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This was supposed to be the year when normality returned to the global economic landscape. Growth was looking more established and the legacy of the financial crisis was dimming. The US central bank and the Bank of England looked poised to affirm the recovery by finally starting to raise interest rates after keeping them for … Read more
Prices have fallen but high deposit required means low risk of crisis. As China’s equity markets cool down and its currency is devalued, attention will return to the question of whether the country’s property market is heading for a fall. In my view, the boom days are over, but with buyers required to put at … Read more
British house prices grew in July at their slowest annual pace since the end of last year but the market is being supported by rising wages and a lack of homes to buy, mortgage lender Halifax said on Thursday. Halifax said the year-on-year rate of growth in the three months to July slowed to 7.9 … Read more
SYDNEY/LONDON (Reuters) – Realtors in Australia, Britain and Canada are bracing for a surge of new interest in their already hot property markets, with early signs that wealthy Chinese investors are seeking a safe haven from the turmoil in Shanghai’s equity markets. Sydney realtor Michael Pallier said in the past week alone he has sold … Read more
House prices in the UK unexpectedly surged in June with a shortage of homes on the market driving the pace of increases to the fastest level in nine months. The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors reported that the average stock of houses per surveyor had fallen to the lowest level since it started collecting this … Read more
“For more than 30 years, consistently falling mortgage interest rates have helped spur more home sales. But in about a year’s time, that decades-long tailwind will likely shift to a housing headwind.” Sales will be hit hard, according to a worried analysis from Zillow. But not yet. Home sales have been hot, by post-Financial Crisis … Read more
Faced with predictions that Dubai home prices may drop as much as 20 percent this year, analysts say the emirate’s real estate developers and lenders are better prepared than when a crash in 2008 brought the city to the brink of bankruptcy. Standard & Poor’s this week estimated that values may fall by as much … Read more
The Australian real estate market is in the grip of the biggest housing bubble in the nation’s history and Melbourne will be at the epicentre of an historic “bloodbath” when it bursts, according to two housing economists. A bloodbath in the housing market, however, appears a near certainty due to the magnitude of falls required … Read more
An estimated £16.2billion-worth of mortgages was handed out in May, marking a five-month high, figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) showed. Writing on the CML’s website, CML economist Mohammad Jamei said: “As we expected, activity in the housing market is showing signs of a modest recovery.” He added that the low mortgage rates … Read more
SHANGHAI–China’s housing sales in the first five months of the year rose 5.1% year-over-year, a reversal from the 2.2% decline recorded in the first four months as lower borrowing costs and relaxed mortgage requirements lured home buyers back into the market. Housing sales in January to May totaled 2.07 trillion yuan ($333 billion), according to … Read more