OCBC looks to sell over 30 shophouses and shop units | businesstimes.com.sg
SINGAPORE : Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) is poised to divest a portfolio of more than 30 shophouses and strata shop units across Singapore which market watchers estimate could be worth around S$150-200 million.
The shophouses are in locations such as Havelock, Geylang, Upper Thomson and Upper Serangoon roads, while the strata shop units are in places such as Jalan Besar Plaza, Hoa Nam Building along Foch Road, Balestier Point, Sixth Avenue Centre and Upper Serangoon Shopping Centre.
Also for sale are shops in HDB estates such as Ang Mo Kio and Bukit Batok as well as HDB shophouses in locations such as Bishan, Aljunied, Jurong Gateway Road and Yishun Ring Road.
OCBC is believed to have arranged the properties in several bundles to be marketed by property agencies.
Some of these properties were previously used for bank operations but the majority are investment properties held for rental income. Read more here >>
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Using property prices to guide climate change policies | straitstimes.com
SINGAPORE : IN 2013, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that warming of the earth’s atmosphere and oceans is “unequivocal” and the dominant cause is human influence.
Among the expected effects of rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases are heat waves, rising sea levels and coastal flooding and droughts, among other extreme phenomena. Influential reviews such as the one headed by British economist Nick Stern described climate change as “the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen”.
In response to such views, governments are considering investments in carbon abatement strategies. These are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as by increasing petrol taxes and switching from coal to cleaner but more expensive fuels.
A government’s decision to invest in such carbon abatement strategies depends heavily on a cost-benefit analysis. If the benefits of greenhouse gas reduction outweigh the costs, then investment makes financial sense. But abatement strategies have costs and benefits that occur over many decades, centuries even.
Since a dollar today is worth more than a dollar in the future, a cost-benefit study requires all future dollars to be converted into today’s equivalent dollars. The rate of conversion used is called the discount rate. Read more here >>
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Property Zooms Ahead in Philippines | wsj.com
PHILIPPINES : Neighborhoods inspired by Beverly Hills, fast-rising office towers and swanky malls resembling landmarks like St. Mark’s Square in Venice: It might sound like China circa 2005, but this is the Philippines in 2015.
The real-estate sector here is enjoying a boom as new property floods a market usually stifled by low prices and developers notorious for completing projects years behind schedule.
Now, supply and demand are rising fast as the national economy grows reliably at 6% to 8% per year. Property values are increasing steadily, drawing investors. And cash-rich developers, backed by some of the country’s biggest conglomerates, are having an easier time delivering on their promises.
In a metropolis clogged with traffic and where millions still live in slums, Manila’s affluent buyers particularly favor newly built “townships”—self-contained districts where homes, offices, shops and schools are packaged together in tidy, linked communities, said Jericho Go, senior vice president at Megaworld Corp., the real-estate subsidiary of the Alliance Global Group. Read more here >>
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Homes Prices in U.S. Rise 5.6 Percent Year Over Year in February | worldpropertyjournal.com
According to CoreLogic’s February 2015 CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI), U.S. home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased by 5.6 percent in February 2015 compared to February 2014. This change represents three years of consecutive year-over-year increases in home prices nationally. On a month-over-month basis, home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased by 1.1 percent in February 2015 compared to January 2015.
Including distressed sales, 26 states and the District of Columbia were at or within 10 percent of their peak prices. Six states, including Colorado (+9.8 percent), New York (+8.2 percent), North Dakota (+7.7 percent), Texas (+8.5 percent), Wyoming (+8.4 percent) and Oklahoma (+5.2 percent), reached new home price highs since January 1976 when the CoreLogic HPI started.
Excluding distressed sales, home prices increased by 5.8 percent in February 2015 compared to February 2014 and increased by 1.5 percent month over month compared to January 2015. Also excluding distressed sales, all states and the District of Columbia showed year-over-year home price appreciation in February. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions. Read more here >>
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