News - Archive for February 2013

US Mortgage Performance Improving

The latest US National Delinquency Survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association shows that the delinquency rate on mortgages covering 1-4 residential properties fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 7.09% at the end of Q4 last year...

Prime Property is Going Underground

There was a time when the higher above ground a property, the more money it could fetch. Among the rich and famous, if it wasn't a penthouse, it wasn't worth having. However, it seems the tides are starting to turn slightly and now...

London may be a safe haven for investors but for people needing to rent a property, living in the city is getting harder and harder. The average cost of renting a home in Greater London increased by 6.7 per cent over the past year...

Latest on US Housing Recovery

A rolling rock collects no moss, but the American rock does seem to be slowing into this year. But it is still way too early to say that the doom-sayers have now been proven right. For a start the American housing market is far too big to judge as a whole, and when judged as a sum of its parts the recovery is still alive and well...

Positive news from the Dublin office market, as a new report from Savills predicts rising rents for landlords in the sector for the coming year. Rising and sustained demand for prime office space combined with continued lack of new space coming onto the market...

Property investment is an ever changing industry and a new hot asset may soon be grabbing the attention of prospective buyers. For budding hoteliers, beach side rentals in prime locations are proving to be extremely lucrative - even in the UK...

Over 11 per cent of all mortgages in Britain last year went towards buy to let mortgages according to a new report from the Council of Mortgage Lenders. The report shows that gross buy to let lending was £16.4 billion last year...

Demand for warehouse space in the US hit its second highest level since 1993 according to a report from commercial real estate company Cassidy Turner. According to the firm net demand for warehouse space was 40.8 million square feet in the last quarter of last year...

The market is currently awash with cheap fixed rate mortgages but with deposits continuing to be sky high, how much impact can they really have?...

The average revenue per available room in Thailand's hotels grew 15.4 percent to THB 2,232 in 2012 according to the latest data from STR Global. According to the report occupancy grew 10.0 percent to 69.2 percent and average daily rate (ADR) 4.9 percent to THB 3,226, both boosted by a 13.3% growth in returning demand levels...

The UK is continuing to increase its student accommodation stock, with a new development recently approved in Cambridge. The Liverpool property group Downing has won the planning permission for a 354 bedroom student accommodation project in the CB1 regeneration scheme in Station Road...

Investors Enjoying Fun on the Farm

Property investors are making hay while the sun shines - often literally - in the farming sector, with new statics showing the price of rural land hit a record high in the second half of 2012...

IHG Announces 13 New Hotels in India

International hotel chain InterContinental is to build 13 new hotels in India. The news has come of the current UK trade mission, in which IHG's Asia chief Jan Smits joined David Cameron to boost trade ties between the UK and India...

San Francisco hotels are proving to be prime investment properties in the US, with the city enjoying the greatest rate jump in 2012...

UK House Prices at Record Highs?

Yesterday the Telegraph had a headline House Prices hit 'five year high' and you think wow. However, anyone who knows the industry and reads into the report finds out it is a load of sensationalist rubbish...

With a report from the House Builders Federation (HBF) revealing that saving a deposit for a home will now take the average first-time buyer ten years, it may seem as though the future isn't particularly bright...

Investing in Property is Money Saver

Property investment is now one of the main ways Britons can save money, according to research by Halifax. It has been revealed that choosing to put money in bricks and mortar could save the average renter...

In the last year we have all seen a taste of how incredible the Florida recovery will be, but for those who think that Florida housing recovery can be put into the past tense, you should check foreclosure figures...

Student accommodation is continuing to be one of the strongest property investment markets, with new projects given the go-ahead monthly. Sheffield is the latest city to be the target of developers...

The terms "Bedroom Tax" and "Mansion Tax" have been very popular in the UK of late – spurred on by the latest proposals to alter benefit payments depending on how efficiently occupied a recipients house is and more recently, the leader of the opposition Ed Miliband has again been proposing a "Mansion Tax"...

According to a new report from leading real estate consultancy Savills commercial activity in the UK rose in January for the 5th straight month. Sounds great until the next bit of the report tells you that the growth was not only slight, but was the slowest pace of growth since the current period of growth began...

According to the latest figures from LSL Property Services, the proportion of households who own their home has dropped to its lowest level since 1987 at 65.3%. Unsurprisingly the firm also reports that the rental sector continues to grow from strength to strength...

While many of us will have struggled to find a room in a good London hotel without breaking the bank, this may not be an accurate portrayal of the health of the sector...

US Hotel Construction Surges Ahead

A boom in the construction of multi-family housing fuelled the US housing recovery, so what now looks like a similar surge in hotel construction not only indicates confidence in the industry, but will fuel growth in it and the economy...

Everything is bigger in America, and the so-called mega-malls are no exception. But they are an exception to the wider rule, as we have seen in previous downturns people spend more on entertainment, arguably to cheer themselves up from all the economic woes...

London is considered an international safe haven - a place where the wealthy from across the globe can invest their money. However, it seems that Britons are the only ones not willing to flash their cash in the capital, with the super rich preferring the US...

In the property market, size is no longer everything and it seems the wealthy are not content with getting as many acres as possible for their money. According to a recent survey, it is the all important extras that the rich and famous are now going in search of...

The gap between the best and the rest in the commercial property sector is widening, according to research from Legal & General. Although the industry looks set to enjoy greater returns in 2013...

While it is tempting for budding hoteliers to look for a safe haven like London to invest money, those willing to take more of a risk should consider Israel, as it seems that it is turning into the new hot spot...

The centre for cities has just released it cities outlook 2013 report and it is a goldmine of information, most of which is very useful to investors and potential investors...