Archived posts about Real Estate | Property Investment for February 2012

Brazil had one of the shortest recessions in the world when the international financial crisis hit. In fact, you could barely call it a recession at all...

According to the latest release of data from CBRE, the office sector is continuing to perform well on a global basis. In its Global Office Rent and Global Capital Value Indices the firm revealed global office rents in Q4 2011 were 5% higher than Q4 2010...

The fundamentals of the US commercial property market are showing signs of improvement, with vacancy rates expected to drop over the coming year...

This week (bear in mind it's only Monday afternoon as I write) a Buy to Let millionaire has announced he is standing to be the next Kent Police Commissioner stating that he has the financial skills to help run Kent Police...

Dubai GDP is thought to have grown by 3% year on year, which is a massive improvement on the previous year. This is because of strong performances in aviation, hospitality, retailing, oil prices and even real estate...

The British Property Federation (BPF) has thrown its weight behind a recently announced government review that will examine the barriers for institutional investment in the private rented sector (PRS)....

Towards the back end of last year it was identified that one of the biggest problems faced by European real estate (along with that in much the rest of the world) was the lack of financing available from banks, especially senior lending...

There will be a greater number of transactions in the UK hotel market during 2012, with one expert stressing activity in this sector of the real estate industry is far from stagnant...

China, China, China, oh crystal china ball please give us a sign; will the Chinese government's measures stifle foreign investment in Chinese real estate?

Research released earlier this month from the Bank of Scotland and the Halifax reports that the value of private housing stock in Scotland has increased over the past decade by 131%, representing the largest increase across the UK...

The UK housing market faces a lost decade, according to research by Collins Stewart. The firm has said that the government's efforts to boost mortgage lending could do more harm than good, plunging first time buyers into negative equity when prices continue to fall...

This year is expected to provide opportunities for residential property investment, with housing markets in the majority of English and Welsh regions described as "quite attractive" in a new report....

There are significant opportunities for property investors in the student accommodation market. This is according to Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), which outlined the scope of the sector and the room for growth in a recent presentation....

According to a report on the Shanghai Statistics Bureau website, Shanghai property developers borrowed a total of 74.1 billion Yuan last year. This represents a fall of 9.6% compared to 2010, which conversely saw lending increase by 28.6% on 2009...

Many people who make property investments in London are not doing so to generate significant returns on their cash, but in order to preserve their wealth...

The pressure on banks in Europe to get rid of bad property loans off their books has not eased amidst the worsening sovereign debt crisis that seemingly no-one was has the solution to. In fact they are under more pressure to sell before the impending regulation changes...

Over the next five years, rental values for London offices will be supported by a lack of Grade A space, rather than by a significant increase in tenant demand...

Spain, Ireland, the UK and the US have a pretty similar story to tell when it comes to their path from economic glory to gory. Obviously there are differences in one way and another, but all of them made it too easy to get too much credit, especially mortgage credit...

The principal drivers behind this continued localised price surge are equity-rich domestic buyers who are choosing to reinvest in the robust London market boosted by affluent overseas purchasers seeking a safe haven for their wealth...

Chinese property prices continue to fall, but the government remains stalwart in its determination to maintain the stranglehold it has on the once-runaway market...

Investors with UK commercial property assets as part of their portfolio may want to check the buildings they own will meet the new standards for energy efficiency that are due to come into force in April 2018....

Having almost reached the point of blocking anything to do with news about Buy to Let lending and how rental prices are going to the moon, it would appear the trend in what the press thinks we need to read about the property market is changing...

Developers simply can't build luxury residential homes in central London fast enough as rents continue to soar amid a flourishing sector - so much so that they have started converting old office buildings into swanky new pads...

Yields from commercial real estate investments in the UK were broadly stable in the year to January 2012, with eight out of the 13 sectors surveyed by Savills recording no movement in this 12-month period....

Property investment experts are predicting another strong year for German property investment this year, as it continues to be perceived as a safe-harbour in the Euro-sovereign debt storm...

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) has made several suggestions about how the government could help encourage institutional investors to enter the UK's residential property sector....

The UK was the most active market in Europe in December 2011 and January 2012 with 4.9 billion Euros invested during the period. It beat France in second place with 4.2 billion Euros and Germany...

Prime property investments will continue to be the main focus of those with money to plough into Europe's real estate sectors over the coming year...

International buyers looking for property investments in London are increasingly seeking out large apartments, typically with over 5,000 sq ft of space...

It has been said that a government has limited control over what it can do to influence things like property price growth, but this isn't so in China, it has near-total control. After easing us in gently from April 2010...

Fewer employment vacancies in London's financial sector and tenants seeking lower living costs have combined to push rents down in January...

Demand for distressed real estate investments climbed during the final quarter of 2011, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) Global Distressed Property Monitor...

Investors showed increased interest in buying land in Romania's Bucharest-Ilfov County region in 2011 according to new data...

Investment in Russian real estate went through the roof last year; beating records set at the height of the boom in 2008 fuelled by massively increasing confidence in the market according to the latest reports...

Investors are continuing to target prime retail real estate assets, despite the current economic difficulties and low consumer confidence...

It would seem no matter where you look at the moment – Buy to Let is hogging the news. Blooming, booming, flourishing and no end of adjectives adorn the headlines; all in a bid to flog the concept to the public that having someone else paying your mortgage is a good idea. On closer inspection of the bigger picture however...

According to some experts the mounting up of positive metrics across consecutive months can only be interpreted as showing that the market has bottomed. But the market hasn't bottomed, and nor will it for at least another year, according to other experts. So, what's the truth here?

Using equity to fund the purchase of real estate investments has become more popular than debt financing. This is the conclusion of a report published by Savills, which revealed the proportion of property transactions that are covered by mortgages has dropped over the last decade....

After a relatively disappointing 2011, hotels in the UK have been advised by hotel consultancy HVS London to focus on starting or completing refurbishments to their property in an effort to counter the on-going recession...

According to new data from Jones Lang la Salle the growth in prime office rents in Q4 marked the 8th consecutive quarter of growth in the sector. The data shows that prime office rents were up 0.8% in Q4...

The performance of UK commercial real estate worsened slightly in January, compared to the previous month. Research released by CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) noted that total monthly returns declined...

Transactions involving the purchase of 50 or more residential units increased by 44% year on year in Germany last year, with 6.12 billion Euros transacted over the course of the year according to new data...

Over the course of 2011, prime office markets around the world put in a strong performance, recording six per cent rental growth in the final quarter of the year, compared to the same three-month period in 2010....

We have all heard recently about the unprecedented rental boom in the UK, but as a consequence of what created the boom, landlords now face a new threat...

The volume of investment flooding into London's residential new-build property market from overseas investors has far outpaced that from domestic buyers...

Can the UK property market cope with a double-dip recession? There are just so many variables. So many things affecting the answer to a massively different degree between their best and worst case scenarios, and all of them intertwined and affecting each other's outcomes...

Pricewaterhousecoopers has just released its Emerging Trends in European Real Estate report for 2012 with some very interesting data...

The number of cross-border real estate investments made in 2011 was significantly higher than in 2010. In its year-end Global Capital Flow report, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) revealed cross-border transactions were up by...

Wealthy Middle Eastern and Russian buyers are, along with Brits taking over from Chinese and European Union buyers as dominant in the Prime Central London market according to a new report...

Despite the take-up of London offices falling by 27 per cent in 2011, investors in the sector still have reason to be upbeat about the market's future prospects...

Rental and capital value growth prospects for commercial real estate in Europe are lagging behind other world regions...

Real Estate Investment Trusts dominated the market with 50% of acquisitions according to the data. Experts are predicting that New York will remain the strongest market in the world for hotel investment this year...

The value of residential properties in the UK remained largely unchanged between December and January, while prices fell by 1.6 per cent year-on-year...