World Real Estate News

Singapore-skyline-2.jpg Singapore skyline Singapore, that mystical island country-city combination off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula in southeast asia, once again is winning headlines. This time as the preferred permanent residence location by the world's rich and famous whose business and social lives are made up mostly of travel to and from countries other than Singapore. They are now being called the new mobile millionaires. RBC Wealth Management, part of Toronto-based Royal Bank of Canada, and EIU, a London-based unit of The Economist Group, surveyed 558 individuals who have at least $1 million of investable assets through June to October. Singapore beat out Hong Kong for the honors. Seventy-five percent of those surveyed picked Singapore; 25 percent chose Hong Kong. Qualify of life in Singapore is what convinced the wealthy. They believe Singapore is a far safer haven to raise a family than the often air-polluted environs of Hong Kong. For example, Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of Facebook Inc., moved to Singapore in 2009. Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, relocated there in 2007. Rogers is the co-founder of the Quantum Fund with billionaire George Soros and creator of the Rogers International Commodities Index (RICI The rich and famous also cited the country's political stability as important. Infrastructure and educational opportunity were also rated high. The mobile millionaires also see Singapore as a safe haven to park a good chunk of their wealth while deciding where to invest it at a later date. Zurich bankers won't like to hear that. But so far as a site in which to conduct business, Hong Kong topped Singapore, according to an index published in March by Bloomberg Rankings. Hong Kong is the gateway to China - and many of world's top corporations understand that. For years, they have been eager to win a slice of the Beijing business pie A Boston Consulting Group report published May 31 showed Singapore posted a 14 percent increase in millionaire households to 188,000 last year, when the Asia-Pacific region countered a decline in wealth in Western Europe and the U.S. The proportion of millionaire homes in Singapore was 17 percent, the highest in the world, followed by Qatar and Kuwait. Singapore has an estimated permanent population of 5.1 million; two million are estimated to be foreigners. About 23 percent of the internationally mobile wealthy in Singapore prefer real estate investment as their top asset, compared with 7 percent in North America. It helps to be a mobile millionaire to live comfortably in Singapore these days. For example, the cost of a permit to own a small car for 10 years rose to an unprecedented S$78,523 ($64,300) on Dec. 5 from S$46,889 at the start of the year. That excludes the cost of buying a car. The government auctions limited vehicle permits to control congestion and pollution. The island's home prices climbed to a record in the third quarter, prompting the government to restrict home loans and cap property development. Price gains in Singapore have reached 4 percent or more every month bar one since November 2010, more than double the 1.9 percent average in the past two decades. Inflation is forecast by the Bank of Singapore to average more than 4.5 percent this year. - See more at: http://www.worldpropertychannel.com/asia-pacific-residential-news/mobile-wealth-rbc-wealth-management-boston-consulting-group-singapore-real-estate-market-living-in-singapore-6369.php#sthash.LLlZYdFj.dpuf

Parking-garage.jpg Talk about innovative niches. Slowed by the government's 2010 extra tax on residential sales, investors in Hong Kong real estate have found a new and more profitable product: The sale of parking spots in both residential, commercial and industrial markets. The Centaline Property Agency Ltd. in Hong Kong reports the average parking spot sale in the third quarter of this year rose 6.7 percent to HK$640,000 ($82,600 US), the second highest on record. Investors are asking those prices because Hong Kong is starved for new parking and development space. The record for average parking-spot prices is HK$660,000 ($85,161), set in the fourth quarter of 1997, just before the city's last major real estate crash. Now the government has a new concern: A bubble erupting on the parking space market, as it did in the apartment market where prices have doubled in four years, driven by near record-low interest rates and an influx of money from China. Midland Holdings Ltd. notes there were more than 8,300 parking space transactions in Hong Kong in the first 10 months of this year, accounting for 8.9 percent of all property deals. That percentage is the highest since records were first kept in 1997. Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has unveiled three major sets of curbs on home buying since taking over in July. But most analysts in this region say there is just too much cash lying around in Hong Kong these days, begging for profitable ventures. Another factor: Banks continue to lend, at low interest rates, on most of the new real estate-related business. For example, a space in the exclusive Repulse Bay area sold in May for HK$3 million ($387,000 US), the most for a single transaction and more than double the median U.S. home price, according to CarparkHK.com, a website that tallies parking-spot information. Home prices gained 4.4 percent in the third quarter, according to Centaline, the city's biggest closely held realtor by market share. Hong Kong already is the priciest place to buy a home, according to broker Savills Plc (SVS), which compared prices in 10 cities, including New York and London. Most parking spaces in Hong Kong, including those inside residential complexes, are freely transferable with separate ownership titles from the apartments. Some garages have rules prohibiting non-residents from entering and parking on the premises. Spaces in industrial and commercial buildings also are transferable, though landlords at most prime-office and shopping locations normally hold on to parking spaces to benefit from the stable rental returns they provide, Bloomberg reports. Hong Kong banks normally lend a maximum 50 percent of a parking space's value, compared with 70 percent for residential properties because parking-space mortgages are riskier for banks compared with residential-and commercial-property mortgages, Developers often sell the spaces independently from the residential units. For example, Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd. sold 514 parking spaces at its Festival City project in the city's north on Nov. 24 for HK$980,000 to HK$1.3 million. One Hong Dollar equals $0.1290 US. While realtors post listings of parking spaces for sale and charge fees on deals, few brokers specialize in them because the margin is too small. Most buyers go to websites such as CarparkHK.com or ParkingHK.com, which partners with Hong Kong City Parking, for information. - See more at: http://www.worldpropertychannel.com/asia-pacific-commercial-news/hong-kong-parking-centaline-property-agency-ltd-carparkhkcom-savills-plc-svs-colliers-international-leung-chun-ying-6378.php#sthash.hE9UJDUy.dpuf

European-hotel.jpg At the Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) last week in Los Angeles, Jones Lang LaSalle's (JLL) Hotels & Hospitality Group reported five forces which will drive the hotel investment market during the next five years. JLL also predicted global hotel deal volume is projected to remain in line with the most recent three-year average in 2013, but points to signs that an on-going uptick in Americas hotel transactions activity sooner rather than later. - See more at: http://www.worldpropertychannel.com/north-america-vacation-news/hot6el-investment-report-americas-lodging-investment-summit-alis-jones-lang-lasalle-hotels-hospitality-group-jll-hotel-investments-arthur-adler-6517.php#sthash.DTLdaYCg.dpuf