WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s home-building approvals rose for a fourth month in October, signaling that lower interest rates are kick-starting demand for property.

Permits increased 11.7% from September, Statistics New Zealand said in Wellington today, citing seasonally adjusted figures. Excluding apartments, approvals rose 11.2% to a 16-month high.

LONDON: Individuals with more than $800,000 (RM2.87 million) to invest plan to increase their property holdings because they foresee better long-term returns than from stocks and bonds, according to a Barclays Plc global survey.

LONDON: Luxury-home prices in central London rose on an annual basis for the first time in 17 months as bank and hedge-fund executives bought houses and apartments in anticipation of bonuses, Knight Frank LLP said.

The government’s recent announcement that Klang Valley’s two light rail transit (LRT) lines would be extended by 34.7km has brought smiles to beleaguered commuters in areas like Subang Jaya, USJ, Kinrara and Puchong.While they are looking forward to better public transport when the project is completed, targeted for 2012, owners of real estate near the proposed new LRT stations are eagerly anti

There was a time when neighbours knew each other by name, greetings rang out over the fence in the mornings, and evenings were spent chatting on the front yard. Unfortunately, for most city folks, those times are now nothing more than a memory.

Innovative developers are always seeking new concepts, or as the sceptics would say, new gimmicks, for their development projects to differentiate themselves and gain an edge over their competitors. For TSI Holdings Sdn Bhd, a one-stop education centre concept will be the focus of its upcoming Casa Tropika @ Puchong project.

UK developer Native Land recently launched its project on the South Bank of the River Thames, London, and unveiled it in Asia. Native Land offered NEO Bankside to buyers in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Hong Kong and sold 15 units out of 20.

Housing markets in the world’s leading economies continue to recover but many remain distressed as well, according to online property research house Global Property Guide’s summary of housing statistics for the year to end-3Q2009 (http://www.globalpropertyguide.com).Of the 27 countries which have published their 3Q data, more have experienced hou

Foreign developers eyeing Malaysia

The global economic downturn and the spread of the Influenza A (H1N1) pandemic have put a dent in the global tourism industry. Malaysia’s hospitality sector has not been immune to such shocks.