HONG KONG/SHANGHAI: Chinese property developers have dismissed claims by China Central Television (CCTV) that they owe massive sums in unpaid land taxes, pitting some of China’s most powerful businessmen against the influential state-owned broadcaster.

INDIA’s slowing economy has left its big cities with a glut of office space, pushing up vacancy rates, freezing development and prompting some builders to convert commercial projects into housing.

US borrowers are increasingly missing payments on home equity lines of credit they took out during the housing bubble, a trend that could deal another blow to the country’s biggest banks.

KUALA LUMPUR: Twelve more tenders for the ongoing Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project, worth RM1.1 billion, will be awarded by Mass Rapid Transit Corp Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp).

Director of the Greater Kuala Lumpur/Klang Valley National Key Economic Area at Pemandu, Datuk Ahmad Suhaili Idrus, said 80% of the tender packages have been awarded as at October 2013.

WASHINGTON: Permits for future US home construction rose to their highest level in nearly 5½ years in October, suggesting the housing market recovery remained intact despite recent signs of slowing down.

GEORGE TOWN: In what is seen as an unprecedented move, the Penang government says it plans to buy up unsold low-cost housing units in the state for the purpose of leasing them out to low-income families.

KUALA LUMPUR: The orang asli community in Peninsular Malaysia wants the government to stop giving approvals to developers that encroach into their ancestral land until the report by the government’s task force into the matter is released.

KUALA LUMPUR: Johor property developer Daiman Development Bhd closed 10% higher yesterday from its previous closing

price after a report in The Edge Financial Daily noted that shares of the property firm were undervalued.

The counter rose to its 52-week high of RM3.44 yesterday before closing at RM3.41 for a 10% increase from last Friday’s close of RM3.10.

BEIJING: China has reinforced a ban on selling property built by villages or farmers on rural land, state media reported yesterday, dashing hopes for a quick policy change after a top-level party meeting.

SHANGHAI: Major Chinese property developers owe 3.8 trillion yuan (US$623 billion or RM2 trillion) in taxes, the state broadcaster said, raising a storm of controversy amid huge sensitivity over high housing prices.