HONG KONG: When Heather Wedl and husband Monte moved to Hong Kong from the United States three years ago, they knew they would be in for a shock when it came to renting a flat.

They'd come from a four-bedroom house with two-car garage in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, the headquarters of Federal Express, where Monte Wedl works as a pilot for the company's freight planes.

HONG KONG: The launch of flat sales at Sun Hung Kai Properties's luxury project near Olympic station in West Kowloon today will provide the first test of market sentiment since the government imposed its latest cooling measures this month.

HONG KONG: Home sales in Hong Kong last week were the lowest in more than five years due to the government's new limits on mortgages and proposals to resume building Home Ownership Scheme flats.

WASHINGTON, DC: Existing-home sales were down in May as temporary factors and financing problems weighed on the market, according to the US National Association of Realtors (NAR).

BANGKOK: Best Western International, the World's largest hotel chain, has signed on its newest hotel in Bangkok, The Grand Howard.

GEORGE TOWN: Ivory Properties Group Bhd's Moonlight Bay development in Batu Ferringhi, Penang has been highly commended for Best Leisure Development at the Asia Pacific Property Awards 2011 in association with Bloomberg Television.

Al-Aqar’s incomes are fairly recession-proof
The Al-Aqar KPJ REIT is among the better-performing of the REITs listed on the local bourse. It is also among the larger REITs, with total assets valued at more than RM1.16 billion. Perhaps more significantly, it is also widely seen as having one of the more recession-proof earnings streams.

KABUL: A luxury hotel, the Intercontinental Hotel, in the downtown of Afghan capital city Kabul was attacked from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning, leaving at least seven civilians and six attackers killed.

PETALING JAYA: UEM Land Holdings Bhd rose five sen to close at RM2.87 on Tuesday, June 28 on its appointment to oversee the development of parcels of land in Singapore, and projects in Iskandar Malaysia to be undertaken by joint-venture companies owned by Temasek Holdings Ltd and Khazanah Nasional Bhd.

KUALA LUMPUR: Penang-based property developer Eastern and Oriental Bhd (E&O) is taking its first bite of the action in Iskandar Malaysia's Nusajaya with a joint venture (JV) to develop the iconic wellness township project in the southern state's special economic region.