U.S. commercial-property price gains slowed in the past three months as concern over Europe’s debt crisis reduced the availability of financing for real estate transactions, Moody’s Investors Service said.
The Moody’s/RCA national all-property composite index was little changed in March from February and up 12 percent from a year earlier, Moody’s said in a report today. Price advances have slowed, with the measure gaining 1.8 percent from the end of 2011………………………………………..Full Article: Source

According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR) new quarterly commercial real estate forecast, despite prolonged impact from the recession, fundamentals are gradually improving in all of the major commercial real estate sectors. The apartment rental sector has fully recovered and is growing.
The findings also are confirmed in NAR’s recent quarterly Commercial Real Estate Market Survey, which collects data from members about market activity………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The U.S. housing market continued to show signs of strength as sales and prices rose for both existing and new homes in April. U.S. new home sales rebounded in April following a big fall in the previous month. The sales of new single-family houses rose 3.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 343,000 units, the Commerce Department said on Wednesday.
The better-than-expected number marked a 9.9-percent growth from a year ago and sales were up in all regions except the South………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The U.S. housing market looks more positive, with April’s housing starts near the highest levels in over three years and showing signs of growth, according to BMO Economics.
“After bottoming in 2009, the U.S. housing sector has had little to no substantial growth; however, today’s housing starts now show an increase for the first time in three months and, coupled with other indications of improved conditions, are suggesting a turn for the better,” said Jennifer Lee, Senior Economist, BMO Capital Markets. (Press Release)

Real Estate Recovery Fact #1: Better-than-expected homebuilder profits. On March 27, Lennar Corp. – the nation’s second-largest homebuilder – beat analyst expectations for earnings by 100%. New orders increased 33%. Backlog grew 39%. And total sales rose 30%.
Real estate recovery fact #2: Improving Builder Sentiment. With homebuilders putting up better results, we’d expect their outlook to be rosier. And it is………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Real estate and mortgage industry leaders urged a Senate committee on Thursday to back a plan that would lower interest rates for homeowners with government-owned mortgages.
Appearing before the Senate Banking Committee, Mark Zandi, chief economist and cofounder of Moody’s Analytics, said lawmakers must act quickly because “mortgage rates are very low, and this is such a good time to refinance.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

With signs of Canada’s red-hot housing market slowing, further measures to tighten mortgage-lending standards aren’t necessary, the head of Canada’s second-largest bank said Thursday.
“At the moment, we see signs that the housing market is slowing, and the risk of a sharp correction is diminished,” said Toronto-Dominion Bank Chief Executive Edmund Clark. Clark was speaking on a second-quarter earnings conference call………………………………………..Full Article: Source

An increasing supply of good quality office property coming to the market and strong demand from investors meant that the office sector accounted for half of the European commercial property investment in the first quarter of 2012 (Q1 2012), according to the latest research by CBRE.
The office sector was dominant in Q1 2012, seeing EUR 12 bn of investment and accounting for 50% of the total market………………………………………..Full Article: Source

According to Chesterton Humberts’ latest London Prime Residential Sales Market Report, prime London residential property market has again demonstrated its resilience in the first quarter of 2012 despite the economy having slipped back into recession, the increase in the Stamp Duty Land Tax, and the weakness of two of its traditional drivers: the stock market and the city jobs market.
City bonus money no longer accounts for a large percentage of high value prime London property purchases and this is expected to continue………………………………………..Full Article: Source

In the year to April 2012, Irish houseprices at a national level, fell by 16.4%. This compares with an annual rate of decline of 16.3% in March and a decline of 12.2% recorded in the twelve months to April 2011.
The CSO said that residential property prices fell by 1.1% in the month of April. There was no change in residential property prices recorded in March. A decline of 1.0% was recorded in April of last year………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The French property market is likely to level off over the course of 2012 although it is traditionally not a particularly volatile market, according to an expert.
Graham Downie, founder of Cognac Property Services, said the French market is currently recovering from a serious slump incurred in 2008-09, with small gains in prices the norm across the country following this period………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Hanwha Group said Thursday it would soon sign a $7.75 billion contract to build 100,000 homes in a Baghdad suburb, in what it called the largest-ever overseas construction deal for a South Korean company.
Hanwha and Iraq’s investment commission will sign a final agreement for the Besmaya redevelopment project as early as this month after the cabinet approved it, a group spokesman told AFP………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India’s [ Images ] norms for alternative investment funds are likely to make life difficult for real estate fund managers, forcing them to adopt new ways to attract investors.
Early this week, Sebi notified AIF regulations for private equity, hedge funds, venture capital funds and real estate funds, among others. The norms say the funds should not have more than 1,000 investors and the minimum investment amount should not be less than Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million)………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Property prices will dip this year but a tumble is unlikely, a report by the China Academy of Social Sciences said on Thursday. Sluggish demand has ruled out big price increases while property developers are unlikely to slash prices because of high land costs, according to the academy’s annual report on real estate.
“Property sales will remain low this year, despite a rebound since March, and prices will dip,” said Li Enping, associate professor at the Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies under the academy, a major contributor to the report………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Confidence in the Philippines’ property market, fuelled by economic growth, an influx of expatriate workers and rising investment by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), is intensifying competition between the country’s major real estate players.
On April 17, Property giant Ayala Land announced investment plans worth P90 billion ($2.09 billion) for 67 new projects, in what the firm described as an “unprecedented” expansion into new market segments and new locations………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Melbourne registered a 7.3% increase in housing affordability over the March quarter, with the overall national HIA-Commonwealth Bank Housing Affordability Index improving for the fifth straight quarter to its highest level since September 2009.
Housing affordability has been trending up since December 2010, according to the index. The index improved by 6.4% (3.7 index points) in the March 2012 quarter to be 11% (6.1 index points) higher over the year and at a reading of 61.8………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Investors used to buy ‘alternative’ asset classes for diversification. The theory went that you could reduce risk simply by mixing together assets with different return characteristics. Sadly, it was based on historical data that turned out to be irrelevant during the financial crisis - just when it was most needed.
Diversification is fine as far as it goes, but it’s no substitute for conviction………………………………………..Full Article: Source