The government’s determination to keep cracking down on its frothy real-estate market may be a political necessity but risks hurting growth at a time when much of the world economy is weak, and contrasts sharply with efforts in the U.S. and Japan to add fuel to the fading global recovery.

Despite government measures in place since April, property prices have not fallen much in major Chinese cities, and housing sales have actually picked up in the last few weeks — signs the measures aren’t achieving their declared aim of curbing speculative purchases and making homes more affordable.

Government officials, while emphasizing they are committed to supporting growth, are unequivocal that more needs to be done to fix the housing market. China’s chief economic planner, Zhang Ping, told the nation’s legislature last week: “Current housing prices in some large and medium-sized cities are still too high.”

For the rest of the year, the government will “further implement measures to contain the overly rapid rise of housing prices in some cities, and curb speculative and investment demand for housing,” said Mr. Zhang, the head of the National Development and Reform Commission.

A range of official voices, including an advisor to the central bank, a banking regulator, and commentaries in state media, have agreed: Housing prices still need to come down.

Changing course now would hurt the government’s credibility with the public, analysts say. Many urban Chinese feel the surge in property prices over the past year has put home ownership out of their reach. Yet the repeated promises that tough policies will not be changed could also leave Beijing with less room to maneuver if growth slows more sharply than anticipated.

“These tightening measures will have to continue for at least a few more months,” said Deutsche Bank economist Jun Ma. China’s government is also pushing ahead with other restrictive measures, he noted, such as controls on lending, tighter supervision of public-works projects and closures of energy-wasting factories.

The drive to cool property markets in China—as well as in other booming Asian economies like Hong Kong and Singapore—comes as Japan is rolling out a new stimulus package and the U.S. looks for ways to bolster its own expansion.

By contrast, most forecasters expect China’s economic growth to ease to a still-rapid 8% to 9% by the end of this year, from 11.1% in the first half. And its core manufacturing sector continued to expand in August, according to the closely-watched purchasing mangers’ indices issued Wednesday.

The measures introduced in April included higher down payments and mortgage rates for many home buyers, limits on purchases by nonresidents and more construction of affordable housing.

At first, the moves seemed to have their intended effect, quickly cooling a booming market: Sales fell, and nationwide average housing prices were flat in both June and July.

But there hasn’t yet been a major adjustment. New figures from Soufun, a real-estate consultancy, show property prices were actually higher in August than July for most of the 30 major cities it surveys. That includes a 12.3% rise in the capital city of Beijing, which already has some of the nation’s highest prices.

Housing sales have also rebounded, and in southern cities such as Guangzhou and Ningbo they are back to levels reached before the government’s new policies started.

The latest data “should strengthen Beijing’s view that a reversal of policy tightening measures put in place earlier this year is not appropriate for the time being,” said Brian Jackson, an economist for Royal Bank of Canada.

A commentary in the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s newspaper, Tuesday reinforced the message: “With house prices still high and not falling, the results of the policies are still quite far from what ordinary people expect,” the commentary said.

Xu Ce of the State Information Center, a government think tank, said in a report this week that the government needs to be careful not to crush real-estate investment, which is a major support for the broader economy. But he agreed that containing the rise in house prices is necessary to avoid a potential banking crisis, and broader political strains.

“The overly rapid rise in real-estate prices is now not just an economic problem, but an issue that affects the lives of a majority of people as well as social stability,” Mr. Xu wrote in the report.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/

The roughly 32,000 square foot parcel owned by Beng’s City Developments Ltd in Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur could go for as much as RM3,000 (US$953) per square foot. Currently the most expensive land deal recorded in Malaysian history is Sunrise Bhd’s purchase of Wisma Angkasa Raya in Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur for RM2,588 (US$822) per square foot.

At RM3,000 per square foot, the land in Jalan Bukit Bintang would fetch RM96 million (US$30.5 million).

The land is located between the Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur hotel, which City Developments Ltd also owns, and the Pavilion Kuala Lumpu shopping centre. The owner of the Pavilion is believed to be interested in purchasing the adjacent plot, as well as YTL Group.

The land was originally slated to be developed into the Millennium Residences, a 42-storey luxury condo development, but construction stalled after starting in 2008, the Business Times reported.

Source: http://www.property-report.com/

A total of 70,051 Notices of Default (“NODs”) were filed at county recorder offices during the April-to-June period. That was down 13.6 percent from 81,054 for the prior quarter, and down 43.8 percent from 124,562 in second-quarter 2009, according to San Diego-based MDA DataQuick.

Last quarter’s total was the lowest since second-quarter 2007, when 53,943 NODs were recorded. The peak was in first-quarter 2009 when 135,431 homeowners received foreclosure notices.

“Obviously, motivated sellers and accommodating lenders have played a part in bringing the default filings down, especially when it comes to short sales. Public policy has also been a factor. We also need to remember that prices have come up off bottom over the past year. If they continue to rise, fewer homeowners will find themselves under water, which is a significant factor in letting a home go,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president.

While mortgage defaults spread from lower-cost sub-markets up into more expensive neighborhoods over the last year, that trend appears to be leveling off. The most affordable zip codes in the state, representing 25 percent of the total housing stock, accounted for 40.1 percent of all default activity last quarter, down from 40.9 percent the prior quarter and down from 44.9 percent a year ago.

California’s mid and high-end markets tended to see smaller quarter-to-quarter and year-over-year declines in mortgage defaults last quarter. For example, zip codes statewide with median sale prices of $8000,000-plus collectively saw mortgage defaults drop 11.3 percent from the prior quarter and 30.4 percent from a year ago. At the other end of the price spectrum, zips with sub-$300,000 medians saw defaults fall 13.4 percent from the prior quarter and drop 46.2 percent from a year ago.

However, the concentration of defaults remained much higher in the less expensive areas: Zips with sub-$300,000 medians collectively saw 10.6 default notices filed for every 1,000 homes last quarter, compared with 2.9 per 1,000 homes in zips with $800,000-plus medians.

Although the number of default notices filed on homes with $800,000-plus mortgages is down from last quarter and a year ago, those high-end defaults now represent a greater percentage of all defaults because NODs have dropped more steeply in lower-cost areas. Last quarter 6.1 percent of the default notices filed in 15 of the state’s priciest coastal counties, from San Diego to Marin, were on homes with $800,000- plus mortgages. That’s up from 5.9 percent the prior quarter and 5.7 percent a year ago, to the highest level since the foreclosure crisis began nearly five years ago.

On primary mortgages, California homeowners were a median five months behind on their payments when the lender filed the NOD. The borrowers owed a median $15,008 in back payments on a median $325,567 mortgage.

On home equity loans and lines of credit in default, borrowers owed a median $4,187 on a median $65,740 credit line. However the amount of the credit line that was actually in use cannot be determined from public records.

While many of the loans that went into default during second quarter 2010 were originated in early 2007, the median origination month for last quarter’s defaulted loans was August 2006, one month ahead of July 2006 for the prior four quarters.

The lenders that originated the most loans that went into default last quarter were World Savings (2,982), Washington Mutual (2,547), Countrywide (2,532), Wells Fargo (2,177) and Bank of America (1,049). These were also the most active lenders in the second half of 2006, and so far their default rates on loans in that period are well below 10 percent.

Smaller subprime lenders had far higher default rates for loans originated during that period: ResMAE Mortgage, Ownit Mortgage, Master Financial, First NLC Financial Services and Fieldstone Mortgage all had default rates of more than 65 percent of their originated loans. These and most other subprime lenders are long gone.

Most of the loans made in 2006 are owned and/or serviced by institutions other than those that made the loans. The servicers pursuing the highest number of defaults last quarter were ReconTrust Co, Cal-Western Reconveyance and NDEx West.

San Diego-based MDA DataQuick is a division of MDA Lending Solutions, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. MDA DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. Notices of Default are recorded at county recorders offices and mark the first step of the formal foreclosure process.

Although 70,051 default notices were filed last quarter, they involved 68,734 homes because some borrowers were in default on multiple loans (e.g. a primary mortgage and a line of credit). Multiple default recordings on the same home are trending down, DataQuick reported.

Mortgages were least likely to go into default in San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo counties, following the historic norm. The probability was highest in Madera, Sutter and Merced counties.

The number of Trustees Deeds (TDs) recorded, which reflect the number of houses or condo units lost at the end of the foreclosure process, totaled 47,669 during the second quarter. That was up 11.2 percent from 42,857 for the prior quarter, and up 4.4 percent from 45,667 for second-quarter 2009. The all-time peak was 79,511 in third- quarter 2008.

In the last real estate cycle, TDs peaked at 15,418 in third- quarter 1996. The state’s all-time low was 637 in the second quarter of 2005, MDA DataQuick reported.

There are 8.5 million houses and condos in California.

Collectively, some of California’s most expensive zip codes saw a relatively large increase in the number of homes foreclosed on last quarter. For example, the 92 zip codes that had $800,000-plus median sale prices in the first half of this year saw the number of homes foreclosed on jump 33.6 percent quarter-to-quarter, and jump 65.7 percent from a year earlier. Last quarter’s foreclosure total in these high-end areas was at its highest level since lender repossessions began their steep ascent four years ago.

Still, the concentration of foreclosures in these zips with $800,000-plus median sale prices was relatively low last quarter – 1.2 foreclosures per 1,000 homes. That compares with 5.6 foreclosures per 1,000 homes across all zip codes statewide last quarter, and 9.9 foreclosures per 1,000 homes in zips with median sale prices below $200,000. The latter areas – places hit hardest by foreclosures in recent years – collectively saw foreclosures rise 10.4 percent from the prior quarter but fall 4.5 percent from a year ago.

On average, homes foreclosed on last quarter took 9.1 months to wind their way through the formal foreclosure process, beginning with an NOD. That’s up from 7.5 months for the prior quarter and 6.4 months a year ago. The increase could reflect, among other things, lender backlogs and extra time needed to pursue possible loan modifications and short sales.

Of all the homes foreclosed on statewide during a two-year period ending in March this year, 85.7 percent had been resold on the open market as of the end of last month. A year ago the figure was 83.5 percent. It cannot be determined from public records how many of the unsold foreclosed properties are currently for sale, not for sale or have been made rentals (and therefore should not be expected to sell anytime soon).

Foreclosure resales accounted for 36.0 percent of all California resale activity last quarter. It was down from a revised 42.5 percent the prior quarter, and down from 49.9 percent a year ago. The peak was 57.8 percent in first-quarter 2009. Foreclosure resales varied significantly by county last quarter, from 9.5 percent in San Francisco to 61.7 percent in Imperial.

At formal foreclosure auctions held last quarter, an estimated 25.5 percent of foreclosed properties were bought by investors or others who don’t appear to be lender or government entities. That was up from 24.6 percent the previous quarter and 17.9 percent a year ago, DataQuick reported.

Source: http://www.nuwireinvestor.com/

Housing prices in major Chinese cities apparently increased at a slower pace in June thanks to the central government’s strenuous efforts since March to cool the overheated property market. Some government departments have said the slower price rise shows the policies to rein in the property market are working.

But China’s realty problems, accumulated over the years, cannot be solved in a short period. In fact, under the false appearance of “initial success” an even greater crisis is brewing, which will not only have complex implications for the national economy, but also be of far-reaching political and social significance.

The “seesaw battle” between the central government and various vested interest groups reflect the nation is suffering from “real estate disease”.

After seeing how difficult it is to implement tougher property policies, the public has realized that the vested interest groups have become powerful enough to resist or tamper with the central government’s property-control policies.

Speculators, banks and property developers all are gambling with the prospect of rising housing prices. By putting off the sale of new houses, prices have been controlled for now, while rentals have increased unexpectedly in recent months. But in many cities, such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Nanjing, banks never stopped providing loans to people buying a third house.

The real estate industry, which accounted for only a small part of China’s GDP in the 1990s, has become a pillar industry in just a few years because of the machinations of vested interests.

From the economic structure’s point of view, real estate is a basic industry because it involves so many upstream and downstream sectors, and the construction boom did contribute immensely to China’s recovery from the global economic crisis.

So, a downturn in the housing market will not only hurt related industries, but also drain local revenues, which depend heavily on land transfer fees and the real estate.

In essence, similar to the financial industry in the United States, China’s real estate sector is “too big to collapse”. Therefore, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the real estate sector has hijacked the Chinese economy.

Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/

The property industry ‘is likely to see a period of stagnant growth at best and a double dip contraction at worst,’ said Bashar al-Natoor, director at Fitch’s Europe Middle East Africa corporates team.

It is a blow to real estate investors who have been looking for signs of recovery since property prices have fallen by 55% since their peak in the middle of 2008. Some analysts expect property prices to fall another 20 to 40%. Developers such as Union Properties PJSC are trying to sell assets to pay debts and complete projects.

Without a major improvement in market conditions, sizeable disposals, equity raising or significant government support, ‘it is unlikely that developers will deleverage quickly enough to repay the upcoming 2011/2012 maturities from internal resources,’ al-Natoor added.

The credit outlook for Dubai’s real estate remains negative as the availability and the cost of debt is likely to deteriorate, prompting investors to demand higher risk premiums, al-Natoor confirmed.

Dubai’s real estate and construction industries will continue to weaken on increased customer delinquencies, tighter liquidity and the reliance on short-term maturities, according to the report.

‘Oversupply, limited mortgage availability and rising interest rates will also pose significant constraints for real estate companies and buyers,’ it concludes. Dubai rents are expected to decline over the next 12 to 18 months as developers try to prevent tenant defaults, Fitch added.

Meanwhile the latest figures show that sales prices are level. The price of apartments, villas and commercial properties remained stable in second quarter of the year compared to the previous three months with minimal reductions in villas across just two areas of the city, according to a new report from Astecto Property Management.

The Asteco Q2 2010 Report said that no change was recorded in the sales price of apartments and offices, with flats in Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and on Palm Jumeirah still commanding the highest prices.

‘The market is at a stage where pricing can vary from unit to unit in any particular property. We have noticed some overseas clients, who bought property on Palm Jumeirah, are prepared to sell at a much lower price per square foot as the exchange rate is more favourable without them incurring any discount,’ said Elaine Jones, chief executive officer of Asteco Property Management.

Villas are roughly the same as the first quarter of the year in all areas except The Meadows and The Springs, where prices declined 5 and 6% respectively mainly due to the large number of units available in the area, their age and the fact that owners who initially bought into this development at low launch prices, are in the position to reduce their asking price without making a loss, the report also pointed out.

Palm Jumeirah villas remain the most expensive at AED1,800 per square foot due to its iconic water front development, with the Green Community at the opposite end of the scale with villas selling for AED700 per square foot.

Source: www.propertywire.com

In Auckland values are 7.9% above last year, down from the 8.8% reported for May. The increase in the Wellington area slipped to 5.4% in June from 6% the previous month and in Christchurch they fell from 5.9% to 6.2%. In some provincial areas values are lower than they were a year ago with Whangarei down 1.1%, Rotorua down 2.1% and Gisborne down 0.9%.

But while values calculated using QV indices had declined, the average sales price in June increased slightly from $403,070 to $404,715. That was due to a change in composition of the sales taking place, and showed the unreliability of using average sales prices to measure value change, QV said.

Glenda Whitehead of QV Valuations said no evidence had shown up so far that May’s budget is having any dramatic impact on the property market. Any effect is likely to take effect during the next 12 months as various tax changes are implemented and depend on whether investors decided to sell as a result of the budget measures.

Whitehead said that at present property sellers with unrealistic price expectations were being bypassed by purchasers. ‘Buyers continue to be very cautious and selective in their purchasing decisions. Properties with perceived flaws such as structural problems, or poor maintenance, or perhaps at a greater distance from town, are proving harder to sell,’ she explained.

Distressed property sales are still having an effect on the market by subduing price levels in areas where they are available and potentially cheaper than non-stressed sales. Sales numbers are around 20% below the long term average, with a decline in activity typical for this time of the year as winter set in.

‘There also appears to have been an easing in the number of new properties coming on to the market, which is a normal trend for this time of the year. There is still plenty of choice for the few buyers actively searching,’ added Whitehead.

A separate report shows that sales fell to their second lowest volume in June. The figures the Real Estate Institute shows that total residential sales fell to 4,575 last month from 5,206 in May, and 6,040 in June last year. It is only the second time in the past 10 years that a June month has recorded fewer than 5,000 sales, the first being in 2008.

The median number of days it takes to sell a property rose to 45 from 43 in May and 41 days in the same month a year earlier, and is 15 days longer than when the property boom peaked in 2007, the data also shows.

Source: http://www.propertywire.com/news/australasia/new-zealand-property-values-201007164319.html

It is the city’s largest attempt to date to deal with a neglected 27,000 foreclosed properties that become an eyesore and also bring down the prices of neighbouring real estate.

‘It is right that the banks should be held accountable to cleaning them up. A lot of vacant homes have become a nuisance because of the foreclosure crisis,’ said Betty Steele, one of several community activists who is encouraging residents to report problem properties via the city’s 311 hotline.

New rules mean that officials can hand out fines of up to $100,000 against financial institutions that seize homes and allow them to fall into disrepair. They also mean that lenders, who often don’t consider the properties their responsibility until the title is transferred, are now responsible as soon as they issue a default notice.

They also require lenders to register their inventory of properties which will make it easier for officials to identify bank owners because property records lag behind property transfers and the foreclosure market is very fluid. The new registry should allow inspectors to easily identify owners when constituents call in to complain about a property.

But the California Mortgage Bankers Association criticised the moves and said it creates unnecessary paperwork for lenders because property records already are publicly available. ‘Increased bureaucracy is not the answer. Lenders and banks have a vested interest in keeping up homes because the better condition the house is in, the more money they are going to recover when they sell that house,’ said spokesman Dustin Hobbs.

California is one of the worst hit states in terms of foreclosures and overall the number of foreclosures is still rising in the US and expected to continue doing to this year and into 2011.

Real estate foreclosures in the US reached a record for the second consecutive month in May, with increases in every state, as lenders stepped up property seizures, according to the latest report from RealtyTrac.

Bank repossessions climbed 44% from May 2009 to 93,777, while foreclosure filings, including default and auction notices, rose 1% to 322,920. One out of every 400 US households received a filing.

Senior vice president Rick Sharga warned that a quarterly record for home seizures is possible if June is anything like May. He predicted last month that another five million delinquent mortgages will end in foreclosure in addition to properties that had already been repossessed.

And it is nowhere near the peak. ‘The second quarter won’t be the peak. I’m not even sure 2010 will be,’ he said. He added that the total amount of individual filings could reach as high as 4.5 million in 2010, up from 3.9 million filings in 2009.

Source: http://www.propertywire.com/news/north-america/us-foreclosure-property-crackdown-201007124301.html

Government officials have confirmed that official policy is that foreigners should not be allowed to buy agricultural land. The Agrian Development Ministry said the government wants to tighten restrictions on foreign ownership of farm lands in Latin America’s biggest country.

Ministry spokeswoman Denise Mantovani confirmed published remarks by Minister Guilherme Cassel, who said that the government does not want foreigners to buy agricultural land in Brazil.

‘We do not need foreigners to produce food in Brazil. This is the policy of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Because of food security, Brazilian lands must remain in Brazilian hands,’ the minister said.

Mantovani said that 10 million acres of land had been registered by foreigners as of 2008 and that between 2002 and 2008, foreigners invested $2.43 billion to buy land.

She also confirmed that the decision to restrict foreign ownership of land is due to rising world demand for food, water and natural resources.

Even although under current law large rural properties can only be purchased by Brazilian citizens or residents it is often ignored. ‘Foreigners often bypass that rule by setting up companies in Brazil, which are controlled abroad, to purchase land. This is a foreign company and this is what we want to control,’ said Mantovani.

‘I am not a xenophobe but our land is finite. The population grows and demands food,’ she added.

Mantovani said that representatives from several ministries were preparing a constitutional amendment to further restrict foreign ownership of land. And she warned that these could include the revoking of land titles already purchased by foreigners.

‘We are going to draw up an amendment that will make it clear that foreigners can invest in any sector except land,’ she added

Source: www.propertieswire.com

Although transactions are 15% below the final quarter of 2009, analysts say the market is well poised for the rest of the year.

Transaction volumes in the UK at €7.8 billion accounted for over one third of the total and remained at the same level as the previous quarter. The UK was followed by Germany, France and Sweden in terms of quarter one volumes and each recorded an increase in activity compared to the previous year’s volumes.

‘The first quarter of the year is typically one of the slowest quarters; investors do not have the urgency to press on and close deals as they do towards the end of the year. Typically the first quarter is some 20 to 30% below the fourth quarter, so we do not read a 15% decrease as a sign of a slowing market,’ explained Richard Bloxam, Director, EMEA Capital Markets, Jones Lang LaSalle.

‘We expect investment activity to increase throughout the year. Already a number of transactions over €100 million and portfolio deals are under offer in the market. We estimate that direct commercial European real estate transaction volumes will reach at least €90 billion for the full year. This will be around 30% higher than 2009,’ he added.

Nigel Roberts, Chairman of EMEA Research, Jones Lang LaSalle said there is strengthening investor interest for good quality real estate. ‘This has clearly been demonstrated by movement in prime office yields which compressed in the majority of the European markets in the first quarter of 2010. London prime yields moved in by 50 basis points and continental European markets between 10 to 50 basis points with only a handful of markets remaining stable,’ he said.
‘Whilst economic recovery still remains fragile, business confidence is generally rising and with improved credit conditions the demand for real estate from core investors is driving down yields. In the short term interest rates still offer positive cash flow opportunities for leveraged buyers but longer term investors will be looking for improving fundaments translating into stronger rental markets,’ he added.

Source: www.propertywire.com

‘There are a wide range of opportunities in the Vietnamese and Cambodian markets from city centre office, retail, residential and hotel developments through to the growing resort markets in these countries as well as industrial estate opportunities,’ said James Pitchon, head of research and consulting at CBRE Thailand.

He reckons it will prove a challenge for the developers as rules and regulations governing property development and ownership are different in other countries and the dynamics of each of the property sectors in these countries is also different to Thailand.

‘Accurate information on regulations, supply, demand, pricing, competitors and prospects for each property sector is essential for a Thai developer to succeed in a new market,’ he explained.

CBRE established offices in Vietnam in 2003 and now has over 200 real estate professionals operating out of offices in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Danang. Its research, consulting and marketing teams have already worked with a large number of overseas developers who have successfully built projects in both the main cities and resort areas.

CBRE established and office in Phnom Penh in 2009 and have been advising clients on the Cambodian market for many years before the office opened. David Simister, chairman of CBRE Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam advised the Australian Government on the acquisition of a new site for their Phnom Penh Embassy in 2005.

‘There is very little publicly available information on the Vietnamese or Cambodian markets. CBRE sells and leases properties in these countries everyday which is why we have the best market data on actual transactions and future supply. This enables us to provide our clients with the best market data giving them the best knowledge to enable them to succeed,’ said Pitchon.

He believes that there are opportunities for Thai developers to acquire or build properties in both Cambodia and Vietnam but accurate market research will be critical in order to succeed.

Source: http://www.propertywire.com/news/asia/thai-real-estate-developers-201007154313.html