Spanish house prices slowing

Property in Marbella to be demolished

Average Bulgaria property deal takes three months to complete

Number of Brits owning property abroad trebles

Land supply in shanghai fails to satisfy strong demand

Tier-III cities in India set for rapid growth

Around 1,000 properties sold at auctions across Australia

Spanish house prices slowing

The Spanish residential property market is set to slowdown, according to a recent report conducted by Spanish bank, La Caixa.

The company report says: "House prices are slowing and according to the Housing Ministry the price of land has stagnated.”

Property in Marbella to be demolished

The regional government in Andalucia has appealed to the Superior Court in Seville to annul 334 illegal building licenses which were issued by the Marbella town hall, while they have also asked for firm sentences on a further 5,000 illegally constructed homes.

Concepción Gutiérrez, the Councillor for Public Works of the Junta de Andalucía, said: “This land belongs to all the citizens and not just those who live there.

“The sentences to demolish have to be carried out as the law has to be complied with, otherwise nobody would take the legislation seriously. It’s not a case of anything goes in town planning.”

So far, 60 people have been arrested since the launch of ‘Operation Malaga’ in March including Marbella’s mayor, Marisol Yague, while property and goods to the value of €2.4bn have been confiscated so far by police.

Average Bulgaria property deal takes three months to complete

The average property transaction takes three months to complete, while the average area of the apartments offered for sale in Bulgaria was 68sqm, according to International company ERA.

The report also revealed that average property prices in Bulgaria rose by 1.6% during the first quarter of 2006, compared to the first three months of 2005.

The most expensive properties were sold in Sofia, Varna and Bourgas.

Number of Brits owning property abroad trebles

The number of UK households that own property abroad has trebled in the last decade, according to financial advisers, Grant Thornton.

The report reveals that the number of properties owned overseas by UK households has almost trebled from 102,000 in 1995 to an estimated 300,000 in 2006. 

Maurice Fitzpatrick of Grant Thornton said: "We anticipate that the trend of a gently rising number of people deciding to leave the UK permanently and live abroad (upon retirement) will continue.  If this trend continues at the same rate, by 2025 there could be around 1.3 million British nationals firmly settled in another country and drawing a pension."

Land supply in shanghai fails to satisfy strong demand

Only 340 hectares of publicly traded land in Shanghai has been put on the market during the course of 2006, despite a municipal government document stating last month (October) that the figure for the whole of this year should reach at least 1,500 hectares, according to the Shanghai Land Bureau.

Jim Yip, director of the investment department at the Shanghai Office of Debenham Tie Leung (DTZ), said: "Land supply has reduced since 2001. Though the government has increased land supply over the past two months, it is still less than market demand."

Gong Min, a senior property researcher at Centaline Property Agency's Shanghai office, comments: "This year's publicly traded land supply is very likely to be less than that of 2005 and 2004."

Tier-III cities in India set for rapid growth

Property prices in India's tier III cities, which include Jaipur, Coimbatore, Ahmedabad and Lucknow, are poised to rise rapidly over the next three to five years , according to property sector surveys.

Not only are property prices in these cities currently low, but a number of technology companies are reportedly set to expand their operations into these previously untapped locations.

Around 1,000 properties sold at auctions across Australia

In the region of 1,000 homes were sold at auctions held across Australia over the last weekend, in order to clear up a property auction backlog across the country.

The average success rate recorded was 61%, with the best results achieved in the flat Melbourne market, according to Australian Property Monitors statistics.

Melbourne recorded 338 sales from the 499 properties put up for auction, in Sydney 186 of the 325 properties offered, sold, while in Brisbane, 38 properties were offered for sale, of which 14 were successfully sold.

The auction rush comes as economists predict further slowing in both personal and housing credit growth.

UBS economists said in a note to clients. "With new lending for housing falling by nine per cent over the past three months, this suggests more slowing lies ahead