Property Investment News

Once again, more downs than ups in the property investing markets.

• Emaar properties, Dubai-based owner of John Laing Homes have filed for bankruptcy protection for the American firm. John Laing Homes is one of the largest home builders in the United States and the 31st biggest in the world. Or at least – they were. Luxury property blog.
• An interesting approach to selling a piece of property. A Scottish firm is selling 5 foot by 5 foot parcels of land in an effort to raise £ 500,000. I wonder how it works if they only sell one plot?
• The Cyprus property bubble has burst. Falling prices, dropping value of the pound and over-building brings the Cypriot market down with a crash.
• Northern Rock get yet another injection of British taxpayer’s cash, bringing the total cost of saving the bank up to more money than I can count to. At the same time, Gordon “no more boom and bust” Brown says he wants banks to start using a “sensible” loan to value ratio – which in his infinite wisdom, he has decided is 90% of the value of the property. Just enough to get the deposit on your credit card perhaps?
• The Dubai bubble goes from bad to worse, yet at least now the press releases coming out have stopped being “we do not have a problem,” and have switched to “OK, we have a problem, but it is not as bad as anywhere else and we will recover fastest.” Unfortunately, the way the Dubai developers and government have treated their staff and small investors, I suspect it will never recover.
• One of the largest office complexes in Paris, Couer Defense, is struggling to refinance 1.52 billion Euros in commercial mortgage backed securities, and creditors are at each other’s throats. Expect a long, drawn-out legal battle over this one. Not that France has a problem according to Mr. Sarkozy. It is all the damn Americans and France is immune. Except for the strikes. And the bank bailouts. And the car company bailouts. And the newspaper bailouts. And the property company bailouts. Actually, he has pulled his head out of the sand just long enough to make it clear that France will be as protectionist as ever by insisting that the French car makers shed jobs elsewhere in Europe if they want any government cash.