Prices are rising even as foreclosures across the US doubled in July (SAN FRANCISCO) Luxury home prices continued to rise in some of California’s wealthiest communities, according to a survey by First Republic Bank, even as the state posted the highest number of homes entering foreclosure in decades. High-end buyers shrugged off a nationwide housing […]
Archive | August 23, 2007
HSBC offers home loans with payment holiday
NEW borrowers with HSBC’s variable rate home loans are to be allowed to defer their repayments for a month each year, six months after taking out a loan. The bank, which announced the new ‘payment holiday’ feature this week, said each deferred monthly instalment will be added to the outstanding balance on the loan, which […]
CapitaLand eyes full control of 1 George Street: sources
Ergo’s 50% stake in office building may be priced at $2,500 psf or more (SINGAPORE) CapitaLand will gain full ownership of One George Street if negotiations to buy German insurer Ergo’s 50 per cent stake in the 23-storey award-winning office building are successful. BT understands that the Singapore-listed property company is in talks to buy […]
Developers in China rush to raise funds
Huge appetite for financing reflects Beijing’s tightening grip on bank lending (SHANGHAI) Property developer Gemdale Corp said yesterday that it would raise about 20 billion yuan (S$4 billion) selling shares and bonds – part of an unprecedented series of fund-raisings in China’s booming real estate sector. The scramble to raise funds reflects the breakneck growth […]
UK home price inflation seen slowing
(LONDON) British house price inflation looks set to slow sharply next year as affordability constraints are compounded by tighter lending conditions, according to Nationwide, Britain’s biggest building society. A reluctance to extend credit has sent funding costs on money markets rocketing in recent days, putting pressure on lenders to pass these costs on, Nationwide’s chief […]
Macquarie looking to develop Reits in China
Talks with regulators and investors nearing fruition, says exec (BEIJING) Macquarie Group Ltd, Australia’s biggest securities firm, is seeking to develop real estate trusts in China, even though financial markets are being roiled by a credit crunch and as China clamps down on property speculators. Macquarie is in talks with regulators and institutional investors, including […]
Shanghai to curb property buying by foreign firms
(SHANGHAI) China’s biggest city plans to tighten controls on purchases of property by foreign companies to help cool surging real estate prices, a newspaper report said yesterday. ‘We no longer encourage foreign companies to purchase en bloc properties rather than develop their own,’ the state-run newspaper Shanghai Daily quoted Liu Jinping, head of the city’s […]
CapitaLand unveils another Viet project
CAPITALAND has signed a conditional joint venture (JV) agreement with Azure City Co to develop a 1,200-unit high-rise condominium project in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This brings CapitaLand’s pipeline of residential units in Vietnam to 2,800 homes, after venturing there in 2006. CapitaLand will take a 75 per cent stake in the JV for […]
It’s official: Riau islands get FTZ status – for 70 yrs
The three free zones will be run by a new supervisory council, management bodies IN JAKARTA AT long last, the Riau islands of Batam, Bintan and Karimun have been officially designated as free trade zones (FTZs) – a big step towards the more extensive benefits of becoming a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). The three long-awaited […]
UAE annual mortgage lending jumps 86% in Q1
(DUBAI) United Arab Emirates mortgage lending increased an annual 86 per cent in the first quarter as foreigners bought property in the Gulf state. Outstanding loans to buy homes rose to 42 billion dirhams (S$17.4 billion), the central bank said in its quarterly statistical bulletin published yesterday on its website. Bank lending for mortgages has […]
MMP Reit takes full control of mall in Chengdu
100% stake represents yield accretion of 3.4% on annualised basis INSTEAD of acquiring a 50 per cent stake, Macquarie MEAG Prime Real Estate Investment Trust (MMP Reit) is now taking full control of Renhe Spring Department Store in Chengdu, China, for 350 million yuan (S$70.3 million). MMP Reit had in April this year announced that […]
US architecture firms’ July billings rise
(LOS ANGELES) Billings by US architecture firms rose in July for the fifth month, nearing their all-time high and indicating construction of commercial properties including warehouses and offices likely will increase into next year. The Architecture Billings Index rose to 60 last month from 59.3 in June, the Washington-based American Institute of Architects said yesterday. […]
URA may release more transitional office sites
The first such tender for a 15-yr leasehold Newton plot attracts 11 bids (SINGAPORE) The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is expected to release more transitional office sites after the maiden tender yesterday for a plot on a 15-year lease next to Newton MRT Station attracted a whopping 11 bids. The highest offer of $37 million […]
Mortgage crisis widens at Accredited, HSBC, Lehman
NEW YORK – The US mortgage and credit crisis deepened on Wednesday, as Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co, HSBC Holdings and Lehman Brothers Holdings announced a total of 3,400 job cuts, as concern mounted about the longer-term impact on the economy. Accredited, a subprime mortgage lender, said it stopped taking loan applications and would cut […]
US architecture firms’ July billings rise
(LOS ANGELES) Billings by US architecture firms rose in July for the fifth month, nearing their all-time high and indicating construction of commercial properties including warehouses and offices likely will increase into next year. The Architecture Billings Index rose to 60 last month from 59.3 in June, the Washington-based American Institute of Architects said yesterday. […]
ECB to lend $82b to banks, may still raise rate
FRANKFURT – THE European Central Bank (ECB) said it will lend 40 billion euros (S$82 billion) to banks for three months to further support a ‘normalisation’ of the money market and that it may still increase the key rate. The ECB decided to ‘conduct a supplementary liquidity- providing longer-term refinancing operation’, it said in a […]
Fed ‘cautiously upbeat’ bourses will stabilise
TOKYO – UNITED States Federal Reserve officials are cautiously optimistic that the steps they have taken to relieve a squeeze in credit markets are working, The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. It added that the Fed may wait until its next policy meeting before considering a cut in the federal funds rate. The paper said […]
Sub-prime crisis infects $459b of money market funds
Some of the largest funds invest in debt packages backed by risky mortgage loans LOS ANGELES – MONEY market funds were invented to offer investors better returns than bank savings accounts while providing a high degree of safety. Most of the US$2.5 trillion (S$3.8 trillion) in these funds is invested in assets like United States […]
$37M TOP BID – Scotts Road office site draws strong interest
A SHORT-TERM office site at Scotts Road has attracted keen interest from developers. With the close of its tender yesterday, 11 bids had come in for the 15-year leasehold site next to Newton MRT Station. The top bid, from Scotts Spazio, was $37 million, or $219.40 per sq ft (psf) of gross floor area. The […]
Beware the bubble fixes of Greenspan era
TOSHIHIKO Fukui is looking more and more like Asia’s answer to Alan Greenspan. It’s exactly what many Japanese politicians had hoped for. When Mr Fukui became Bank of Japan (BOJ) governor in March 2003, lawmakers urged him to be the ‘Greenspan of Japan, if not Asia’. It was a bow to the then Federal Reserve […]
