The Knight Frank Prime Global Cities Index records first quarterly fall since 2009. The value of prime property in the world’s key cities fell by 0.4% in the first quarter of 2012. This represents the index’s first quarterly fall since the depths of the global recession.
Although a milestone, the index’s negative quarterly growth is not surprising. Quarterly price growth has been below 2% since Q1 2010 and it averaged only 0.6% in 2011………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The November 6 U.S. presidential election between President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican challenger Mitt Romney may be decided by a small number of “swing” states - those that could go to either man - where the health of the housing market looms large for voters as they weigh their choice.
A Reuters examination of the latest housing data in 10 states that may determine the election’s outcome shows signs of hope in even the most battered real estate markets, notably Florida, with some other key battlegrounds doing much better………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Record-keepers for skyscrapers are struggling to keep up as builders around the world create ever taller towers, stretching everything from the limits of architecture itself to the definition of a spire.
A nonprofit group in Chicago is recognized by much of the industry as the arbiter of which buildings are the highest, and its categories have proliferated: building with highest occupied floor, for example, or height from lowest entrance to architectural tip, or height from lowest entrance to the top, whether that be an architectural element or a movable antenna………………………………………..Full Article: Source

One of the clichés of real estate investing is that you can make more of everything but you can’t make more land. The implication is that real estate has to be a one way bet. More people competing for a share of an asset that can’t be expanded very readily must equate to constantly rising prices, or so the law of supply and demand might seem to suggest.
The constantly increasing cost of office and residential property in the world’s top cities provided an obvious case in point through the 20th century and for much of the first decade of the 21st Century………………………………………..Full Article: Source

European real estate investment slowed significantly in April compared with March, continuing the downward trend seen since the beginning of the year. PropertyEU Research recorded a volume of EUR 3.5 bn for April, compared with almost EUR 5 bn a month earlier.
The April volume is just 50% of the EUR 7 bn of transactions recorded for the same month last year………………………………………..Full Article: Source

UK home-moves are at their most upbeat about property prices in almost 2 years, according to Rightmove’s latest research.
The quarterly Consumer Confidence Survey, which questions 40,000 home-movers across the country, finds that house price optimism is as its highest for seven quarters, with 35 per cent expecting house prices to be higher in one year’s time - the strongest figures since the third quarter of 2010………………………………………..Full Article: Source

More sales of large high-quality office buildings are on the cards in Amsterdam following Deka Immobilien’s acquisition of the Viñoly office building in the city’s Zuidas business district.
The German open-ended fund manager snapped up the prime office building from troubled peer Credit Suisse for EUR 140 mln, reflecting a yield just under 7%………………………………………..Full Article: Source

At the end of Q1 2012 the class-A and B office stock in Prague totaled 2,814,000 m², which means that the Prague office market is – after Warsaw and Budapest – the third largest in CEE.
In the first quarter 2012 there were two new office buildings completed in Prague – Keystone in Prague 8 and B3 Pankrác in Prague 4 – which brought nearly 29,000 m² of new office premises to the market………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Dubai was the world’s top performing real estate market in the first quarter of 2012, according to the latest Knight Frank Prime Global Cities Index.
Dubai recorded a four percent rise between December 2011 and March 2012, the index showed, putting it ahead of the likes of Jakarta (3.3 percent) and London (2.7 percent)………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Major capital markets in Asia Pacific saw subdued sentiment in real estate investment in the first quarter of this year with the Chinese mainland recording a dive of 70 percent in volume, an industry report has found.
Investment volume across the region fell 42 percent quarter on quarter to US$11.6 billion during the three-month period ended on March 31, partly due to new year holidays in January and the high investment volume witnessed in the second half of 2011 which removed several assets from the market, CB Richard Ellis, the world’s largest commercial real estate services provider, said in its Asia Pacific Capital Markets Marketview report………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Prime property prices have risen in the December-March quarter 2012 in four Asian markets barring Mumbai, Shangahi and Beijing and Sydney, says a Knight Frank report that published the Global Cities Index.
Asian cities which saw a rise in property prices are Jakarta (3.3% in Sept-Dec 11), Hong Kong (1.1%), Singapore (1.9%) and Kuala Lumpur. But Mumbai prime property market remained stagnant in the September 2011-March 2012 period but fell negative 9.1% in the last one year ending March 2012 . Prime property corresponds to the top 5% of the mainstream housing market in each city………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Concerns of a collapse in China’s housing market may have been foremost in the minds of Beijing policy makers as they sought to pump up bank lending with a cut to reserve ratios, according to analysts citing very weak data for the sector.
The People’s Bank of China announced on Saturday it plans to lower then the ratio of reserves bank must set aside as deposits at the central bank by a half percentage point, effective Friday. See report on China’s bank-reserves cut………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Singapore’s housing minister said on Monday the government continues to have concerns about the residential property market, in particular small-sized “shoebox” apartments, and will not hesitate to take more action if needed.
“The market is a lot cooler than it was say one year ago, although there are little pockets of hot activities particularly in the mass market with the emergence of shoebox units,” Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan told Parliament………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The working relationship between property owners and their managing agents is ultimately based on a contract, Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan said in a written response to a parliamentary question from Aljunied GRC MP Sylvia Lim on Monday.
Ms Lim had asked how the government safeguards the interests of consumers of property managing agent services………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Australian pension funds, managers of about $1.4 trillion in assets, plan a property buying binge that may drive up prices, as new laws force employers to increase contributions to retirement savings programs.
Construction and Building Union Super and AustralianSuper plan to double investments in offices, malls and retirement villages, seeking income-producing assets that have potential to rise in value………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading supplier of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, and Global Property Research today announced the launch of the first highly-liquid, real estate indices.
Designed specifically to be tracked by ETFs looking to offer investors exposure to real estate markets globally, the TR/GPR indices provide a more investable and tradable solution than currently available elsewhere. (Press Release)