Experts have called for the creation of a “real estate authority” following in the footsteps of the Capital Market Authority (CMA) to draft legislation, safeguard the rights of landlords and tenants and regulate the relationships between the two parties.
Experts have predicted that the real estate market will witness a decline in prices during the next period in light of the recent rulings on the housing sector by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and other agencies will have to hand over all developed pieces of land to the Ministry of Housing which will, in turn, distribute them to citizens along with construction loans………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The European Parliament has agreed a common set of rules on mortgage lending aimed at avoiding the housing bubble that helped create the current financial crisis.
The new rules governing the €6.5 trillion mortgage market will tighten controls across the sector and make it easier for lenders to decide whether a borrower will be able to repay their debts or not………………………………………..Full Article: Source

A parliamentary committee on Monday passed a government-proposed bill that calls for the temporary exemption of capital gains taxes on homes, in a move expected to boost housing transactions.
The exemption applies to people who purchase homes worth up to 600 million won (US$536,400) or no bigger than 85 square meters between Monday and the end of December this year. They will be exempt from capital gains taxes if they sell them over the next five years………………………………………..Full Article: Source

In the latest sign of Washington’s growing concern with market bubbles US financial regulators are setting their eyes on mortgage real estate investment trust companies as a potential risk to the country’s financial system, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The Financial Stability Oversight Council is expected to cite mortgage REITs as a point of vulnerability in the real estate market in its annual report next week, according to an inside source quoted by The Journal.
Mortgage REITs (mREITs) are publicly traded companies that borrow funds to invest in real-estate debt. Unlike regular real estate investment trust (firms that invest in physical properties), mREITs buy mortgage securities backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and offer returns to investors of as much as 15 percent………………………………………..Full Article: Source

European Union negotiators are expected to finalize the bloc’s first common rules on mortgage lending on Monday, in an attempt to avoid a repeat of property bubbles that helped fuel the euro zone’s debt crisis.
The legislation will force lenders in Europe’s 6.5 trillion euro ($8.5 trillion) mortgage market to check the creditworthiness of potential customers and their ability to repay, effectively banning self-certified or “liar” loans………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Germany’s largest cities are preparing to tighten rent regulations as they take advantage of a new federal law aimed at curbing the housing boom.
State governments that oversee housing rules in Hamburg, Berlin, Munich and other cities plan to make it illegal to raise rents in those locations by more than 15 percent in 3 years, according to government officials………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The $825bn real estate investment trust industry could be thrown into turmoil by a controversial decision by BaFin, the German financial regulator. BaFin has proposed that German Reits should be regulated as investment funds under the EU’s Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive, due to come into effect in July.
This would bar many equity funds from investing in Reits, unless they are created as “funds of funds”. It would deter investment from countries such as China, which restricts holdings of foreign funds………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The commercial office and retail sectors have seen little movement in occupancy or rate as the Kingdom waits for political tensions to ease. The supply pipeline of premium office space in prime locations continues to slow.
Office space requirements continue to be focused on smaller spaces with low rental rates, parking and access remaining the key issues. Land prices, particularly for residential plots have started to edge up again in a number of locations across the Kingdom………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Housing prices rose in 68 out of the 70 cities monitored by the National Bureau of Statistics in the month of March. Mid-size Wenzhou was the only city on the list to experience a price dip last month. And now regulators are starting to get nervous.
A vice-chairman from China’s Banking Regulatory Commission warned last week that risks related to property loans remain high, and said that regulators vowed to keep a close watch on lending………………………………………..Full Article: Source

As the waiting list for government-subsidised housing in Kuwait has grown to more than 100,000 in 2013, projects aimed at combating the shortage will see a number of new construction projects in the coming years. Sluggish residential real estate growth and restrictive legislation have created difficulties for the sector, but new public-private partnerships (PPPs) and improved credit access could help alleviate Kuwait’s housing problems.
In March 2013 the government revealed plans to build 174,000 new houses and three separate cities by 2020, two near the Iraqi border in the north, and one on the Saudi border in the south. Although no official price tag has been given for the project, estimates put the cost at around $5bn………………………………………Full Article: Source

On Tuesday, the centre-left government of Victor Ponta adopted the property restitution bill designed to help families whose land or dwellings were confiscated by the previous communist regimes.
Ponta had said recently, the property restitution bill “we have drafted aims finally to find a solution to long-delayed problem of property restitution in Romania.” According to Associated Press, more than 200,000 such claims exist, and the law passed complies with a demand by the Council of Europe to repair such historical wrongs. The people who lost their fortunes will be entitled either to reclaim them or to get government compensation…………………………………..Full Article: Source

The top U.S. housing regulator on Thursday extended by two years a popular federal refinancing program to allow more borrowers with government-backed loans to lower their monthly mortgage payments.
The Home Affordable Refinance Program, or HARP, allows borrowers with loans backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to cut loan payments by refinancing at record low interest rates even if their homes have lost value. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, said it would extend the program until the end of 2015. It had been set to expire at the end of this year………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The government plans to set aside 1 trillion won (US$885 million) of its envisioned extra budget to stimulate the sluggish housing market, a top economic policymaker have said.
The government is considering drafting an extra budget aimed at making up for revenue shortfalls caused by the slowing economy and also bolstering the overall economic activities. Creating jobs and boosting the property market will likely be key parts of the plan, which is to be unveiled early next week………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Chinese government is doing what it can to continually poke holes in the country’s housing bubble. It appears they have been successful this time around in Beijing. When it comes to existing housing sales in the city, the market has been put on ice.
At least for the time being. Pre-owned home transactions in the city declined by as much as 70% in the first week of April following the government’s newest weapon in its anti-bubble artillery, a 20% tax on used home transactions………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Surging U.S. home prices could help shrink the Federal Housing Administration’s projected shortfall in President Barack Obama’s budget due on Wednesday.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been pushing for changes at the FHA since a November actuarial report said its reserve fund for bad loans may require a taxpayer subsidy of as much as $16.3 billion in fiscal-year 2013, the first time in its 79-year history that it wouldn’t be self-supporting………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Indian public is getting desensitised to the extent of corruption and apathy that it is subjected to daily. The will to fight against the excesses and greed of government servants and those who circumvent the law to gratify their needs is eroding.
The Thane tragedy in Mumbai is a glaring case in point. At least 74 innocent people have lost their lives and everyday there are fresh reports of builders who have raised illegal constructions across the state of Maharashtra with the blessings of government officials in return for bribes. It seems the Thane incident is just the tip of the iceberg, as startling facts are still being brought to light. It distorts the view of Mumbai’s expensive real estate market, where there is now proof of construction on land that is fraudulently acquired in collusion with officials………………………………………..Full Article: Source

One of China’s leading property tycoons, Ren Zhiqiang, the chairman of Hua Yuan Real Estate Group, has questioned the consistency of China’s latest market regulations and whether they will be able to rein in the country’s skyrocketing house prices. Ren said the measures had failed to keep China’s property price at a reasonable level while hurting the market’s autonomy.
“The property control policies have gone wrong from day one,” said Ren. “A series of policies, including the bidding system for land acquisition, the housing credit policy and the public finance system, have actually helped push up China’s property prices, instead of cooling them.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

The Government wants the property market to become sustainable, Economy Minister Chris Cardona said yesterday during a meeting with the Malta Developers Association. He listed a number of Labour electoral proposals aimed at achieving this, such as extending from seven to 12 years the period within which a property owner can pay capital gains tax or 12 per cent sales tax.
He mentioned the reduction of stamp duty for first-time buyers and the removal of the five per cent tax on the transfer of the first residential property acquired by inheritance or donation from the parents………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The head of intermediaries at Barclays has predicted a better year in 2013 for mortgage lending, helped in part by the Funding for Lending and Right to Buy schemes.
David Finlay, managing director of the intermediary channel at Barclays UK Retail and Business Bank, said that while 2013 would be a good year for the mortgage market, the real positives will come through in 2015 and into 2017………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The latest government measures to reverse rising property prices are chilling speculation in Shanghai, while prospective homebuyers are waiting for the rules to take effect.
In Shimao Riviera Garden Shanghai, a high-end residential development that has attracted well-heeled buyers from across the region, an owner is offering his apartment for up to 10 percent less than the average market price. The owner, who also owns six other apartments, is offering discounts ranging from 5 percent to 10 percent on all the properties………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China’s latest attempt to curb rising property prices has had the opposite effect. Last month, the country’s State Council told local governments to introduce strict, new controls on residential property sales and a 20% capital-gains tax, too. The disclosure surprised the market: Shares of some listed property developers plunged.
In the short term, though, disclosing the new measures has only quickened the pace of house-price increases. Nationally, the average house price rose 3.9% year on year in March, up from 2.5% in February, according to data from property agency Soufun. Major cities saw sharper increases, with prices in Guangzhou and Beijing up 11.7% and 11.3%, respectively………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Beijing and Shanghai on Saturday announced detailed regulations following the central government’s recent policies to further cool down the real estate market. In Beijing, single adults with the capital’s hukou - registered permanent residence - are allowed to purchase only one apartment, as opposed to two previously.
“The move is aimed at meeting the needs of self-occupancy home buyers, given the limited supply. It will also help to curb investment-oriented purchase,” said Wang Rongwu, deputy director of Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development………………………………………..Full Article: Source

South Korea unveiled measures on Monday aimed at stimulating the property market, the first of an expected string of moves from the government of President Park Geun-hye to lift the faltering economy.
Under the plan, first-time home buyers with lower incomes would be allowed to borrow more than the maximum amount set under the existing regulations and would enjoy a lower interest rate than usual when borrowing from a government-run fund………………………………………..Full Article: Source

South Korea introduced a package of measures on Monday to boost home sales, as prices in greater Seoul continue to fall and transactions have hit their lowest ebb on record. The measures come just a month after President Park Geun-hye’s inauguration, as she moves quickly to meet a campaign pledge to reduce household debt—most of which is related to homeownership.
The new measures—announced in statement from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, together with other government ministries—range from cutting the supply of public housing, to tax breaks for first-time home buyers, to relief for the “house-poor,” those who are struggling to pay off the principle on their mortgage as the value of their home declines………………………………………..Full Article: Source

George Osborne exceeded industry expectations in last week’s Budget by pumping more than £15bn into a housing market stimulus. But economists fear the measures could do more harm than good.
Last week’s “housing giveaway” Budget by chancellor George Osborne has already been described as “economically insane” and “a huge gamble” by some economists. But the measures the chancellor was able to unveil - both a £3.5bn deal to provide equity loans for newly built homes, and a £12bn extension of mortgage guarantees - left housebuilders unable to believe their luck. Most of the listed players’ share prices were more than 5% up on the day - gains that they have so far kept………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The government of south China’s Guangdong province on Monday announced rules to cool the property market after the central government rolled out a regulatory plan and asked provincial governments to create specific measures. The rules, however, have been criticized for being too vague and unable to function properly.
Guangdong’s provincial government said in a notice that housing prices will be curbed, government-subsidized housing will be built more quickly and housing data will be pooled in order to boost market supervision………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The government of south China’s Guangdong Province on Monday announced rules to cool the property market after the central government rolled out a regulatory plan and asked provincial governments to create specific measures.
The rules, however, have been criticized for being too vague and unable to function properly. Guangdong’s provincial government said in a notice that housing prices will be curbed, government-subsidized housing will be built more quickly and housing data will be pooled in order to boost market supervision………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Suspecting investor frauds in the projects being launched by numerous real estate developers, capital markets regulator Sebi is probing them for possible violations of Collective Investment Scheme regulations.
The regulator has been flooded with complaints of investors being duped by the real estate companies promising huge returns in the projects proposed to be developed from the scratch through public money, prompting it to launch probe against 50-60 such developers, a senior official said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Unsophisticated investors who once sought a quick profit on property speculation seem now to be turning to stock market speculation instead. The Hong Kong government has been keen to curb fast-rising property prices since late last year, but all its efforts may be creating a new problem: more speculation in the city’s stock market.
Some local stock brokers have noticed a new trend recently. They say more financially unsophisticated individual clients are calling on them for ideas for investments in the stock market. They prefer “small cap” stocks, rather than heavyweights, and aim to make quick short-term profits………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The armies of young real-estate agents that flood Hong Kong’s shopping malls on weekends could see their ranks thinning out in the coming months, the chief analyst at Hong Kong’s largest listed real-estate broker says.
Thanks to the government’s latest round of cooling measures, transactions across the city have dropped dramatically, Midland Realty’s Buggle Lau said Thursday. Since late February, when the government doubled the stamp duty on most property purchases, transactions on the secondary market at the city’s 10 most popular housing estates have plummeted to as few as four or five on recent weekends, Lau said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The Reserve Bank is looking to introduce new economic tools to cool down the housing market. Interest rates are set to stay steady until the end of the year, easing pressure on mortgage holders, but the Reserve Bank and the Government are looking to introduce new economic tools to control rising prices.
Economists say the Reserve Bank cannot raise the Official Cash Rate without hurting farmers, exporters and businesses. “The Reserve Bank is in a catch 22 situation. It needs to push up the Official Cash Rate to cool down the housing market but if it did that it would hurt the rest of the economy and push up the New Zealand dollar,” Interest.co.nz’s Bernard Hickey said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China’s property curbs in the past decade have been unsuccessful and the new round of measures will slow property sales, said billionaire Vincent Lo, also a member of the government’s advisory board.
“Certainly they haven’t been,” said Lo, chairman of Shui On Land Ltd. (272), a Shanghai-based developer, in an interview in Beijing yesterday. “Had they been successful, home prices wouldn’t have risen higher the more the government curbed.”http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-07/china-s-property-curbs-are-not-successful-billionaire-lo-says.html” target=”_blank”>Source

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China’s latest property market curbs have stirred heated discussion, with experts close to policymakers saying China will try to control the side effects of the measures. The central government announced last weak that homeowners who sell their homes will have to pay an income tax equivalent to 20 percent of the profits they make on the transaction. The income tax for such sales is currently 1 to 2 percent of the sale price.
Qin Hong, a researcher with the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development (MOHURD), said those who sell their only home after five years of use will be exempt from paying the tax………………………………………..Full Article: Source

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The State Council, China’s cabinet, issued a notice on March 1 announcing that the governmental body will broaden efforts to support property market regulation. The notice is aimed to further implement macro policies on China’s property market controls.
Beginning July 2003, the State Council has passed macroeconomic policies to curb property speculation on nine separate occasions. However, these regulations fell short of realizing their goal to reign in the property market. The reason, in my opinion, is that they did not address the fundamental problems of social fairness and justice………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China’s real estate market has actively responded to a series of measures aimed at controlling housing prices issued by the State Council, China’s cabinet, on Friday. Daily inquiries and demand for housing purchases on Saturday, just one day after the new policy came out, rose by 30 percent from Friday, according to Hu Jinghui, vice president of 5i5j Real Estate, a leading real estate agency in Beijing.
Hu forecast that the trading volume of second-hand housing would hit a new high before detailed rules on the real estate market are implemented by local governments and government departments……………………………………….Full Article: Source

Hong Kong home sales took a hit last week from the latest round of measures to cool the market, with no transactions recorded in 18 major housing estates. Just 38 properties were sold in the 35 major housing estates monitored by real estate agency Midland Realty between February 25 and March 3. That was a 40 per cent drop from the preceding week.
“More than half of the housing estates we monitor achieved zero transactions,” said Midland Realty chief analyst Buggle Lau Ka-fai. The estates included some of those popular with buyers, such as South Horizons in Ap Lei Chau, Chi Fu Garden in Pok Fu Lam, Parc Oasis in Yau Yat Chuen and Telford Gardens in Kowloon Bay………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Chinese shares fell the most in two years on Monday as the Shanghai stock exchange’s property index tumbled 9.25 percent. Late on Friday, China’s State Council had announced a new set of policies designed to cool down the housing market.
Economic data released in the last few days has called into question the strength of China’s recovery. It may be that Beijing is so confident in the health of the economy that it can afford to squeeze the real estate sector harder………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China called for higher down payments and interest rates for second-home mortgages in cities with “excessively fast” price gains and ordered stricter enforcement of taxes on sales as authorities step up a three- year campaign to cool the property market.
The People’s Bank of China’s regional branches may implement the measures in accordance with the price-control targets of local governments, the State Council, or Cabinet, said in a statement on its website yesterday. Cities facing “relatively large” pressure from rising house prices must further tighten home-purchase limits, according to the statement………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China issued stricter measures Friday to cool the heated property sector before the annual parliament session, amid public hope of pulling down soaring home prices. The central government said in a notice that homeowners who sell their homes will be levied an income tax as high as 20 percent of the profit they make on the transaction. Prior to the new rules, income tax was 1 percent to 2 percent of the sale price.
The notice also said that local branches of the central bank in cities with soaring home prices can increase the down payment and mortgage loan interest rate for home buyers purchasing a second unit………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The government’s pledge to strictly enforce a 20% tax on home sale profits was a necessary move to curb housing market speculation, and the government will likely achieve its goal in the near term, Mei Xingbao, president of China Orient Asset Management Co., said Sunday.
But Mr. Mei also said that it was too soon to say whether the move would actually stop prices from moving higher over the longer term………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Singapore plans to raise taxes for luxury homeowners and investment properties, widening a four-year campaign to curb speculation after prices in Asia’s second most expensive housing market rose to a record.
The higher tax will apply to the top one per cent of homeowners who lived in their own residences, or 12,000 properties, Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in his recent budget speech, without giving a definition of what constituted a high-end home………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Real estate got a shot in the arm from finance minister P. Chidambaram in the budget for the next financial year, but it was mostly limited to affordable housing. He proposed a Rs.2.5 lakh deduction on the total taxable income on home loans less than Rs.25 lakh. The deduction is applicable on loans from banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).
Currently, the deduction on interest payment of home loans is Rs.1 lakh, irrespective of the amount. With this proposal, a Rs.25 lakh home loan will get a total tax deduction of Rs.2.5 lakh on interest payments. Property analysts tracking the real estate sector said that this would offer a welcome impetus to budget housing, first-time home buyers and to some extent, boost demand in smaller cities and the distant suburbs in metros………………………………………..Full Article: Source

While affordable housing has been given due attention, issues relating to improved transparency and corporate governance within the real estate sector have been ignored. This was a moderately encouraging Budget in general, but tepid for the Indian real estate sector.
The setting up of the Urban Housing Fund by the NHB with an allocation of Rs 2,000 crore will infuse liquidity for urban housing, thereby boosting demand………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Volume in Singapore’s property market is expected to decline following the introduction of January’s cooling measures, according to a recent report by property advisory firm DTZ. The primary market may be less affected by the latest measures than buyers of public housing, due to the extra incentives and discounts offered by developers.
DTZ predicted that investment demand for prime properties could also decline this year due to the new property tax structure, and the removal of the property tax refund concessions for vacant properties that was announced during the 2013 budget………………………………………..Full Article: Source

In a move that may bring relief to developers, the Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation has decided to keep commercial offices and shops/malls out of the purview of the Real Estate (Regulation & Development) Bill. The Bill, in the making for about five years now, will only regulate the housing sector, said a senior ministry official.
The current draft Bill mandates developers to keep aside about 70 per cent of the collected amount from buyers in a separate account. The ministry may lower the limit to 50 per cent or make it construction-linked………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Hong Kong’s financial chief John Tsang said Wednesday in his budget speech that the city is to speed up the supply of residential land and private housing. “I shall continue with my co-ordination work to expand the land reserve as in the past two years. I shall also allocate additional resources to the relevant departments to increase their manpower in order to speed up land supply,” Tsang told lawmakers at the city’s Legislative Council.
Regarding land supply for private housing, Tsang said in the coming fiscal year, “all the major sources of land supply for private housing together will provide land capable of building some 25,800 private residential flats”………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Despite criticism about the effectiveness of the Hong Kong government’s recent measures to ease some of the world’s most expensive home prices, analysts tell CNBC that the government has no choice but to intervene.
The Hong Kong government pledged on Wednesday to bolster land supply and earmarked $580 million in the coming five years to seek out potential new areas for land reclamation in its annual budget to help ease the supply crunch. But Nicole Wong, regional head of property research at CLSA said government efforts to boost supply will have a limited impact on reining in prices and the government should look more towards measures to curb demand………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Working hand in hand with the Saudi government to adopt changes in its real estate market, regulating its real estate funding market, and promoting its commercial sector with a global appeal are the three main concerns of Khalid Jamjoom, CEO of SEDCO Development.
According to Jamjoom, SEDCO’s vision is reflected clearly in its outstanding performance marked by the balancing of originality, creativity, ingenuity and quality of projects………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Singapore plans to raise taxes for luxury homeowners and investment properties, widening a four- year campaign to curb speculation after prices in Asia’s second- most expensive housing market rose to a record.
The higher tax will apply to the top 1 percent of homeowners who live in their own residences, or 12,000 properties, Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in his budget speech yesterday, without giving a definition of what constitutes a high-end home. The government will also raise tax rates for vacant investment properties or those that are rented out, he said………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Singapore plans to raise property levies for luxury homeowners as it seeks to tax wealthy residents in the island-state after the government imposed more measures to curb property speculation last month.
The higher tax will apply to the top 1 percent of homeowners who live in their own residences, or 12,000 properties, Singapore Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in his budget speech yesterday, without giving a definition of what constitutes a high-end home. The government will also raise tax rates for vacant investment properties or those that are rented out, he said………………………………………..Full Article: Source