31 March 2006
Former UBS executives form real estate investment company
Two former UBS Investment Bank managing directors have formed a real estate investment firm. Jeffrey Goldberger and Andrew Cohen, in an announcement Thursday, said their new firm, Atlas Capital Group, will focus on value-added equity investment in major cities, with an initial emphasis on New York and London.
Source
30 March 2006
UK Banks launch information sharing scheme
Four of Britain's five biggest banks have announced a ground-breaking agreement to share information about customers in an attempt to reduce the number of borrowers who fail to repay their debts. HBOS, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland said yesterday they will for the first time provide details of customers' incomes to an independent credit reference agency, Callcredit. In combination with the existing information Callcredit holds on customers' credit arrangements, the arrangement will enable the banks to study which borrowers have taken on too much debt relative to their income. Callcredit's Jo Gill said: "The Department for Trade & Industry defines over-indebted as someone spending more than 25 per cent of their income on servicing the minimum repayments on their credit agreements."
However, the launch was undermined by the failure of Barclays Bank to support the deal. Ian Barber, of Barclaycard, Britain's biggest credit card lender, said while the bank welcomed the scheme, it had chosen to concentrate on a separate initiative to share more data on spending, which it launched in December with three smaller lenders. "Our credit card data-sharing scheme has been our focus and we are delivering on that," he said."We do already get income data from application forms and are also able to make certain assumptions about borrowers' incomes." The Callcredit deal is significant because until now, data sharing agreements between banks and other lenders have concentrated purely on debt. Lenders routinely provide the UK's three largest credit reference agencies with details of customers' borrowing facilities and any repayment failures on their account.
Independent Online Edition > Source
UK Property Report
Nationwide said the average price of a home has shot up by 1.1% to £162,083 in March after stagnating in February. The fresh surge has pushed the year-on-year rate of increase up to 5.3%, the strongest for 10 months.
Source
China Property Report
Property prices in February rose 0.7 percent from January, down from January's 0.9 percent increase from December, according to a survey of property prices in 70 large and medium-sized cities on the mainland.
Source
Abu Dhabi Property Expo
The first edition of the ARABIAN PROPERTIES FORUM to be held on 2nd and 3rd April 2006 at the Abu Dhabi International Exhibition & Conference Centre will feature industry leaders representing top local and regional property development and real estate services companies.
Source
Dubai real estate firms investing $19b in Morocco
Two of Dubai's largest real estate companies, Emaar Properties and Dubai Holding, yesterday announced the signing of agreements with the Moroccan government to develop major real estate properties, with a combined value of nearly $19 billion.
Source
27 March 2006
International Media group buys PropertyNews.com
International Media group Independent News & Media has bought PropertyNews.com for an undisclosed sum. PropertyNews.com is the largest internet property site on the island of Ireland. It covers all of Northern Ireland and several counties in the Republic. Launched by Graham and Lorna Brown in 1998, it lists nearly 20,000 properties for sale, 4,000 of them in the Republic. Around 99% of estate agents in Northern Ireland list their properties on the site and it is estimated that about 90% of all properties for sale here at any given time are shown. Since expanding into the Republic last May the site has gained a market share of 70% in Donegal and an estimated 25% share across 10 other counties. INM, which owns The Belfast Telegraph, has also acquired the PropertyNews monthly newspaper, set up by the Browns in 1983.
26 March 2006
Realtor Becomes Rap Singer and Brings Greater Success to business
The urban rap music phenomenon has hit real estate with Realtor Phyllis D. Huguenin writing and recording the first rap single. Here is the direct link: http://www.myspace.com/therealestaterapsong
read more | digg story
UAE, Saudi considering to move reserves out of dollar
WASHINGTON — A number of Middle Eastern central banks said on Tuesday they would seek to switch reserves from the US greenback to euros. The United Arab Emirates said it was considering moving one-tenth of its dollar reserves to the euro, while the governor of the Saudi Arabian central bank condemned the decision by the United States to force Dubai Ports World to transfer its ownership to a ‘US entity’ .“Is it protectionism or discrimination? Is it okay for US companies to buy everywhere but it is not okay for other companies to buy the US?” said Hamad Saud Al Sayyari, the governor of the Saudi Arabian monetary authority.
Source
25 March 2006
Beijing house prices up near 20%
House prices in Beijing surged around 1,000 yuan (US$124.3) per square metre in the first two months of this year, up 17.3 per cent from the same period last year, according to the Beijing Construction Committee.The rise took place despite the central government's efforts to curb mounting house prices in major Chinese cities.
Source
Press Release: ULI Proposal to House More Than 300,000 New Orleans Residents
WASHINGTON (March 2006) — A proposal to finance the construction or reconstruction of more than 64,000 owner-occupied homes and 47,000 affordable rental units throughout New Orleans—providing housing for more than 300,000 residents—has been created by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) in conjunction with the housing subcommittee of the Bring New Orleans Back Commission and the New Orleans Neighborhood Development Collaborative.
For more information, contact Trisha Riggs at 202/624-7086; E-mail: priggs@uli.org
24 March 2006
GM sells GMAC mortgage unit for $9 billion
NEW YORK : "-- General Motors Corp. took another step back from the brink yesterday, announcing it has sold its commercial real estate business to generate nearly $9-billion (U.S.) in cash.
Analysts said the sale and the employee reduction plan unveiled this week are crucial steps for the money-losing auto maker, but that far more must be done before it can return to profitability.
GM, which lost $10-billion last year, is engaged in a multifront effort to stave off bankruptcy protection as it attempts to reduce its cost structure and halt the steep decline in its market shares.
GM's wholly owned financing arm, General Motors Acceptance Corp., closed the deal yesterday to sell its commercial mortgage unit to private investors for $1.5-billion, plus the repayment to GMAC of nearly $7.3-billion in intercompany loans.
The buyer of the 78-per-cent stake was an investor group led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., Five Mile Capital Partners LLC and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners.
GMAC said last August that it would sell 60 per cent of the commercial real estate division but instead held on to only 22 per cent."
Source
23 March 2006
Google Base Real Estate!?
Over the past 24 hours American & English users of Google have been reporting sightings of a Google Base search box which appears above the main web results when performing specific Google searches.
Scubajarhead on Webmaster World: “This is going to turn into a nightmare especially for the real estate searches. Thousands of real estate agents are just going to bulk upload data from the MLS and just cause a load of duplicate content. My clients spend thousands of hours creating unique content for their websites to get a first page listing for terms such as [large city] Real Estate. Its is very disheartening to see now Google directing traffic to their own product right on top of the natural listings. I think Google is heading down the wrong road with this addition to the SERPS. ” Developing ...
Puerto Rico's bond rating may be cut
(Bloomberg): Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth with more per-capita debt than any of the 50 states, may have its bond rating cut to near junk status because of chronic budget deficits and reliance on borrowing to plug the gaps, Standard & Poor's said.
Source
21 March 2006
City Lofts Group PLC Preliminary Results
LONDON, UNITED KINGDON--(CCNMatthews - March 21, 2006) -
City Lofts Group PLC (AIM:CTF), a leading developer of urban mixed-use property schemes primarily focused on residential apartments, today announces its Preliminary Results for the nine month period ended 31 December 2005.
Stuart Wright, Group Chief Executive of City Lofts Group PLC, commented:
"The Group has been investing in additional internal resources, especially in its management team. We have strengthened our project management, sales and marketing capabilities to lay further foundations for the significant growth and expansion of the City Lofts city centre residential development business. In addition we are progressing our plans for Vivacity, our complimentary residential management business. We continue to view the future with confidence."
For further information: City Lofts Group PLC
Stuart Wright, Group Chief Executive
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7834 2787
stuart@citylofts.co.uk
Nigel Denby, Group Finance Director
Tel: +44 (0) 1423 506 262
nigel@citylofts.co.uk
www.citylofts.co.uk
Media enquiries:Sarah Hollins/ Henry Harrison-Topham
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7398 7700
sarah.hollins@abchurch-group.com
www.abchurch-group.com
e-letter from Nicholas Gill: first4sale.com vs Rightmove - the follow up
Further to our discussion, I would like to correct certain statements that were made by “informed sources” in your follow up to your blog about the current war of words between Rightmove and the innovative internet estate agent first4sale.com. Those “informed sources” stated that first4sale didn’t really file a complaint and that Rightmove is the only property website not to be owned by a media company. Accordingly Rightmove was "the David in helping homemovers and looking to protect them!
Firstly I can absolutely confirm that first4sale.com has filed a complaint with the OFT which the OFT has acknowledged in writing. The OFT are, at our request, establishing whether Rightmove’s conduct in refusing to allow first4sale.com to list our properties on Rightmove’s website amounts to an abuse of their dominant position. The OFT are considering our complaint under Chapter II of the Companies Act 1998.
Secondly Rightmove is majority owned by several large estate agency firms whose own interests are best served if they are able to continue to restrict the new innovative low cost estate agents from establishing a position in the market. By continuing to do this Rightmove and their traditional estate agent owners will be able to continue to restrict competition and continue to charge high agency fees to the general public. Now who is the David and who is the Goliath!
Finally as Rightmove is a property portal that only lists Traditional Estate Agents properties, they will inevitably have a large share of the market. As however more and more people realise they can sell just as easily through first4sale.com, the traditional agents will start to lose their dominance, and the balance of power will for ever swing away from them.
Best regards
Nicholas Gill
First4sale.com – Director
Property industry hope for stamp duty changes
Property owners will be among those hoping to see changes to the way stamp duty is imposed in tomorrows budget.
Under the current arrangements, anyone selling a home worth over £250,000 has to pay three per cent of the sale price to the Treasury. A home that sells for as little as £1 underneath that threshold will only incur a levy of one per cent.
The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) is one of the many critics of the current system. "There is no reason for stamp duty as it is, the slab system means that if you move only one pound from 249,000 to 250,000 you could be slapped with a huge bill, it should be changed to a marginal tax in line with other taxes."
Source
20 March 2006
Gulf property exhibition opens
The eighth Muscat International Fair — International Trade and Industrial Exhibition and Gulf Property and Investment Exhibition — was officially opened yesterday by Sayyid Abdulla bin Hamad bin Saif Al Busaidy, president of State Audit Institution, in the presence of Sayyid Saud bin Ibrahim bin Saud Al Busaidi, minister of interior; Dr Juma bin Ali bin Juma, minister of manpower; undersecretaries, ambassadors, high-ranking government officials, top businessmen and other dignitaries.
Source
February sees UK mortgage slowdown
Mortgage lending slowed in February, according to both the British Bankers' Association and Council of Mortgage Lenders.
Source
New code to tighten buy-to-let mortgages
Responding to pressure from banks, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Council of Mortgage Lenders have agreed to amend lending guidelines in a bid to stamp out overgenerous lending in the buy-to-let market.
Source
Hip hop real estate
He's worked long hours to cultivate his connections among the social circles of media and entertainment. Notable on his roster of tenant clients are rappers Jay-Z and Sean "Puffy" Combs, along with media magnates Tommy Mottola and Harvey and Bob Weinstein. The media and entertainment industries have become Korman's toehold in the commercial real estate world -- one that he believes will become a stepping stone to larger customers. "My goal in the next five years is to be the number-one media and entertainment guy out there," he said. "Not only for the users, but for the parents. I'm talking Sony, Universal, BMG, Viacom, ComQuest, CBS, Disney, ABC. You name it -- Lance is the guy."
Source
Industry doubts R20
While Robert Tchenguiz’s R20 was forced to admit its interest in Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) last week, industry watchers remain unconvinced he will succeed. Mark Brumby of Oriel Securities believed it was “relatively unlikely” that a consortium led by R20 will buy M&B, since the suggested opening offer of around 510p was too low.
Source
17 March 2006
How to invest in offshore property
WHEN it floated last November, Hong Kong's Link REIT created a global sensation, attracting demand from offshore investors for $55 billion worth of shares. The lucky few who received allocations in the world's single largest property trust have enjoyed a richly rewarding experience.
Link
Update on Dubai property ownership law
Previously, foreigners who bought property in Dubai received a deed from the developor. These are effectively owned and controlled by Dubai's government and its ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, and his family.
"Passing a law that authorises foreigners to buy property is a real gain for the market and investors," said Mohammed Ali al-Abbar, chairman of Dubai-based EMAAR Properties.
Source
Korean authorities investigate suspicious deals
Regulators are probing 8,800 Koreans suspected of having acquired high-priced overseas real estate through illegitimate means, circumventing the foreign exchange rules. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said Friday that it has looked into suspicious offshore real estate purchases since December, examining the suspects’ foreign exchange transaction records in the past two years provided by the Bank of Korea (BOK) and other commercial banks. Developing...
MIPIM Dispatch: Experts predict international property growth to overcome interest rate hikes
Against a backdrop of rising global interest rates, property stocks look set to perform well in 2006, supported by legislation in the UK and Germany that could increase cross-border money flows into real estate, leading industry bodies said.
Link
16 March 2006
Dubai rules out automatic visa for property buyers
Expatriates who buy freehold property in Dubai do not automatically get a permanent residence visa or right to work in Dubai, a report said.
Source
BRITISH LAND property group, is in pole position to buy one of the most notable development sites in the City of London, The Times has learnt
Investors flock to Turkey
A 2003 law enabling foreigners to invest in real estate led to a boom in the mainly Muslim country. But a constitutional court ruling last year stopped foreigners buying property for several months, until a new law was passed at the end of 2005. Source
UK Housing market 'gathering pace'
The housing market recovery gathered pace in February, according to the latest survey by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors . It found that 17% more of its estate agent members in England and Wales saw house prices rise last month, compared to those that reported a fall. This was the best positive balance Rics has seen since June 2004
Related Story: House price inflation speeds up
Japanese Stocks Drop, Property Shares Fall
March 16 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese stocks declined, paced by property stocks such as Mitsubishi Estate Co., after a jump in the yield on 10-year government debt raised concern higher borrowing costs will trim developers' future profits. Source
WTC Rebuilding Talks Break Down
NEW YORK CITY-In what World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein calls a “temporary setback,” talks between his firm and Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials have broken down. Gov. George Pataki had set a March 14 deadline for them to resolve their differences regarding the rebuilding effort at the World Trade Center. Source
15 March 2006
Lloyds TSB sets up specialist property fund for Liverpool
LlOYDS TSB has become the second major bank to set up a specialist property fund for Liverpool, potentially worth hundreds of millions of pounds. A year ago Yorkshire Bank set aside £100m to be invested in property schemes in Merseyside. Initial demand was so high that YB soon doubled its fund to £200m.
Source
MIPIM Dispatch: Peter Rhodes interview
Newsblog Exclusive
This morning, we conducted a brief interview with Peter Rhodes, the influential and highly respected Managing Director of Reed Midem UK, the British office of Reed Midem, organizers of MIPIM property market expo; currently taking place in Cannes. This is MIPIM's 17th year anniversary, and its influence and exposure has increased dramatically in the past few years due to the rapid "international acceleration of property" Mr Rhodes said.
Mr Rhodes also confirmed to us that the attendance of this years conference is well over 21,000 as of yesterday (March 14th); a record for MIPIM and he expects that number to increase as the conference progresses. He described MIPIM as a place where "deals can be done, and business opportunities are abundant". Last year, London's business stand at MIPIM conducted over £100 billion worth of business according to Mr Rhodes.
This year, there are a lot of interesting projects on board; the highlights are Asian, East European and Russian markets, which are rapidly expanding. There's also the gathering of mayors and high ranking delegates from an array of the worlds most influential cities, including London, Paris, Montreal and St. Petersbourg; presenting an opportunity for civic leaders to discuss difficulties and to offer "cross border advice" Mr Rhodes stated.
2006 is a big year for Reed Midem, as they expand into Asia, with the launch of MIPIM Asia in Hong Kong later this year.
We expect to conduct a more detailed interview with Peter Rhodes in the not too distant future.
Central London "posh property" fund
via RatandMouse:
D&G Asset Management have announced an interesting opportunity for some prime central London property investment exposure. Pointing out that top properties in Belgravia and Kensington tend to rise quickly and dramatically in value within 24 months of a good City performance (yes, it's the bonus effect), they're to launch a Guernsey-based fund next month, with a minimum investment of £25,000. Link
South Africa plans to restrict foreign property ownership
President Mbeki’s recent announcement that restrictions will be introduced on foreigner’s property ownership this year sparked fresh debate around the possible impact they could have on the South African economy, especially general foreign investment.