CHINA has hailed reconstruction efforts since a massive earthquake levelled parts of Sichuan province three years ago as a major victory, but a lack of jobs and crippling debts to pay for new homes are making life difficult for many.

KUALA LUMPUR: TPM College Sdn Bhd and leading applied research institute, Fraunhofer Germany, will jointly organise a two-day green building design workshop, beginning June 2, for players in the construction industry.

HONG KONG: Subway operator MTR Corp Ltd said it has entered into two project agreements with Hong Kong's government, of which the company will bear and finance construction costs totalling HK$17.78 billion (RM6.94 billion).

BEIJING: New home prices in China rose 4.3% in April from a year earlier, slowing from a rise of 5.2% in March, according to Reuters calculations from official data.

New home prices in Beijing rose 2.8% in April from a year earlier, down from a 4.9% annual rise in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday, May 18.

BEIJING: China's annual housing inflation slowed slightly in April with prices rising 4.3%, data showed on Wednesday, May 18, a further sign that forceful policy tightening is helping to cool exuberant price rises.

HONG KONG: Soaring property prices have made rural land sites increasingly expensive — and highly sought-after — as indigenous villagers and developers hold on to land or snap up additional sites so they can make big profits by building village houses, property agents say.

HONG KONG: A failed attempt to enter Hong Kong's brokerage market has not deterred US property agency Intero Real Estate Services from seeking a foothold in the city to sell local properties.

In February this year, the Califorinia-based property agency opened for business in an office in the International Finance Centre.

HONG KONG: Japan's hotels are not expected to fully recover from the collapse in revenues that followed the March earthquake and tsunami until the first quarter of 2013, according to a report by agency Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels.

HONG KONG: Recipe: Crush two glass bottles into fine splinters. Mix with 0.9kg of coal ash and construction waste and 1.04kg of cement. Put the mixture under intense pressure in a brick-making machine for 25 seconds.

Follow the instructions and you won't have a tasty party cake but a 2.6kg "eco-glass" brick that can be used to pave roads.

HONG KONG: Water leaks are among the most common complaints flat owners have to deal with.

"If the source of a leak is found to be in your flat, it may begin by affecting just a small portion of a ceiling of the flat below yours, and cost you a small amount of compensation only," said Stewart Wong Shun-tai, manager at loss adjuster firm Professional Surveyors.