Bansko skiing resumed after closure from bomb threat

New London-Cyprus budget flights to start in March

Wizzair launches low cost flights to Bucharest from London

Interest rate rises fail to slow European house prices in 2006 says RICS

Floods in Jakarta affect 40% of the city

Hong Kong to construct 139,000 apartments by 2012

Bansko skiing resumed after closure from bomb threat

Ski facilities at the Bansko winter resort in Bulgaria have started operating again, (on 5 February), after closing down the previous week because of a bomb threat.

An ecological organisation sent a letter to the Environment and Water Affairs Ministry on 1 February, threatening to use explosive devices to cause an avalanche unless construction is halted in the Pirin mountain region.

Only the track located closest to the area where the bombs were allegedly placed will remain closed, according to Bulgarian press reports.

Bansko Mayor Alexander Kravarov said that the Russian media has already published negative reports about the incident and advised tourists to refrain from visiting Bansko. Kravarov said that the resort now needed to re-gain the trust of tourists and to get its activities back to normal.

New London-Cyprus budget flights to start in March

Four times weekly budget flights between London Luton and Larnaca airports will launch in March 2007. Fares on the first low cost flights available between London and Cyprus are from £69.99 one way including taxes. The Airbus A321 flights will leave Luton on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday.

Litsa Chrysostomou, marketing manager at BuySell Real Estate says: “These new flights mean that second home owners will be able to fly between London and Cyprus at a very reasonable rate.”

The new flights are expected to open Cyprus up to bargain hunting holiday makers and increase rental returns on property investments.

Wizzair launches low cost flights to Bucharest from London

Budget airline Wizzair launched low cost flights to Bucharest from London last month. The round trip costs nearly €150 including airport taxes. Growing competition amongst airlines flying to Romania is expected to bring down prices further this year.

Interest rate rises fail to slow European house prices in 2006 says RICS

Despite interest rate rises and a supply increases in several buoyant housing markets, Europe continued to show solid house-price inflation across the board, according to RICS European Housing Review 2007.

In a positive sign for European property investors, local markets failed to follow the lead from across the Atlantic as the US market ground to a halt. Whilst most markets did not quite reach the highs of 2005, many were still achieving double digit growth.

The only thing more buoyant than European house prices were the mortgage markets in those countries. Rate rises by the European Central Bank (ECB) did little to halt the rapid growth in mortgage debt with mortgage lending in eight out of the 12 euro-zone countries rising at double digit rates in 2006.

Whilst the ECB increased interest rates by 1.5% in the 2005-2006 period lenders failed to pass on the bulk of the rise with consumers still afforded the luxury of borrowing below these increases. This may go some way to explaining why Europe has failed to follow the US into a house-building drought.

Of the big four, only the UK outstripped its 2005 performance with house prises rising by 10%. This bounce back to form reflects the UK’s dire land and new housing predicament, as lack of supply continues to artificially inflate the market.

France dropped to 7%, a sign that one of Europe’s longest performing housing markets may be levelling out. Germany remained stagnant, but signs are showing that the housing market may begin to mirror the improving fortunes of the economy. Italy remained close to its 2005 growth, slightly down at 4%.

The Scandinavian countries continued their impressive growth with Denmark extending its bullish run matching 2005 at around 22%. Norway (17%) and Sweden (11%) joined the northern assault with continued impressive results, but failed to catch Poland, where price inflation above 30%.

The report’s author, professor Michael Ball, said: “In the main, Europe’s housing markets had another strong year. The long predicted soft-landings have yet to materialise, with European Central Bank interest rate rises having little effect in the Euro-zone so far.”

Milan Khatri, RICS chief economist, added: “Fears of a considerable house price slowdown in what are considered as over-heated markets of the UK, Spain and Ireland, once again proved to be quite off the mark of actual developments.”

Henry Wilkes, head of central and eastern European investment at Savills plc, said: “ Poland is the star performer in terms of property price growth, followed by the Baltic States. However, this is expected to slow as the various markets mature. Not surprisingly, as the various Central and East European economies develop (pre and post EU accession) big increases in individual earnings and the advent of mortgage products have led to considerable pent up demand for brand new and higher quality homes. People are desperate to move from their small, dilapidated apartments in the multiple, drab, Communist concrete block buildings.”

Floods in Jakarta affect 40% of the city

Devastating floods in the Indonesian capital Jakarta have killed 29 people and forced at least 340,000 of the 10m residents from their homes. Rivers and canals that cross the city burst their banks because of torrential rains that started last week.

The surges of muddy polluted water, which rose to a depth of four metres (13ft) in places, stranded many other residents in the upper floors of their houses with no access to fresh water and electricity after supplies were cut off.

Officials said the deluge, the worst since 2002 when 40 people were killed, had affected as much as 40% of the city. It came after days of torrential rain, and weathermen offer little hope of respite from the downpours for another two weeks. Some people have refused to leave their homes in order to protect their belongings.

Angry residents have criticised the city's lack of preparation for the flooding, which occurs nearly every year, (albeit on a smaller scale).

A number of key roads running through the city have been closed in the city, while rail services were cancelled or delayed making it impossible for many to get to work.

Hong Kong to construct 139,000 apartments by 2012

Hong Kong is expected to supply 139,000 new apartments over the next five years, a senior government official said.

Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen said in a written reply to several questions at the Legislative Council that as of end-December 2006, the number of completed but unsold private apartments stood at about 19,000 while the number of apartments under construction stood at around 40,000 units. He added that potential residential land supply in the next five years is about 536 hectares.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has just announced the results of its latest survey on the number of residential mortgage loans (RMLs) currently in negative equity.

The number of RMLs in negative equity has decreased to around 8,400 cases. This compares to 106,000 cases at the end of June 2003, reflecting a fall of 92% in the last three and a half years.

However, the average loan-to-value ratio of negative equity for those remaining cases is unchanged at 113%.