International | South China Morning Post

Warehouse demand remains strong in Japan, says GLP trust

Japanese real estate investment trust GLP J-REIT, which has risen more than 20 per cent since its initial public offering in December in Tokyo, expects demand for warehouses in Japan to remain...

Housing affordability improves in Canada in fourth quarter

Small declines in home prices and mortgage rates made Canadian home ownership slightly more affordable in the fourth quarter of 2012, the second straight improvement, and soft home buyer demand...

Australian home asking prices on the rise

Asking prices rose 0.4 per cent for apartments and 1.5 per cent for houses in the 90 days to February 19 across the nation's eight major cities, the Sydney-based researcher said.

Morgan Stanley pays US$1.2b for Russian mall in largest retail purchase

A fund managed by Morgan Stanley acquired Metropolis Shopping and Entertainment Mall from Capital Partners, the Kazakh developer that opened the property in 2009, the bank said.

NZ home prices expected to keep rising this year

Sixty-six per cent of respondents in a survey last month expected values to increase over the next year compared with 64 per cent in October, ASB Bank said in an e-mailed report. The proportion...

Tailoring to China buyers

It has been estimated that there are now about 4,000 Chinese-run clothing factories established in Prato, traditional Tuscan stronghold of the Italian textile industry and, as businesses come,...

Prime Hong Kong office rents fell 24pc in 2012: Cushman & Wakefield

London's West End has assumed Hong Kong's mantle as the world's most expensive place to lease an office, after rents in Central fell sharply last year as a result of the global economic downturn,...

Canadian homes 10pc overvalued, says IMF

The International Monetary Fund, in its annual report on Canada, warns that authorities may have to intervene a fifth time in the mortgage market if personal debt levels do not stabilise.

Singapore home sales rise 43pc in wake of cooling action

Singapore home prices reached a record high in the fourth quarter amid low interest rates, raising concerns of a housing bubble and prompting the government to introduce its seventh round of...

New US housing starts expected to have cooled in January, analysts say

Builders started work on 920,000 houses at an annual rate following December's 954,000 pace, which was the fastest since June 2008, according to the median forecast of 73 economists surveyed by...

BRITAIN

Increased interest from buyers pushes British home prices to 5-year high

Prices sought rose 2.8 per cent from January to £235,741 (HK$2.82 million), property listing giant Rightmove said in a report published this week. They increased 1.1 per cent from a year earlier....

Swiss banks told to rein in lending or face restrictions as bubble fears grow

Switzerland's government, at the urging of the Swiss National Bank, last week ordered banks to hold additional capital as a buffer against risks posed by the country's biggest property boom in two...

Tax havens remain upbeat

Where do the wealthy go when the taxman demands too much? The British Isles is one choice. Positioning themselves as fully-fledged tax havens, the Isle of Man and Channel Islands, such as Jersey...