New residential buildings in South Africa are falling short of demand, according to Jacques du Toit, senior economist at Absa (Amalgamated Banks of South Africa).

Writing in Absa's Property Trends Publication, Mr du Toit highlights the strong increase in building costs compared with consumer inflation as an indication that demand for residential property remains strong. However with the increase in the cost of production outweighing real value of homes, fewer properties are being delivered, despite a large number of building approvals being granted.

"This relatively strong increase in building costs compared with inflation is a reflection of the continuing strong demand for residential property… These developments will have a negative impact on supply and delivery times with regard to housing, which will eventually be reflected in higher building costs, as well as property prices," de Toit wrote.

A number of investors believe that there may be good times ahead for Tokyo and the Japanese property market. Over the last 13 years Japan has experienced a continuous decline in the value of thousands of commercial and residential buildings, leading many to believe that there is now scope for possible bargains.

New York-based investment fund Aetos Capital LLC has hired one of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s top executives in Tokyo to find the bargains. Aetos's Japanese fund, which raised $740 million in December, has the ability to invest as much as $3 billion in Japanese property and related assets, including borrowed money, said Scott Kelley, head of Aetos Capital global real estate business.

Already some foreign investors have bought Japanese apartments, office buildings, hotels and golf courses in recent years, as the industry now looks ripe for a possible recovery.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) published a report this week, showing that property prices across the country are both rising and falling. Following continuous annual increases in the value of properties down under, results for the third quarter of the year shows that there were slight rises in a few cities, while there was a significant drop in major markets in other parts of the country.

Statistics released by ABS shows that national average prices rose by 8.2% for the year, up until September. This proved to be the lowest annualised increase since 2001. The greatest price rises for 2004 were recorded in Brisbane (20.5%) and Darwin (19.8%). However, records for the third quarter only show that prices fell in Hobart (-2.2%), Melbourne (-1.6%), Sydney (-2%), and Brisbane (-0.2%), with slight increases in the smaller markets such as Darwin where prices rose 3.8%, Adelaide (1.3%), Perth (3%), and Canberra (0.6%).

According to a quarterly report recently released by DTZ, all sectors of Shanghai's property leasing market were active during the third quarter of 2004. The report also showed that occupancy rates among villas, service apartments, and high-tier non-serviced apartments all reached the highest level since 1998.

Further top of the range properties, are expected to be introduced to the market in 2005 and 2006 and replace older and poorer quality properties. This is expected to increase rental levels further.

Hong Kong's property sector is set to continue growing as we move in to 2005 given the city's economic recovery after years of deflation and slumping sales.

U.S.-based Prudential Real Estate Investors believes that Hong Kong's office rental levels, up 20% in the past year, are set to continue rising in the foreseeable future, while the city's luxury residential market has achieved on-year capital gains in the region of 45%.

In a recent sector report, Prudential said that "residential and retail markets will continue to benefit from improving employment prospects, stable and rising asset markets and a rebound in domestic demand."