Daily Property News

Friday 17th July

Russians flock back to US
Rich Russians are returning to the US property market, lured by distressed sales and the ruble's rise against the dollar, it is claimed...

Mummy Madonna sells up
Madonna is unlikely to make a profit if, as seems likely, she decides to sell her rambling Marylebone house on London‘s busy Great Cumberland Place...

Suing over a hula
Two groups of property investors are demanding their money back from the developers of the upscale Trump International Hotel & Tower in Waikiki, Hawaii over claims that the property tycoon was directly tied to the project...

Museums to test evening opening
The celebrated Vatican Museums, which house Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, are to experiment with late opening until 11:00 pm, the Osservatore Romano has said...

Grand eco scheme
Grand Designs Great British Refurb Campaign tackles inefficient UK housing stock...

Jude falls for Cuba
After recently celebrating Christmas and his birthday in Havana, with his ex-wife Sadie Frost and their three children Rafferty, Iris and Rudy, Hollywood superstar Jude Law has fallen in love with Cuba...

Cheaper US loans
The weekly average fixed borrowing rate to buy a USA property fell last week, effectively lowering the cost of financing a property purchase in the United States, according to Zillow...

More structure for buy-to-let
In a recent poll of 550 brokers, 54 per cent of respondents said they would like to see buy-to-let regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA)...

Sunny side up
The number of UK property construction firms in distress has almost doubled in the last year but fewer have been facing financial problems in the last three months, suggesting an improved outlook...

Westfield hogging shoppers
Retailers on London's Kensington High Street have demanded the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) cut their business rate bills by as much as 20 per cent...

'IT couple' hit London
A new "golden couple" is about to storm London's artistic salons. Edgar Bronfman Jnr and his wife Clarissa are leaving their Manhattan Upper East Side town house with their four young children and settling in Kensington, where eight-bedroom mansions can cost from £10 million...

UK rents rise once more
According to research from Paragon Mortgages based on a survey of experienced landlords, average UK private rental yields rose to 6.4 per cent in the second quarter of 2009, up from 6.2 per cent in the first quarter...

Don't use loan for deposit
Young people planning to make the most of the ailing housing market by stepping on to the property ladder are taking out loans so they can afford the deposit, research shows...

Brazil bouncing back
Brazil's federal savings bank reports that the volume of Brazil property loan applications submitted escalated in Q1 2009...

Foreclosures hit high
USA property foreclosure levels hit record levels in the first half of 2009 despite a number of Government stimulus packages designed to aid the housing industry, according to a report out today...

Latest Feature Articles

The India effect

Although India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it is also facing a growing budget deficit. The recent release of India's troubled budget could lead to less growth than expected, so read on to find out what India's troubles mean for the global economy...

Crying out for new blood

Bram Stoker's Dracula, a nightmarish tale of mythical vampires, gothic castles and bloodthirsty midnight feasts, makes it easy to believe that the land of Transylvania is simply the stuff of legend...

Outlook for Sin City's neighbour

Not many people in the real estate industry would be surprised to hear that Las Vegas is struggling as a result of the real estate fallout. But what about its nearby neighbor, Henderson?..

What's next for Poland?

Poland real estate has fared better than neighboring countries partly due to a relatively flat economy in 2009 and Government policy that restrained borrowing earlier in the decade. Although a recent housing boom has led to an oversupply in unsold housing units, the Polish economy is expected to recover strongly in 2010. The following article looks at the history, trends, and outlook for Poland's real estate market...