Real Estate

  Bloomberg Hong Kong’s economy unexpectedly contracted in the first quarter as falling retail sales and a weakening property market weigh on the city. Gross domestic product fell 0.4 percent in the three months through March from the previous quarter, the government said in a statement Friday, compared with the median estimate for 0.1 percent growth in a Bloomberg News ...

  Babylon, New York / AP Matt Price and his wife, Carla, are gambling that the devastation inflicted by Superstorm Sandy will be their key to the American dream of home ownership. The couple was among the successful bidders at an auction on Wednesday that sold off the last of more than 400 flood-damaged houses that were purchased by New York ...

  Bloomberg Bluesky Hotels & Resorts Inc., a closely held company backed by capital from Hong Kong, agreed to buy InnVest Real Estate Investment Trust for C$2.1 billion ($1.6 billion), giving the firm a stake in some of Canada’s most historic hotels and beachhead for expansion in North America. Bluesky will pay C$7.25 a share, the companies said in a ...

  Bloomberg SC Capital Partners, a Singapore private equity real estate firm with $1.2 billion in assets, said recent price declines make investing in Hong Kong property attractive. Founder Suchad Chiaranussati said he expects the Singapore government to maintain residential curbs in the city-state until the end of next year. Hong Kong offers more value after prices for homes, offices ...

  Bloomberg A country house in West Sussex, an hour and a half by train from London, is about to hit the market for £6 million ($8.6 million). Designed by Edwin Lutyens, arguably the most famous father of Arts and Crafts architecture, the manor house known as Little Thakeham dates to 1902 and sits on a 3.2 rolling acres comprising ...

  Bloomberg Developers started a record number of central-London office projects in the six months through March as they tried to capitalize on rising rents. Construction work began on 51 office buildings during the period, Deloitte LLP said in a report on Wednesday. About 14 million square feet (1.3 million square meters) of space is now under construction, 28 percent ...

  Bloomberg Newly elected Mayor Sadiq Khan has dropped the Greater London Authority’s objection to London City Airport’s plan to purchase land it will need if its expansion plans are approved by the U.K. government later this year. The Labour mayor, who was elected last week, is withdrawing a key obstacle used by his Tory predecessor, Boris Johnson, to oppose ...

  Bloomberg Last month a Texas entrepreneur took to Craigslist with a surprising offer: For $50,000, the author of the listing would part with 5 percent of a real estate crowdfunding startup that he said would generate profit within three months. Seemant Nakra, who posted the ad, said it hasn’t led to new investment in his Austin-based company, Equity Brick, ...

  Reuters Emaar Hospitality Group, the hospitality and leisure subsidiary of global developer Emaar Properties, has marked its ambitious expansion to Saudi Arabia with the unveiling of its first hotel and serviced residence property in Jeddah Gate. The 14 storey Vida Jeddah Gate hotel tower and the 25 storey Vida Residences Jeddah Gate tower are centrally located in Jeddah Gate, ...

  Bloomberg Anna Pesch had long assumed she’d be a renter for years to come, but this month she’s buying a three-bedroom house near the German city of Cologne. She’s got Mario Draghi to thank for that. “We didn’t want our money to keep going into rent,” said Pesch, a 32-year-old speech therapist who started looking for a home two ...