Dubai Properties

In the latest survey conducted by Knight Frank on Prime Global Cities Index, United Arab Emirates (UAE) has recorded a 4% climb in property value in the first quarter of 2012. They are also the highest compared to other cities included in the survey.

Although they are the best performing location in the Middle East, their property values have only risen by 3% year-on-year.

The survey also stated that prices of prime property across the globe fell by 4% from January to March as the firm noted that investors are focusing on locations that have “low political risk, transparent legal systems, good security and preferably, a high-net-worth-individual-friendly regime”.

Another attraction factor Dubai has is it’s newly announced legislation which protects foreign real estate investors which also includes a law that prevents developers selling properties before at least 20% of a scheme has been constructed.

The law, which will preserve the rights of investors, is part of the Strategic Plan of the Government of Dubai. The act will also cover all stages of the development process and help to facilitate the relationship between developer and investor.

BSB Buildings

The Broad Group, a private company based in China who are global manufactures of a vary of products have managed to achieve the impossible by mastering the art of “instant” building which enables them to build up to 6-storeys in just 24 hours!

Their innovative flat pack techniques has allowed broad sustainable building (BSB) to finish a 3-storey workers cafeteria within a week.

With their recorded accomplishments, the company’s CEO Zhang Yue is setting his sights on building a 220-storey skyscraper which could rival London’s The Shard as the worlds tallest building and if Mr Zhang get’s his way, it will also give The Shards and any other future buildings a run for it’s money and time as he plans to complete any possible skyscraper within four months!.

Besides the recently completed canteen and their ambitions for a skyscraper, BSB managed has also built a 30-storey hotel in December within 15 days.

According to Mr Zhang, – ‘In the past, people find it hard to believe in the fact that it is possible to build a six story building in a day or so or in more than 10 days we could build a 30-story building, especially as we were building these buildings very cheaply, using even less money than is needed to build a traditional one.

People used to say – “You’re using so much so-called technology, isn’t it expensive?” My response was – “Firstly, I can build it that quickly, secondly, I can build it that cheaply, and thirdly, once it’s built, it’s more comfortable than the rest”.

The whole building process is very simple and the modules are similar to those like children’s building blocks. The concept is based on factory-made ‘modules’, which include all the necessary pipes and cables before they are slotted into place.

Which means that 90% of the work is done before the builders are even present on site. It also helps drive costs down, with the prefab buildings coming at a price of about 4,000 yuan (£396) per square metre. This means the 4,500-square metre canteen came to a total of 18million yuan (£1.78million).

The flat modules, the largest of which are about 13ft by 49ft and form the buildings’ floors and ceilings, are prepared in two factories in Yueyang, near the BSB headquarters in the provincial capital Changsha.

As amazing and hassle free as it seems, Mr Zhang insists on leaving a legacy of buildings that last after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake caused many poor quality buildings to collapsed, which claimed some 87,000 lives.

BSB rose to fame after their time-lapse video of the T30 Hotel project was uploaded online with over 5 million views.

A billionaire who founded the company after making his fortune in eco-friendly air conditioning, Mr Zhang cares deeply about building thimgs that last, that are eco-friendly and secured.

He believes that there is an urgent need for construction security, especially energy-saving in construction, and this touches on conserving materials. To truly safeguard humanity, and guarantee we live in security, regardless of where, structures should be all-steel construction.

History

Broad Group is a private company based in Changsha, China. Since 1996, it has been the global leader in manufacturing central air conditioning non-electric absorption chillers that are powered by natural gas and waste heat. Broad Group currently export products to over 60 countries.

They are one of the few Chinese manufacturing companies that has been widely recognized for its green policies and commitment to climate change. It has expanded its business in recent years to include other energy saving products and sustainable buildings.

Portuguese Properties

Thanks to the current offer made by Portugal’s banking sector,who are offering higher Loan-To-Value (LTV) mortgages, the property market is looking more and more attractive to investors.

According to Stephen Anderson, managing director of infinito real, an estate agency in Portugal, interested buyers are most likely to obtain a 100% LTV loan on repossessed homes which are being sold by the nation’s financial institutions.

He also stated that with yields as high as 5%, investing in Portugal’s property market will prove to be beneficial. With a stronger exchange rate versus a year ago, this also means that prices are even more affordable, with a 20% gain to be had on sterling to euros.

More and more homeowners are currently switching from owning a property to renting. With mortgages that are too high, they are left with no choice but to rent.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors/Ci Portuguese Housing Market had conducted a survey last month which highlighted the country’s rental sector and found an increasing number of households who are renting instead of owning a property, which in return has helped boost the rental market

Sales for properties in Portugal have been weak for some time now so the current boom in the rental market is definitely good news.

According to Financial Times, property prices are lower in central and northern Portugal, compared to those in the popular tourist areas further south and around Lisbon.

With the latest move made by the banking sector, estate agencies and developers alike are hoping that this will help shed some light on Properties in Portugal and hopefully will bring about changes in sales as well.

Malaysia's retail property sector

Savills latest report on property investments in the Asia-Pacific region has found that many investors are turning their attention to Malaysia’s retail property sector.

The firm also believes that there will be a “Major shopping centre transactions” from April to June, with several deals currently in the pipeline.

Apart from the retail sector, Malaysia’s hospitality sector is also on the rise as there have been an increasing number of local businesses who are investing their finances into this part of Malaysia’s commercial property market.

In conclusion, Savills believes that the success of Malaysia’s retail sector can be attributed to it’s tourism industry as the country recorded some 25 million tourist entering the country last year with receipts edging close to RM60 billion (£12.1 billion).

In the latest Global Commercial Property survey published by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, sentiment among commercial real estate professionals was largely positive for Malaysia.

Rental in Malaysia for the coming quarter is believed to be in positive territory,while the supply of distressed assets is set to be balanced by demand. However, capital value and investment expectations were both slightly negative.

Image Courtesy Of - DOT

Designers design, creative people create, put these two fields together and you will get the latest blueprint for the next most outlandish, over-the-top inventions for a hotel.

Already home to the worlds tallest building in the world – the Burj Khalifa, Dubai has come up with it’s newest challenge – a half-submerged hotel, complete with underwater rooms that offers it’s guest a look into life under the sea. The “Water Discus Hotel” – a spaceship-shaped building perched in the water, will be built all across the region.

According to Deep Ocean Technology (DOT) who are responsible for the hotels design, They hope that this will somewhat fulfil the desires of holidaymakers who are keen to explore life below the ocean.

Big InvestConsult, the Swiss company behind the development of the hotel said “Today, the advent of new technology made the heart of the ocean a setting not only for diving, but also for luxurious holidays”.

The hotel consist of two main discs, one above and one below. Connected to them will be a three-legged pillar which will contain lifts and stairways that will serve as a means of transportation for the guest to travel to the surface and back down below.

The submerged disc will be 10m deep and has 21 rooms which is connected to the submerged dive centre and bar. A special lighting system will help illuminate the flora and fauna outside the glassed rooms and each room will be equip with the highest technology, allowing guest to zoom in and admire the tiniest creatures using macro photography.

As for the top disc, it will be built high enough to enable it to withstand a tsunami or any flooding while in light of any possible threatening situations, the underwater disc will automatically surface at once.

As impressive as it this latest hotel may be, the “Water Discus Hotel” will not be the worlds first underwater room hotel. That feat was accomplished by Maldives Ragali Island Resort.

Even so, this is still something to marvel at.

Image Courtesy Of - DOT

Image Courtesy Of - DOT

Global Property Market

Knight Frank, the global real estate consultants recently conducted a research ranking countries according to their highest average growth in housing prices from the fourth quarter of 2006 to the same period in 2011.

Here are the list of the top 10 hottest properties locations worldwide.

10. Switzerland
5-year price growth: 27.5 percent

Home to some of the world’s most expensive cities with some of the world’s most coveted real estate, Switzerland’s real estate has always been sought after by the rich and famous.

Knight Frank picked Switzerland’s St. Moritz, Gstaad, and Geneva among the 10 most-expensive places, measured by square-meter costs.

The average square-meter price of a prime property in Geneva was $31,900 in the fourth quarter of 2011, while the square-foot cost was $3,000.

9. Malaysia
5-year price growth: 28.5 percent

With house prices spiraling out of control, Malaysian government has been considering doubling the entry price for foreigners who are interested in buying properties in the country.

With pressures increasing from the middle-class Malaysians who feel priced out of the real estate market by overseas buyers, the government are considering raising the minimum price of homes that foreigners can purchase from $162,972 to $325,944.

In the third quarter of last year, home prices rose 6.6% year on the year, according to Knight Frank. (Fourth quarter prices were not available.) Prime property in the capital Kuala Lumpur cost about $5,000 per square meter or $500 per square foot in 2011.

7. Norway (tie)
5-year price growth: 28.7 percent

Switzerland and Norway are the only European countries to make the list of the world’s hottest housing markets. Oil-rich Norway is set to expand 2.7 percent in 2012 unlike most of their European counterparts that are currently facing a gloomy economic outlook.

The low interest rates have caused citizens to take on debt to buy property contributing to a jump in prices that gained 6.8% year on year in March.

Another incentive for Norwegians to buy property is a 28% tax deduction on interest payments but an unexpected cut in interest rates to 1.5% in March has further raises the risk of an already developing housing bubble. The IMF warned in February that Norwegian home prices were up to 20% overvalued.

7. Canada (tie)
5-year price growth: 28.7 percent

Unlike the U.S who are still recovering from the 2008 global financial crisis, Canada’s housing market has managed prosper over the past few years.

Existing home sales in Canada increased 8.6% in February compared to a year earlier, while housing starts beat expectations in March to 215,600 units, up from 205,300 in February, largely due to a surge in apartment construction.

Ontario, the countries most popular location has seen heavy investment come into condominiums, had multiple urban starts shoot up more than 50% in March while Vancouver, Canada’s most expensive property location, saw property prices in prime markets jump 10.4% in the third quarter of 2011 from the period last year.

In December, the average price for a residential property in Vancouver was $734,207, compared with the national average of $358,261.

6. Taiwan
5-year price growth: 30.1 percent

Taipei, Taiwan’s biggest metropolitan center whose rapid urbanization has led to crowded housing conditions is also one of the world’s most densely populated countries.

Though housing prices rose to more than 30% on average between 2006 and 2011, Taiwan saw prices dip 4.1% in 2011. The drop in prices comes as a result of the tightening measures like the “luxury tax” that the government implemented last year.

A 10% tax is now levied on any investment property sold within two years, rising to 15% if the property is sold within one year.

5. Colombia
5-year price growth: 39.4 percent

Being the only South American country to make the list, Colombia’s rapid economic expansion, with GDP growth of nearly 6% in 2011, its highest in four years, has led to an increase in house buying especially among the growing middle-class citizens.

With it’s decade-long military offensive against illegal armed groups, making it safer to do business in the country, Colombia’s real estate market has managed to attract a flood of foreign investment, which has in turn boosted property prices. Foreign direct investment jumped more than 30% in the first quarter of 2012 to $4.2 billion compared to the period last year.

The country saw it’s property prices increased by 3.2% year on year in 2011 while new home sales were up 19% in the first half of last year compared to the period a year earlier.

4. Singapore
5-year price growth: 50.5 percent

According to Knight Frank, the average price of a prime property in the city-state was $25,600 per square meter or $2,600 per square foot in the fourth quarter of 2011, making Singapore the most expensive real estate market in Southeast Asia.

The country also comes in third place as the most expensive city to rent high-end property, after Hong Kong and Tokyo. The low interest rates and an increase of immigration in recent years have helped boost demands for homes in the city.

While foreigners make up more than one-third of Singapore’s 5.2 million people, the governments recently slapped foreign property buyers with an additional stamp duty equal to 10% of the property value in a bid to cool off the market as discontent from the public over pricing increased.

Due to the new ruling imposed on foreign buyers, Singapore’s property prices marked their first quarterly fall in nearly three years of 0.1% in January to March this year.

3. Israel
5-year price growth: 54.5 percent

Once again, Israel comes in as the third-hottest housing market in the world since 2009, when house prices jumped more than 21%, followed by 16% growth in 2010.

In 2011, the government was met with demonstrators regarding high home prices in Israel, with protesters asking to cool the market down. They made headlines with tent cities last July to voice concerns over housing shortage and high rentals. The demonstrations seem to have had an effect on property prices, which fell 1.2 percent in 2011.

In February, an interest rate cut from 3.25% to 2.5% has marked an increased in demand for housing in Israel with new mortgages issued by banks jumping more than 14% in March compared to the two pervious months.

2. Hong Kong
5-year price growth: 93.7 percent

As a major global financial center, Hong Kong properties are one of the worlds most expensive properties to own, even overtaking London last year as the world’s most expensive office rental market.

According to Knight Frank, the average price of a home in prime areas was about $47,500 per square meter or $4,400 per square feet — the fourth-highest in the world.

With the continuous growth in wealth by the mainland Chinese along with China’s property restrictions, this has led to an influx of mainland buyers into Hong Kong’s residential market in recent years with 3 out of 10 deals in Hong Kong’s luxury real estate markets are done by mainland Chinese buyers.

According to market estimation, the year-to-date prices have grown by a more moderate 6.7% while sales of luxury homes valued over $1.29 million felled by 23.6% in February following a 17.4% fall in January.

1. China
5-year price growth: 110.9 percent

It’s no surprise that China comes in on the number 1 spot of the worlds hottest property market list. With housing prices in cities like Beijing and Shanghai surging by over 110% in the past five years as the world’s second biggest economy continues to experience rapid growth.

Owning a home in Shanghai’s prime areas will set you back some $19,400 per square meter or $1,800 per square foot in the fourth quarter of 2011. In Beijing, the same home cost an average $17,400 per square meter or $1,600 per square foot.

The government has spend much of the last two years reining in red-hot house prices by limiting multiple home purchases, raising interest rates and hiking bank reserve requirements and in so doing has seen the second half of last year’s home prices marking a fifth straight month-on-month drop to 0.1% in February.

Despite their efforts to cool off property prices in the country, home prices are still far from a reasonable level. Even so, Premier Wen Jiabao has vowed that the government will not relax the country’s tightening restrictions this year. House prices in China is expected to fall between 10% and 20% in 2012.

China’s biggest developer by sales, Vanke, said sales rose 24% year on year — the second-straight month of gains. While the country’s largest developer by market value, China Land Overseas, reported that sales in February hit $1.7 billion, up 209% from the same month a year ago.

Brazil's Zona Norte in Natal

Brazil’s rapidly expanding suburb of Zona Norte in Natal holds huge opportunities for real estate investment as a recent study also reveals an increase in interest from foreign investors.

Situated on the North-East of the country, Natal is the fasted growing city in Brazil, with some 300,000 people moving there in the last few years.

Due to that, Obelisk International has seen an increase in demand for properties in the middle class district of Zona Norte.

Besides the increasing number of people choosing to relocate to the suburb, new businesses that has been springing up since 2007 has also boosted the real estate sector in Zona North.

Managing director of DLH property, Dean Thomas, a developer operating in North-East of Brazil believes that due to the country’s strong economic growth, an increasing middle class and consumer spending power are just a few of the reasons why people are finding that investing in Brazilian property will prove to be beneficial.

History

Zona Norte or North Zone, is one of the four administrative areas of the city of Natal in the state of Rio Grande do Norte and the largest, both in area and in population. It is currently the fastest growing region in the city, forgotten for years, this area is undergoing an intense economic growth.

Its inhabitants are mostly of lower middle class and lower class and this urban area has two well-defined paths, sets regulated have basic infrastructure, while those suffering from unregulated urban disarrangement.

The North Zone has a real estate scenario almost entirely horizontal, and numerous open spaces, allowing a better quality of life for the population. There, 99.13% of people live in houses, and only 0.71% in apartments.

Australian Real Estate

The latest annual report by Australia’s foreign investment review board (FIRB) shows that Brits are the top investors in Australian real estate compared to any other nationality of overseas financier in 2010-11.

According to the organisation, investors from the UK spent AU$4.61 billion (£2.94 billion) on property in Australia during this period. Coming in second is China while investors from US are in the 3rd spot.

The report also revealed that the state of Victoria is the preferred location for foreign investment, which has attracted some AU$11.23 billion in funds. New South Wales (NSW) comes in second on the list with AU$7.61 billion spent here.

Paul Braddick – the head of property research at ANZ explained that there are a number of factors working together to make the state more appealing to investors, with rental growth and improved housing affordability contributing to the uplift in confidence.

Earlier this month, the McKell Institute said a number of steps can be taken to make housing more affordable in general across Australia which includes – planning reforms to help increase building and swapping stamp duty for a new land tax to avoid plots being bought but not built on.

Australian Property Monitors economist Andrew Wilson believes that the key is to follow economic activity that will stimulate property demand and take a long-term outlook on capital growth.

In other parts of Australia, Cunnamulla in Queensland also offers homes at a low price with the average home costing just AUD$59,500 (£38,300). The location topped a list of places in the country where it is possible to buy homes for under AU$100,000

Other locations in Australia that offers affordable homes are –

Roseberry in Tasmania (AU$70,500,)
Bourke in New South Wales (AU$75,500)
Pinaroo in South Australia (AU$80,000)
Minyip in Victoria (AU$82,500).

Eastern & Oriental Bhd

Malaysia’s lifestyle property development group, Eastern & Oriental Bhd (E&O ), has agreed to purchase a prime freehold office cum retail building in Central London, also known as Princes House, worth £20.25million (RM 99.63m).The purchase of the property is expected to be completed by June 2012.

The property in London was acquired by Oriental Light while the vendor, Glasgow city council, acted as the administering authority for the Stratclyde pension fund.

E&O has always expressed it’s intention to set up an office in London as a means to showcase it’s projects as well as for business developments as they are keen on exploring the business opportunities in the UK.

Commenting on the company’s purchase of the London property, E&O’s managing director, Datuk Terry Tham Ka Hon says that they are very excited to successfully acquire it’s first major overseas property purchase in London’s capital and that the prime freehold building located which is in Westminster Borough, is close to Covent Garden, The Royal Opera House as well as the West Ends famous theatres as well as the iconic hotel such as The Savoy.

E&O History

Eastern & Oriental Berhad operates in the Single-family housing construction sector. Eastern & Oriental Berhad is engaged in investment holding and provision of management services to its subsidiaries. The Company operates in three segments: Properties, Hospitality, and Investment and Other.

In properties, the Company is engaged in development and investment in residential and commercial properties. In Hospitality, the Company is engaged in manangement and operations of hotels and restaurants.

The Company’s subsidiaries include E&O Property Development Berhad, Dynamic Degree Sdn. Bhd., E&O Developers Sdn. Bhd., Eastern & Oriental Hotel Sdn. Bhd., E&O Leisure Sdn. Bhd., Major Liberty Sdn. Bhd. and Matrix Promenade Sdn. Bhd. In January 2012, the Company acquired E&O Hotel Management (M) Sdn Bhd.

Spanish Properties

Fitch Ratings recently released a report revealing that the value of repossessed properties in Spain has fallen by an average of 48%.

This is due to the fact that the majority of mortgages associated with real estate assets had a loan-to-value ratio of 80% or higher.

Juan David Garcia, senior director and head of the company’s structured finance team in Spain, said that property prices are expected to continue falling, due to the recessionary environment and severe dislocation of the Spanish property market.

He goes on to say that the rate at which the price correction occurs will depend on how the banks manage their portfolios of distressed Spanish real estate.

Based on the latest data published by Tinsa, the average property values in the country dropped by 11.5% between March this year and the same month in 2011. The organisation added the price of homes has declined by 28.6% since its peak in December 2007.