Bloomberg In 1900, two years before he would be named the president of American Radiator (the predecessor to American Standard), Clarence Wolley built a Tuscan-style estate in Greenwich, Conn. Now its latest owners, Andrew and Judith Ban, entrepreneurs who founded the wholesale jewelry line Leslie’s Jewelry, are putting the house on the market for $12.995 million after living in ...
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China City Construction to repay yuan debt early
Bloomberg China City Construction Holding Group Co., whose recent shareholder change triggered early redemption of its debt, will buy back its 2.5 billion yuan ($382 million) offshore yuan bond before maturity on June 20. Its 2.5 billion yuan notes maturing 2017 jumped 1.5 yuan to 96.3 yuan, the biggest gain since May 9. That leaves it set for the ...
Read More »Singapore realty mkt may reach bottom before HK
Bloomberg Singapore’s property market may be closer to a bottom than Hong Kong, according to LaSalle Investment Management, which oversees more than $58bn in real estate funds. Governments in Asia’s two most expensive residential markets have imposed curbs in recent years to tame prices and improve affordability. As demand has dropped amid a slowdown in the region’s economies, home ...
Read More »Blackstone plans $1.1billion European hotel buildings sale
Bloomberg Blackstone Group LP, the world’s biggest private-equity property investor, plans to sell hotel buildings in London, Dublin and Amsterdam for about 980 million euros ($1.1 billion), according to people with knowledge of the matter. The hotels are all operated under Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.’s DoubleTree brand, said the people, who asked not to be named because the information ...
Read More »New York developer Ashkenazy to bid on Clal insurance Stake
Bloomberg New York real estate developer Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. offered to buy a controlling stake in Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings Ltd., a unit of distressed IDB Development Ltd., according to two people familiar with the matter. IDBD said it received a non-binding offer that values the insurer at $743 million, without identifying the bidder. Michael Alpert, the president of ...
Read More »30-yr USA mortgage rate rises to 3.64 per cent
Washington / AP Long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose this week but remained at low levels that could entice purchasers amid the current home buying season. Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said that the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage increased to 3.64 percent from 3.58 percent last week. It’s far below its level a year ago of 3.87%. The average rate on 15-year ...
Read More »Tall buildings are bigger threat to birds than wind power
Bloomberg Donald Trump criticized the wind-power industry this week for killing birds. A far bigger threat is real estate developers and their tall buildings. About 599 million birds are killed annually in the U.S. when they fly into windows, trailing only loss of habitat and cats as the top causes of bird deaths, according to the National Audubon Society. ...
Read More »Pending USA home sales hit highest level since February ’06
Washington /Â AP Americans signed more contracts to buy homes in April for the third straight month, driving pending home sales to the highest level in more than a decade. The National Association of Realtors said that its seasonally adjusted pending home sales index surged 5.1 percent last month to 116.3, the highest since 117.4 in February 2006. The April ...
Read More »USA realty market isn’t as fun as it used to be: Agents
AP Real estate agents are flummoxed by a housing market that’s still trying to recover a decade after its historic collapse. Agents are getting higher commissions as home prices rise, but have fewer houses to list because homeowners are reluctant to sell. Many owners don’t want to put their homes on the market until they have more equity to ...
Read More »World’s worst property market confronts Taiwan’s new prez
Bloomberg Taiwan’s home prices, which have fallen in the past year ending a decade-long bull run, are poised to extend declines as the economy contracts and a new presidential administration focuses on equitable wealth distribution. Home values in Taiwan dropped 1.2 percent and transactions declined 15.5 percent since the first quarter of 2015, according to data from the Interior ...
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