In January 2008, downtown San Diego will have a new building claiming the status of being the tallest residential tower in downtown, called The Electra. The Electra condos will be 43 stories high with 248 condos. One of The Electra condos most distinguishing features aside from its height will be its 60 foot atrium styles “social lounge”/lobby, a first for San Diego. Other amenities include: business center, private meeting room, gym, 24-hour concierge pool, spa, sauna, steam room, barbeque, 5th floor roof deck outdoor fireplace lounge & garden.
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The housing market will face two years of blight stemming from the impact of the global credit squeeze, with prices falling continuously over much of southern England, a report forecasts today.
Spain and Ireland are set for a prolonged slowdown in economic growth, according to Standard & Poor’s, as a drop in construction activity and consumer sentiment hits labour markets and weakens public finances.In a report published on Monday, the credit rating agency says house prices in the two countries – and the UK – are about 20 per cent overvalued and on the verge of a “protracted correction”.The impact of this on the broader economy would be more pronounced in Ireland and Spain, whose “economies are heavily exposed to the direct effects of the housing market slowdown on the construction sector”, says Standard & Poor’s. Construction accounted for 12.6 per cent of the total employment in Spain in 2006, compared with a European Union average of 8.2 per cent, it says.In Spain, unemployment in the construction sector has surged 53 per cent in the past 12 months, helping to fuel a 22 per cent increase in the number of immigrants out of work. Scores of small builders and property agents in coastal areas have gone out of business, and there are concerns about rising bad loan rates at some regional savings banks. House sales in the second quarter this year were 11 per cent lower than in the first three months, according to government figures.While acknowledging the downturn, the Spanish government has consistently played down its implications for the wider economy. Officials say their main worry at the moment is the impact of a broad slowdown in Europe on the country’s export and tourism sectors.More on Warning on building slowdown
An unexpectedly sharp correction in house prices resulting from the global credit squeeze poses a significant risk to growth in Europe, according to the European Commission.The European Union’s executive arm forecast a gradual slowdown in growth from 2007 to 2008 but said continuing financial market turmoil meant the risks were “clearly tilted to the downside”.Among the threats it identifies is a worsening of the financial turmoil that could hit housing markets in Europe as well as the US “thereby deepening and prolonging the ongoing corrections”.So far, those European countries that saw the fastest growth in house prices, such as the UK, Spain, Ireland and France, have generally seen an orderly slowdown this year. But the Commission’s latest EU economic forecast hinted at policymakers’ fears of a sharper adjustment. A special section on past house price cycles warned that while other regions were sometimes more volatile, “the historical experience suggests that major housing downturns have also had a substantial macroeconomic impact”.More on House price correction threatens EU growth
The US housing market is in dire straights, no one could argue with that. House prices are down, house sales are down and developers are cutting prices on new developments left, right and center. But where does that leave the homeowner who needs to sell, whether from financial difficulties or some other reason?
Philadelphia Premium Outlets, a $115 million retail complex, opened today in Limerick. Its 120 stores include a Neiman Marcus Last Call, the department store’s clearance business. A second phase of the outlet center now under construction will add 30 stores and 120,000 square feet to the 425,000 square feet in the first phase. The center’s developer is Chelsea Property Group, a unit of Simon Property Group Inc., Indianapolis. Simon Property Group, Inc. is an S&P 500 company and the largest public U.S. real estate company. Simon is a fully integrated real estate company which operates from five retail real estate platforms: regional malls, Premium Outlet Centers(R), The Mills(R), community/lifestyle centers and international properties. It currently owns or has an interest in 379 properties comprising 258 million square feet of gross leasable area in North America, Europe and Asia. The Company is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana and employs more than 5,000 people worldwide. Simon Property Group, Inc. is publicly traded on the NYSE under the symbol SPG. For further information, visit the Company’s website at www.simon.com.
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Gazing into our crystal ball, this is a list of likely overseas property investment markets that should do well in 2008, assuming that the current financial disaster in process in the US does not spread like a disease across the world – which does look like a strong possibility.
As the sub prime mortgage debacle continues to play out across the United States, the Federal Reserve has opted to cut interest rates by another quarter percent just last week, bringing the rate down to below 5%. This cut makes all loans relatively cheaper, thereby encouraging a pantheon of economic activity to increase, hopefully in the troubled housing market. Such tactics have been used with relative success in the past, most notably in 2000 when the US economy suffered a major downturn in the wake of the dot-com collapse. This collapse triggered a recession, which took three years to completely stabilize.
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