02.10.2008 - Moscow builders halt projects as credit crunch bites
From Bloomberg: Moscow's decade-long building boom is falling victim to the global credit crunch as record high interest rates squeeze developers in the world's third most expensive property market. "Loan rates have climbed to ridiculous heights and the terms are very short,'' said Dmitry Lutsenko, a board member at Mirax Group, the Moscow-based company that's building the Federation Tower, which will be Europe's tallest skyscraper when completed. Mirax canceled plans to develop 10 million square meters (108 million square feet) of commercial and residential space after interest rates on some loans rose to as high as 25 percent, Sergei Polonsky, Mirax's billionaire owner, said in a Sept. 29 e-mail. The company's Web site shows it has projects in countries including Russia, Ukraine, France, Turkey, Cambodia, Vietnam, Montenegro..... Full Article: Source
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