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A court in Hong Kong has ordered the winding up of Evergrande Group, the world’s most indebted property developer, dealing another blow to investor confidence as China’s ailing real estate sector continues to weigh on its economy.
The liquidation order, made by the city’s High Court on Monday, comes after the embattled Chinese real estate giant and its overseas creditors failed to agree on how to restructure the company’s massive debt during talks that lasted for 19 months.
— CNN
Evergrande’s liquidation could also set the stage for an unprecedented political showdown between Hong Kong and the mainland, as Reuters speculated on Monday. The company had amassed over $300 billion in public and private debts since being ordered into negotiations in 2021. Overseas... View full entry
No matter how many times it happens, no matter how many cities and states try to blunt it with recommendations to build more housing and provide subsidies for those who can’t afford the new stuff, no matter how many zoning battles are fought or homeless camps lamented, no next city, as of yet, seems better prepared than the last one was. — The New York Times
Like other small cities such as Reno, Nevada and Austin, Texas that have followed San Francisco and New York on a similar path toward a domineering social trend that has come to define the way we live and work in the unfurling decades of the 21st century. Americans on both coasts have been cycling... View full entry
U.S. home prices surged 19.7% in July, once again posting the biggest jump in more than 30 years. The record gain in the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index of property values nationwide followed a 18.7% jump in June and was the 14th straight month of accelerating price increases. — Bloomberg
A measure of prices in 20 cities posted a 19.9% gain in July, up from 19.1% the previous month. Phoenix, San Diego, and Seattle reported the highest year-over-year gains, with 32.4%, 27.8%, and 25.5% increases, respectively. “The last several months have been extraordinary not only in the... View full entry
After more than four years on the market, Tom Ford’s sprawling New Mexico estate has finally found a buyer. The property, better known as the Cerro Pelon Ranch, sits just outside Santa Fe in the Galisteo Basin area, and measures a whopping 20,662 acres. — Architectural Digest
The home features the Silverado Movie Town, which is built on the site in the 1980s, writes Joyce Chen for Architectural Digest. The set was originally used for the Western film Silverado, and later for films including 2011's Thor. Previously on Archinect: Tadao Ando's sprawling... View full entry
Chinese investors sold off billions more in U.S. commercial property last year than they bought, as other foreigners start to sour on the U.S. market as well.
Foreign investors were net sellers of U.S. commercial real estate last year for the first time since 2012, posing a fresh setback for a market that is already showing signs of strain.
— The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal reports that foreign investors sold $20 billion more in real estate than they bought last year as a number of international economic trends, including Brexit and an ongoing effort by the Chinese government to bring investment back home, converge to make the American real... View full entry
Even though homes aren’t tradable, like soybeans or car parts, home prices across the world have become increasingly synchronized. This reflects a variety of factors, according to the [International Monetary Fund], including the increasing tendency for economic growth and interest rates to move in parallel across nations. — The Wall Street Journal
An interesting report from Sarah Chaney of The Wall Street Journal illuminates some of the ways in which housing markets across the globe—which are currently showing signs of a slowdown—are increasingly falling into line with one another as the power of the global economy... View full entry
A dozen guns adorn the dining room wall. Bizarre figurines of bears and rabbits eye you from every living space...The exterior seems normal enough with yellow walls and a clay tile roof, but the 6,170-square-foot interior toes the line between eclectic and downright bizarre. — Los Angeles Times
A Beverly Hills home owned by TV personality and talk show host, Dr. Phil's family trust is up for sale at a price of $5.75 million, reports the Los Angeles Times. "Bizarre" is the word used to describe the sporadically decorated residence, fitted with everything from a grand stair dressed in... View full entry
After selling his Malibu estate last year for $38 million, Silver has listed his Brentwood home for sale at $77.5 million...The bright-colored and striking Mexican modernist residence was designed by architect Ricardo Legorreta. Completed in the early 2000s, the roughly 26,000-square-foot house includes a circular atrium, a dining room topped with a pyramid-like ceiling and a 30-foot-high family room with hydraulic doors. — Los Angeles Times
"If the Silver estate sells for its asking price, it would nearly double the Brentwood price record of $40 million set in 2014 when NFL star Tom Brady sold his home to hip-hop mogul Dr. Dre.," reports the Los Angeles Times View full entry
Commercial-property prices in major cities around the world tumbled in the second quarter, amid signs of slower global growth and heightened trade tension between China and the U.S.
Average property prices fell in the second quarter from the first quarter in Hong Kong and Seoul to London and Washington, D.C., according to data from Real Capital Analytics.
— The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal reports that Melbourne, central Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Paris, London, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. all saw a retreat in commercial real estate property values during the second quarter of 2019. The trend applies to struggling sectors like office buildings and malls. View full entry
With only 400-some Wright structures still standing, surely these listings must erupt in bidding wars from eager buyers as soon as they hit the market, right?
Wrong. On the contrary, Wright homes tend to sit on the market for years. Often with numerous price cuts!
— Realtor.com
Owning a home designed by a famed architect may be a dream for many. However, what are some of the unforeseen factors that come with owning such a home? According to Adriana Velez from realtor.com, owning a Frank Lloyd Wright home comes with its fair share of obstacles. Velez explains, "for... View full entry
In Seattle, Austin, New York, Denver, Minneapolis, Washington and the Bay Area, developers are the antiheroes of an urban drama over the high cost of housing and what must change to bring it down.
But their arch-villain status today — merely invoking “developers” can shut down civic debate — deserves scrutiny
— The New York Times
The New York Times profiles the real estate developer, an arch-villain of contemporary society who, by some accounts, makes too much money, bulldozes humble neighborhoods to make room for the rich, and wills inequality and displacement as a matter of business. But is there another side... View full entry
The Los Angeles office market has been on the upswing since 2013 and showed no sign of stalling in the second quarter as tech and entertainment firms continue to expand into new space.
Developers are responding to the demand by building new offices that are often rented long before they are completed, which was unusual during previous real estate cycles when tenants typically waited to see finished buildings before making commitments.
— The Los Angeles Times
The tech industry's expansion into the Los Angeles office market continues unabated, The Los Angeles Times reports. In recent months, Los Angeles has grown to become home to the third-largest tech workforce on the west coast, with San Francisco and Seattle still far in the lead. The... View full entry
In the first half of 2019, New York City apartment building sales fell 48% from the same period a year earlier, B6 said in a report. It was the biggest decline for any six-month period in data going back to 2009. In northern Manhattan, which includes Harlem, the drop in multifamily purchases led to a 61% slide in all commercial-property transactions, the firm said. — Bloomberg
Across New York City, as the effects of the New York State's recently-enacted rent control laws begin to take shape, apartment building owners are having a tough time finding investors to purchase their properties. According to Bloomberg, apartment building sales are down nearly 50-percent... View full entry
Challenging conditions in the U.S. housing market, along with tighter currency controls by the Chinese government, caused a stunning drop in foreign demand for American homes.
The dollar volume of homes purchased by foreign buyers from April 2018 through March 2019 dropped 36% from the previous year, according to the National Association of Realtors.
— CNBC
NAR’s Profile of International Transactions in U.S. Residential Real Estate 2019 survey reports that "for the seventh consecutive year, China exceeded all other countries in terms of dollar volume of purchases, buying an estimated $13.4 billion worth of residential property, a 56% decline from... View full entry
Earlier this month, The Real Deal put out a monster analysis looking at the biggest property owners across the city based on square footage, along with their annual net operating income.
Their thorough analysis is definitely worth a read, but right here we’re going to give you a breakdown of the top 10 biggest property owners in the city, and some of the projects you might recognize them for.
— ny.curbed.com
Curbed New York has put together a list of the top real estate players in NYC along with some of their notable projects in the city. Below are the top 10 property owners controlling NYC's built environment: 1. The City of New York 2. Vornado Realty Trust 3. SL Green Realty 4. Tishman Speyer... View full entry