IPIN Live - Archived News for February 2012

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...

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...

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....

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...

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....

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...

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...

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

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....

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....

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

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...