A suspension on stamp duty would create renewed confidence in the housing market, but could play into the hands of those less in need such as investors and second home owners, critics say.
Alistair Darling today hinted he is considering suspending stamp duty in a bid to kick-start the flagging housing market.
In an interview, the chancellor [...]

Emerging markets have significantly improved their levels of real estate transparency according to the latest Global Real Estate Transparency Index from Jones Lang LaSalle, The 2008 survey reveals that eight countries moved up a full transparency tier since the last index in 2006. Dubai, Romania, Ukraine and Russia showed the biggest improvements over the last [...]

SYDNEYSIDERS are caught in a bind as rising interest rates push more people into mortgage stress at the same time as the rental squeeze makes it impossible for people in some suburbs to find rental accommodation. Young families are particularly exposed.
A million households, or 15 per cent of all home-loan borrowers, could be in mortgage [...]

Real estate prices in Scotland are letting faster than at any time in recent years with continuing high tenant demand, according to latest research by Scotland’s leading online letting portal Citylets.
The Citylets quarterly report, Trends in Scottish Residential Lettings, released today, shows that more properties are being let, and being let more quickly, than in [...]

More than three-quarters of Irish real-estate agents don’t expect an improvement in housing-market activity over the next 12 months, NCB Stockbrokers reported, citing a survey.
Forty-nine percent of those surveyed expect the property market to remain the same, while 29 percent expect a decline, Dublin-based NCB said in a report today. Twenty-two percent expect an improvement.
“Tighter [...]

The devastating Wenchuan earthquake had only a limited impact on property markets in Western, Central and Northern China. The price and supply of luxury apartments in Western and Central China experienced a slight drop, but office and industrial markets in those regions continued to display rental growth. A surge of businesses entering Chengdu’s industrial parks [...]

Confidence in the rental property market in New Zealand is at its lowest point for four years despite rents rising, according to a new report.
Rental property has given the best returns of a property investment, according to the survey by ASB, one of the leading banks and investor providers.
But in the three months to June [...]

The situation on the real estate market in Bulgaria shows that supply has increased by 50% over demand in the last two months which quite logically affects real estate prices.
A major factor, influencing the price of real estate is the world real estate crisis and economic development in the different regions of the country, executive [...]

Boosted by china real estate Shanghai Composite Index rose 2.99 percent on Monday, continuing Friday’s gains.
Boosted by chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission Liu Mingkang’s remarks over the weekend that the country should support a healthy real estate industry, housing shares rose across the board, said Li Hongyan, a Shandong-based Qilu Securities analyst.
China Vanke, [...]

Homeowners are resorting to increasingly aggressive price cuts in an effort to sell their properties, with asking prices across England and Wales an average 4,000 less than they were a year ago as a new realism sets in across the housing market.
The average price is now 235,219, 2% less than last July, according to the [...]