The Palm Islands is a series of artificial islands in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on which major commercial and residential developments have and will be constructed. The islands are the largest land reclamation projects in the world and will result in the world’s largest artificial islands. They are being constructed by Nakheel Properties, a property developer in the United Arab Emirates, who hired the Dutch dredging and marine contractor Van Oord, one of the world’s specialists in land reclamation. The islands are The Palm Jumeirah, The Palm Jebel Ali and The Palm Deira.

Read the rest of this entry »

The number of new condominiums put on sale in the greater Tokyo area in September fell 19.8% from a year earlier to 5,202 units, the second consecutive drop in two months, the Real Estate Economic Institute said Tuesday.

Read the rest of this entry »

Demand for property has increased dramatically in Vietnam since the government issued new laws that allow the lease of land for 70 years and then extensions without any payments. Thai developers are looking to bid for land plots in Vietnam for development. The Hanoi government’s issue of Decree 84 earlier this year brought Vietnam one step closer to opening up its real-estate market to foreign ownership, effectively leveling the playing field for international developers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Build your own city is the tag line. Ourbania.com is offering you the opportunity to build your own city. Ourbania is a web 2.0 community of real estate enthusiasts with a passion for creating urban architecture – as real or surreal as you like. Basically, how the system works is you sign up and start creating urban developments using a combination of Flickr photos, manually inserted information regarding the developer, financier, architect etc, and build a theoretical development. These are the basic instructions:

Read the rest of this entry »

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have bought their own Island in “The World,” Dubai’s ultra-exclusive offshore development. Dubai-based celebrity and society web site Ahlanlive reported that the film stars have bought an island with a view to turning it into a showpiece for environmental issues with the hope that it will encourage people to live a “greener life,” – no comment.

Read the rest of this entry »

Despite the strength of the upper echelons of the property markets, concerns about the spreading effects of the US sub-prime mortgage crisis are having effects further and further afield.

Asian bond spreads widened in Hong Kong this week, with the popular iTRAXX Asia ex-Japan high-yield index widened by 20 basis points, in turn raising the costs of protecting investors against defaults or restructuring.

Read the rest of this entry »

We took a look recently at the “Ups and Downs of the Indian Property market,” and felt a closer look at the situation was in order.

According to a recent report by the Financial Times, the real estate sector in India has seen tremendous growth over the past year; property prices have soared and the number and scale of projects has increased.

To fund these projects, developers are looking to investors, both domestic and foreign, through avenues such as listings on London’s Alternative Investment Market, domestic initial public offerings, private equity participation and the setting up of joint ventures.

The Indian government is now allowing foreign investment in townships, housing, built-up infrastructure and construction projects without prior approval from the exchange control regulator.

Read the rest of this entry »

British property investors are taking a long, hard look at the New York property market. With the dollar at a 20-year-low, for British investors with pounds in their pocket, the Big Apple just got a whole lot cheaper. According to the Financial Times, Steven Toumbas, an equities investor from London, has always wanted to own a second home in the US. “America is the engine for the world,” he says. “Everyone wants to have a holiday home in Florida, or an asset in New York. It’s the place to be.”

Mr Toumbas began looking at potential properties in New York City in mid-June 2006, but felt the timing was not quite right. The pound at that point was trading at about $1.84. “I held back because I thought there would be further dollar weakness,” he said.

Read the rest of this entry »

London once again defied the skeptics and remained on target for a 17% increase in value in 2007 despite falling prices in much of the rest of the country.

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors reported that “house price growth remained negative for the second month in succession,” and “new instructions declined for the fourth consecutive month at the fastest pace since June.”

Having said that, London was the only region in their monthly survey to experience a rise in instructions, and according to the Financial Times House Price Index, “prices in London rose 1.1 per cent in August compared with July and the annual rate of growth accelerated to 17.6 per cent, from 17 per cent in July. This was almost double the pace of growth of the south-east, the area with the second-highest increases, where prices were up by 9.4 per cent over the year. The cost of the average home in the capital is £363,364, compared with the national average of £225,826.”

The FT index suggests that overseas demand, rising immigration and City bonuses are fueling the London price increases.

Some areas around the country were less fortunate with price drops reported in the North, East Midlands and Yorkshire & Humberside and stagnant prices in the North West, South West and East Anglia.

Whether or not London can maintain this continued growth in the face of credit squeezes, reduced mortgage lending and dropping prices in much of the rest of the country remains to be seen and many analysts are predicting a slow down or reversal before the end of the year. For the moment though, it looks as though London is shoring up the whole market.

Links:

The Financial Times

The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors

The Halifax House Price Index

The Land Registry House Price Index