Well the laughs continue in the US real estate market – one of the major instigators of the financial crisis – the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is charging a bunch of local realtors and property owners with “housing discrimination” in Chicago. Apparently some one refused to sell (as if) a house to a black couple. Not seeing it myself as the home was on the market for at least two years and you have to think they were getting pretty desperate considering the amount of investment property for sale in Chicago. Still – you never know in the US real estate market - In any case – this is the official HUD press release.
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The Abu Dhabi property market has witnessed a considerable improvement in buyer interest during the summer of 2009 compared to the beginning of the year. A healthy local stock market and the continued abundance of employment opportunities in the Emirates’ capital city are just two of the reasons for this resurgent confidence from long-term property investors in particular. An international real estate agency noted that high value transactions in the Al Reem Island and Al Raha Beach developments were a positive indication about recent investor trends, highlighting more reasonable asking prices as a lure for cash rich buyers.
If you are considering buying investment property in the UK – be warned. The latest headlines from all the major newspapers and the BBC etc, are making a great deal of the fact that average house prices in the UK rose in July by 1.7%
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China may not be top of everyone’s list as a property investment destination, and after seeing these two apartment buildings lean so far towards each other that they are now touching, I will certainly be a little more cautious as should anyone considering property investing in China.
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The Indian envoy to the UAE, Talmiz Ahmad says there will be no help for workers returning to India as the global downturn drops demand for unskilled workers in the construction sector in the Emirates.
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Optimism – or Denial? Indian real estate magnate Niranajan Hiranandani does not expect property prices, which have dropped by about 25% in the past year, to decline any further. “Rates have fallen by about 10-25 per cent over the past year-and-a-half. I do not expect rates to fall any further. So, I think people should start buying homes now,” Hiranandani Constructions Managing Director Niranjan Hiranandani said last week.
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An economics professor at the University of Chicago, Casey Mulligan, has just predicted that it is unlikley there will be a commercial property crisis, based on the fact that there was very little over-building in commercial real estate during the boom years.
According to the French National Federation of Real Estate (la Fédération nationale de l’immobilier or Fnaim) prices are expected to fall all over France in 2009. No surprises here, but the spokesman, René Pallincourt, was typically upbeat, suggesting that prices had only fallen 3.1% in 2008, and would only fall another 10% in 2009.
This Sunday, Al Fara’a Properties, a subsidiary of Al Fara’a Construction, launched a new $26 million project – Mulberry Mansions, which is a part of the developer’s planned projects worth $1.8 billion for 2008.
The Middle East continues to bring out new investment property projects. Dubai, Bharain, Abu Dhabi all competing to build the most prestigious property developments in the world. These are some new projects, recently announced.
