco’s red-hot market as weaker startup valuations and lower venture-capital funding temper years of runaway growth in the technology-industry hub. The city’s office-vacancy rate jumped in the second quarter by the most since the last recession, while the amount of space available for sublease almost doubled, according to a ...
Read More »Allianz starts $3.3bn Asia realty push with fund deal
Bloomberg Allianz Real Estate is set to make its biggest Asian investment to date, in a first step toward adding as much 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) of real estate in the region within three years. The $150 million pan-Asian fund investment will allow Allianz SE’s property unit to test the water before buying buildings directly, Francois Trausch, chief ...
Read More »Barcelona to raise fine for illegal home-rental lodgings to €600,000
AFP Barcelona city hall on Tuesday announced a 20-fold hike, to €600,000 euros ($660,000), in the maximum fine that can be levied against home rental sites such as Airbnb if they promote illegal accommodation. Under a 2012 regional law, any apartment rented to visitors in Catalonia must be logged in the province’s Tourism Registry and have a permit. In ...
Read More »US home price rises to record in April
AP U.S. home prices scaled new heights in April, with seven cities — Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon — setting highs. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 5.4 percent in April compared with a year earlier, just below the 5.5 percent year-over-year gain posted in March. Home values are now just ...
Read More »$15mn can buy you a small piece of Hamptons history
Bloomberg In 1910, an attorney named Albert Barnes Boardman bought close to 10 acres in downtown Southampton, N.Y., and spent $250,000 (approximately $30 million today) to build a 24-room, four-story mansion modeled after the Villa Medici in Rome. There were formal gardens, fountains, sprawling lawns, a tennis court, and a gatehouse. Boardman owned it until 1927, after which the ...
Read More »London’s loss is Asia’s gain as realty funds seek safe havens
Bloomberg London may have just shed its safe-haven property market tag with the U.K.’s vote to break away from the European Union. That’s good news for real estate markets in Asia that offer stability. Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia, which face headwinds including oversupply and high prices, may see money flowing into property as investors flee to safer assets ...
Read More »Crown Estate’s UK property rises almost 10% to $15.8 billion
Bloomberg The Crown Estate, the property company that generates income for Queen Elizabeth II, said the value of its real estate rose 9.7 percent to a record 12 billion pounds ($15.8 billion). Total return, comprising of rental income and value increases, from its properties, wind farms and other assets was about 17 percent over the past year, the London-based ...
Read More »Cohen’s Point72 plans move to skyscraper in NYC’s Hudson Yards
Bloomberg Billionaire Steven A. Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management agreed to move its New York offices to 55 Hudson Yards, the third skyscraper planned for Related Cos.’s $25 billion development on Manhattan’s far west side. Point72, the $11 billion firm that oversees Cohen’s wealth, plans to lease more than 175,000 square feet across six floors in the tower, according to ...
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