LONDON: Lloyds Banking Group Plc, the UK’s largest real estate lender, said that the current increase in UK property prices is unsustainable, as it announced plans for a £21 billion (RM117.75 billion) rights offering.

Values of UK homes, shops, offices and warehouses will stagnate next year, the bank forecast, as it predicted its own provisions would be “significantly lower” in 2010.

PETALING JAYA: The local retail industry is expected to recover next year, said president of Malaysian Association for Shopping and Highrise Complex Management (PPK Malaysia) Joyce Yap.

Yap said the global retail industry is recovering with the exception of the US and Japan while slower revival could be seen in European countries.

HONG KONG: The value of Hong Kong home sales in October fell 35% to the lowest since April as potential buyers became concerned prices have risen too fast and a bubble may be forming.

BEIJING: China’s banking regulator plans to review debt levels at some real-estate developers on concern the companies’ borrowings are fuelling excessive gains in property prices, a person familiar with the matter said.

BOSTON: Kajal and Vishal Dharod paid US$559,000 (RM1.92 million) in 2006 for a new 4-bedroom house built in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Today, it’s worth about US$360,000.

“We don’t know how we can come back from a loss like that,” said Kajal Dharod, 29, a first-time homeowner with a US$4,200-a-month mortgage. “Buying the house was a mistake.”

KUALA LUMPUR: Come the end of next year, shoppers in the Klang Valley can look forward to another lifestyle shopping centre christened Viva Homes.

GEORGE TOWN: The property sector in Penang has seen an improvement in the second quarter of 2009 compared to the sluggish 2008 in the aftermath of the global economic meltdown.

GEORGE TOWN: 1st Avenue, Penang's latest RM300 million shopping mall designed after Singapore's Raffles City, Marina Square and Suntech City, is set to open its doors in the third quarter of 2010.

HONG KONG: The International Monetary Fund said on Nov 3 it shares Hong Kong's concern that the city may face sharp asset price inflation and encouraged the government to look at increasing land supply for property development.

HONG KONG: Hong Kong's move to tighten regulations on mortgage lending last month showed the government wants to avoid a big property bubble, Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang said on Nov 2.