Hong Kong's property market is facing fresh controversy in the aftermath of the government's new stamp duty aimed at curbing speculation. After a series of aggressive analyst forecasts for property prices in the next two years, it appeared as if the government was spurred into action. But it seems to have pleased no one with its 15 per cent stamp duty on all properties bought and sold within six...
Overseas Property
Residential property prices in China's 100 key cities rose 0.8 per cent last month from a month earlier, according to the China Real Estate Index System (CREIS). Shenzhen stood out as the city with the highest average property price at 24,601 yuan ($4,840) per sq m, followed by Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou and Sanya, the private data provider said. Housing prices in the country's 10 most expensive real...
Higher rates lead to this year's biggest slowdown in refinancing and new home purchases The number of mortgage applications in the United States fell last week by the most this year as higher lending rates led to a slump in refinancing. The Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) index declined 16.5 per cent in the week ended Nov 26, figures from the Washington- based group showed yesterday. The gauge of...
One day when Mr Theodore Jennings looked out from his ninth-floor penthouse at the sea of residential high-rises that fill his Shinjuku neighbourhood, he had a sudden realisation. There were hundreds of balconies, lined with laundry or rubbish bins, but "you could see absolutely nothing else, save for the odd plant," the 34-year-old said. In this city of more than 13 million, famed for its diminutive...
Property developer CapitaLand on Wednesday said it has entered into a joint venture with Mitsubishi Estate Asia and GIC Real Estate to invest in residential projects in Vietnam. CapitaLand will invest US$100 million for a 50 per cent stake. Each of the other two partners are investing US$50 million for a 25 per cent stake. The joint venture will use the committed capital for acquisitions and development...
United States commercial property prices rose 4.3 per cent in September from the previous month, the biggest gain in a decade of records, Moody's Investors Service said. The Moody's/Real Commercial Property Price Index climbed 0.3 per cent from a year earlier as a small number of high-priced deals drove up values, Moody's said in a statement this morning. The measure had fallen to an eight-year low in...
Hong Kong's government on Friday unveiled its latest attempt to cool the red-hot property market, amid public anger at spiralling prices and fears highlighted by the IMF of a real estate bubble. Financial Secretary John Tsang announced a sliding scale of new stamp duties to take effect midnight Friday aimed at restraining what he called "short-term speculative" inflows into the glitzy financial hub's...
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday warned of increasing risks of a property bubble in Hong Kong amid continued liquidity inflows and rock-bottom interest rates and urged the city's government to take further measures to rein in the booming real estate market. The IMF said that while the city had returned to robust growth, it saw rising inflationary pressures fuelled in large part by soaring...
In Shanghai's overheated property market, buyers typically gravitate towards glossy new buildings, and the more luxurious, the better. But Ms Hebe Ting, a property investor from northern China who moved to Shanghai in 2001, has always been attracted to the traditional, specifically, the fast-disappearing early - 1900's lane houses in the former French Concession. "I didn't want to live in a big new...
Ascendas, the Singapore-based provider of business space, will partner a Japanese consortium led by Mizuho Corporate Bank and JGC Corporation, to develop a world-class integrated township in Chennai, India. Ascendas said it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Japanese consortium for the project. The project will feature eco-friendly infrastructure for industrial, business, commercial,...