Apartment Choice

From July 1, NSW doubled the stamp duty on foreign buyers to 8 per cent. THERE are nascent signs Chinese foreign buyers have toned down their enthusiastic buying of Sydney property . There are three pinpointed causes. Firstly, Beijing has narrowed the window for capital outflows to Australia. At the same time, Australian banks have tightened lending criteria to mainland China investors due to APRA regulatory requirements , and in some cases won’t lend to foreign investors at all. This week Chinese local and international estate agents reported a sharp drop-off in sales over the last six weeks as new property taxes took effect after the NSW state budget . From July 1, NSW doubled the stamp duty on foreign buyers to 8 per cent and increased the land tax surcharge from 0.75 per cent to 2 per cent. Chinese local and international estate agents reported a sharp drop-off in sales over the last six weeks. It’s a little too early to say the allure of Australian property has gone, b...

Is a market with hardly any liquidity a market? Look at property in Hong Kong, where housing is the least affordable in the world and prices keep climbing in the face of official curbs. Up and Away Hong Kong home prices have paused in the past month but have been climbing for more than 10 years Source: Centaline Property There's very little buying and selling of old homes in the territory. Painful loan-to-value rules mean second-time buyers of property valued at more than HK$10 million ($1.3 million) -- just enough to bag an apartment of less than 500 square feet in Central District -- can only borrow a maximum of 40 percent; it's 50 percent for transactions below that level. An increase in stamp duty last November set the transaction tax at 15 percent of the cost of a resold home for permanent residents, and double that for foreigners (mostly those from mainland China). According to JLL, as Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. is known, transaction volumes in the secondary market have ...

Miramar Hotel and Investment Company, Limited (HKSE: 71) announced last week the unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2017 .           For the six months ended 30 June HK$ Million   2017   2016   Change Revenue   1,559   1,485   5% Underlying profit attributable to shareholders*   333   263   27% Underlying earnings per share (Basic)*   57 cents   cents   27% Interim dividend per share   23 cents   20 cents   15%               * Underlying profit attributable to shareholders and underlying earnings per share are calculated by excluding the post-tax effects of the property revaluation movements and other non-operating and non-recurring items such as net gain on disposal of a subsidiary For the six months ended 30 June 2017 (the "Reporting Period"), the Group's unaudited revenue was HK$1,559 million, representing a growth of 5% compared to the six months ended 30 June 2016 (the "Last Corresponding Period"). Excluding the increa...

A Long Island research group is urging local governments to consider allowing more rental apartments in private homes, to help cash-strapped homeowners and provide more housing for renters. In a report released Saturday , the Long Island Index outlines the vast differences in the ways Long Island ’s towns, cities and villages deal with so- called accessory apartments , or small units within owner-occupied homes. Most Popular The approaches range from fairly accepting — as in the Town of Babylon, where homeowners can get permits to rent out apartments if they meet certain conditions — to strict, as in the Town of North Hempstead , where such units can only be occupied by the homeowner’s parent or child. Long Island has a patchwork of rules for accessory apartments , which vary so widely that many homeowners fear getting penalized, so they don’t even try to create apartments, even if they want to and might be allowed, said Nancy Rauch Douzinas , publisher of the Index. The Index is a...

A busy intersection in Shaker Heights is being transformed through the redevelopment of the Warrensville- Van Aken business district . The former Van Aken Center will connect with nearby Shaker Plaza to create the Van Aken District , a new downtown and community- gathering place for the city. Phase one of the $97.2 million project, under construction near the intersection of Warrensville Center Road and Van Aken and Chagrin boulevards, is due to be completed next summer. “There really has been nothing like this in Shaker Heights,” said Jack Bialosky Jr ., senior and managing principal of Bialosky Cleveland, the architectural firm responsible for planning the project and designing most of the buildings in phase one. “It’s a mixed-use, urban development which will really provide public space for the community, all organized around a central triangular park . “It’s going to be a place where the community can come, shop, dine and recreate. It will be a beautifully scaled, contained s...

Leesha Posey remembers cutting across a vacant lot in North Portland on her way to Harriet Tubman Middle School . "It's been empty since I was a little girl," says Posey, 41. That was three decades ago. But the lot still sits empty—a rarity in a city where vacant land is coveted, especially in the red- hot North Williams Avenue corridor . Its emptiness is a reminder of what the city and its urban renewal agency , Prosper Portland , took from the black community . In the 1960s, the city-owned agency, then known as the Portland Development Commission , condemned vast tracts of inner North and Northeast Portland . The takings—including the still-vacant block at the northwest corner of North Williams Avenue and Russell Street—allowed urban renewal, including construction of parts of Interstate 5, the Oregon Convention Center and Legacy Emanuel Hospital . But in the process, the agency gutted neighborhoods and dispersed the black community . In a belated ef...

Miramar Hotel and Investment Company, Limited announced today the unaudited interim results for the six months ended 30 June 2017 . * Underlying profit attributable to shareholders and underlying earnings per share are calculated by excluding the post-tax effects of the property revaluation movements and other non-operating and non-recurring items such as net gain on disposal of a subsidiary For the six months ended 30 June 2017 (the "Reporting Period"), the Group`s unaudited revenue was HK$1,559 million, representing a growth of 5% compared to the six months ended 30 June 2016 (the "Last Corresponding Period"). Excluding the increase in fair value of our investment properties of HK$416 million and the one-off net gain on disposal of a subsidiary with a property in Central of HK$32 million, unaudited basic underlying profit attributable to shareholders surged significantly by 27% to approximately HK$333 million. The basic underlying earnings per share we...

Aug. 23--DANBURY -- A high- profile apartment complex has hit the market in the city, just as another apartment community with a large price tag has been sold. 1 Kennedy Flats, a 374-unit complex in downtown Danbury built in 2016, is on the market for an undisclosed price, according to the real estate website LoopNet .com. Real estate firm CBRE is the exclusive adviser in the sale, according to the website. An official with Greystar, the owner and developer of 1 Kennedy Flats, confirmed the news and said putting the complex on the market shortly after building it was part of the business plan. "It depends on the capital partner, but often times that's how we develop," Daniel Lee, Greystar's senior director of development for New England said. "It turned out great. It's a beautiful property and people really enjoy living there. I think it's a good addition to Main Street and we're very happy with the results." The news of Kennedy Flats bein...

The house in Wickford Point has four bedrooms, four full bathrooms and one powder room, and 5,245 square feet of living space. Christine Dunn Journal Staff Writer ChristineMDunn NORTH KINGSTOWN — The waterfront property at 47 Lands End Drive is in Wickford Point, a subdivision off Camp Avenue, just north of historic Wickford Village . Owners Audrey and William Maloney had the house custom built while they were living in England. They bought the land in 2005, and the construction took place in 2006 and 2007. Audrey Maloney said she often traveled from England to Rhode Island during the construction process. The couple, both native New Yorkers, lived in England for 12 years. They had rented homes in Rhode Island for a couple of summers before deciding to build their home in North Kingstown. The house has four bedrooms, four full bathrooms and one powder room, and 5,245 square feet of living space. Wickford Point was developed by Gilbane Properties on land formerly occupied by...

AKRON, Ohio - Testa Companies plans to build 40 townhomes in North Hill, in what will be the first new family housing development in North Akron in more than 20 years. Through a partnership with the International Institute of Akron, the city and the Ohio Housing Finance Agency , Testa plans to break ground in spring 2018 on the International House at San Tomasso (Italian for St. Thomas). The units will be built on land near St. Thomas Hospital and St. Anthony of Padua Parish on N. Main Street and is intended to be largely occupied by refugees. In July, the Ohio Housing Finance Agency announced the International House at San Tomasso received a portion of the $27 million awarded under the 2017 Housing Tax Credit program awards . The program pays for construction, acquisition and rehabilitation of affordable housing communities across Ohio. The new development aligns with the city's plan to boost Akron's population and strengthen its tax base as outlined in the report Planni...

A grocery store and apartment project planned for downtown would benefit Lawrence and likely deserves economic development incentives , but a low-interest loan from the city shouldn’t be among them. At its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will receive an incentives request from the grocery store development group led by Lawrence businessman Mike Treanor . The group is requesting a special financing district , bond agreement and a $2.25 million loan from the city to help complete the $26 million project at Seventh and New Hampshire streets on the site of the former Borders bookstore. The old bookstore will be torn down and replaced with a three-story building with an underground parking garage . The ground floor of the building would house a Price Chopper grocery store and pharmacy, and the upper two floors would house 73 apartments, according to the incentives application. In accordance with the city’s incentives policy, 13 apartments would be designated as affordable...

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — If you've ever wanted to live in the old Brooklyn home of a notorious gangster, you've got a chance to do it. The Park Slope home where Al Capone used to live is up for sale, and it will only cost you a cool $2.5 million to move in. Capone grew up in a nearby building on Garfield Place, according to realtor.com, and moved into this listing in the early 1900s. "If he had lived here today, he wouldn’t have to go into the rum-running business," listing agent Bren Salamon told Patch . That's because Capone could make some serious dough from the two rental units attached to the condo, which could bring in a pretty penny in 2017 Park Slope . Anyone who moves in, though, won't be looking at any old relics of Brooklyn gone by. The home, as many are in the borough these days, was completely renovated by an investor about a year ago. The main townhouse is 2, 980 square feet spread over two levels. Along with three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, t...