Real Estate

  Bloomberg Hong Kong property stocks were downgraded by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which predicts a 20 percent decline in home prices as borrowing costs rise. The drop will be “driven chiefly” by a potential 150 basis points to 200 basis points increase in interest rates and the “limited prospect of any loosening of government cooling measures in the near ...

  Bloomberg The Qatar Investment Authority( QIA) is in advanced talks to buy the luxury St. Regis hotels in New York and San Francisco from Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., according to people with knowledge of the discussions. The properties may be worth as much as $1 billion, though they could sell for less, said the people, who asked ...

  Bloomberg Lone Star Funds and Oaktree Capital Group LLC are among bidders shortlisted for two portfolios of soured loans with a combined face value of 4.7 billion euros ($5.4 billion) being sold by Ireland’s so-called bad bank, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. Cerberus Capital Management LP is also bidding for both the Project Ruby and ...

  Reuters In a corner of Shanghai, surrounded by a cement wall, lies one of the world’s most valuable fields of debris and garbage. On paper, the Guangfuli neighborhood is a real estate investor’s dream: a plot in the middle of one of the world’s most expensive and fast-rising property markets. But the reality is more like a developer’s nightmare, ...

  Bloomberg The mortgage upstarts that transformed the industry after the U.S. housing crash are now facing their own shakeout. Soaring expenses are squeezing profits for nonbank lenders, which have grown to almost half of the mortgage market, as new rules and stepped-up regulatory scrutiny slice into already-thin margins. The average cost to originate a home loan jumped by 18 ...

  Bloomberg SouFun Holdings Ltd. plans to switch its stock listing from the U.S. to China, joining companies including Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties Co. that are seeking higher valuations on mainland stock exchanges. SouFun, China’s biggest real estate web portal, is seeking to move its shares to the Shanghai stock exchange via an asset and share swap with storage-battery manufacturer ...

  Bloomberg Blackstone Group LP is in talks to acquire industrial property assets in Australia valued at about A$250 million ($190 million) from Malaysian palm-oil producer Sime Darby Bhd., according to people familiar with the matter. The New York-based private equity firm is in discussions to acquire as many as five industrial buildings in Australia, the people said, asking not ...

  Bloomberg While a luxury-condo glut spurs some of New York’s biggest developers to re-evaluate their plans, a relative newcomer is plowing ahead with confidence. Michael Shvo, a former real estate broker who closed his eponymous firm during the financial crisis, says he has about $4.3 billion worth of apartments under development and two more sites in contract. He’s trying ...

  Bloomberg U.S. construction spending advanced in March to its highest level in more than eight years. Gains in home building and nonresidential construction offset a drop in government projects. Construction spending rose 0.3 percent in March after a 1 percent gain in February, the Commerce Department said on Monday. The back-to-back increases raised total spending to a seasonally adjusted ...

  Bloomberg Australian lenders are clamping down on home loans to foreigners as concerns about the health of the nation’s housing market mount. Westpac Banking Corp. will no longer lend to offshore customers who aren’t citizens or who don’t hold appropriate residency visas, it said in an e-mail. It follows Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank Ltd. and Australia ...