Bloomberg Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said the central bank’s Financial Policy Committee won’t hold back from quashing risks that appear in the housing market. In a speech in London, the deputy governor for financial stability highlighted three property “hotspots†that warrant attention: buy-to-let, lending at high loan-to-income ratios to owner occupiers and commercial real estate. He ...
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Election is one more reason for Canadians to sell US homes
Bloomberg Fitful financial markets and signs of a southwest Florida real estate slowdown so unnerved Canadians Fab and Christa Michetti that they sold one of their two vacation homes there last month. The U.S. presidential election’s isolationist talk provided one more push. “How safe are my assets going to be with the change in the political landscape?†said Fab ...
Read More »Turkish conglomerates race into construction, seek quick profits
Reuters Turkish conglomerates are racing to add high-end apartment blocks and office towers to Istanbul’s rapidly-changing skyline, turning to one of the world’s most profitable real estate markets for quick returns as other parts of the economy suffer. Anadolu Holding, which has interests in banking, retail and brewing, plans to venture into real estate with two developments in Istanbul ...
Read More »Cousins properties to buy Parkway for $1.95bn in stock
Bloomberg Cousins Properties Inc. agreed to buy Parkway Properties Inc. for about $1.95 billion in stock, then spin off the combined company’s Houston office buildings into a separate real estate investment trust. Parkway shareholders will receive 1.63 shares of Cousins stock for each share they hold, the companies said in a statement. The deal values Parkway at $17.46 a ...
Read More »US home prices rise at solid pace, even with flat sales
AP U.S. home prices continued their steady upward march in February as buyers competed for a limited number of available properties. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index rose 5.4 percent that month compared with a year earlier, according to a report released on Saturday. That’s down slightly from January’s 5.7% rise. Prices are rising even as sales ...
Read More »Toronto property developer in trouble
Bloomberg In a parking lot in midtown Toronto, a portable office advertising homes for Urbancorp sits empty, a stark symbol of what can go wrong for even one of Canada’s largest property developers in the city’s feverish real estate market. The sales center, fronted by weed-covered planters and dotted with litter, was where Urbancorp marketed 41 townhouses. The project, ...
Read More »Norway’s wealth fund doubles money on central London properties
Bloomberg Norway’s $870 billion sovereign-wealth fund said the value of its first real estate investments, stakes in London’s Regent Street and a cluster of offices, shops and apartments nearby, more than doubled in value since they were purchased in 2011 and 2013. The fund’s 25 percent holding in the Crown Estate partnership, which owns parts of the luxury shopping ...
Read More »Riyadh’s causeway to connect Africa
Bloomberg The Kingdom od Saudi Arabia seeks to establish itself as a trade hub connecting Europe, Africa and Asia. The causeway that is planned to link Saudi Arabia with Egypt will be a key component of future trade exchanges between the kingdom and Africa. In the Vision 2030 document that was released on April 25, Riyadh said it plans ...
Read More »UK home loans surge most since 2007 in tax deadline rush
Bloomberg U.K. mortgage lending surged by the most since October 2007 last month, a further sign of the stampede for investment properties before a tax rise took effect in April. Net advances rose to 7.4 billion pounds ($10.8 billion) in March, from 3.6 billion pounds a month earlier, the Bank of England said in London. That’s far above the ...
Read More »People still seeing red over housing collapse in USA
Bloomberg The nation’s housing markets may be finally getting over the foreclosure crisis, but for many Americans the anger hasn’t subsided. Take a look at this recent home sale in Florida. It may be the perfect encapsulation of the fury felt by some of the more than 5 million Americans served with a foreclosure notice after the housing bubble ...
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