Budget airline bmibaby is launching flights to two Polish destinations from Cardiff and East Midlands, starting early next year.
The budget airline will operate three flights a week from East Midlands to Gdansk from 9 February, with a twice weekly service to Gdansk from Cardiff starting on the same day.
There will also be flights from East Midlands to Warsaw running four times a week and three times weekly flights to Warsaw from Cardiff, which take off on 10 February.
Tickets went on sale from 10 October, priced from £21.99 one-way, including taxes and charges. Crawford Rix, managing director of bmibaby, said: “The UK Polish community is a modern day phenomena and the new routes will provide valuable links for friends and family in Poland and in the Midlands region. Both cities will also be really popular as short break destinations.”
GTC opens largest shopping centre in Zagreb
Globe Trade Centre (GTC), a shopping centre developer listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, has completed the finishing touches to its first retail facility in Croatia – Avenue Mall in Zagreb.
The centre features 36,000sqm of retail space as well as 8,000sqm of office facilities. It is currently the biggest shopping complex in the Croatian capital. The construction work cost €71m, and the centre was reckoned to be worth €63m prior to its actual opening. Revenues from rent are expected to be at least €10.3m per annum (excluding charges that tenants must pay depending on the size of their turnover).
GTC said that it also intends to build a business-shopping centre in the same city, which will be called Centerpoint (24,000sqm of retail space and 6,000sqm of office space). The investment is expected to cost €53.8m. Construction work is due to commence in the first quarter of 2008 and be concluded by year-end 2009.
Likewise, in Q1 2008 the developer plans to commence construction of a luxury centre on the Istrian peninsula. The latter will comprise 114 high-standard flats and villas as well as a five-star hotel and a golf course. The investment is estimated to be worth €82m and the total market value of all residential space will be in the region of €99m. The centre will be ready by the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010.
BM Solutions analysis of European mortgage markets
BM Solutions first ever pan-European study of the buy-to-let market reveals that 43% of landlords in the UK would choose fixed rates, 20% would choose variable rates and 11% would opt for tracker rates.
In Germany - the largest economy in Europe - 93% of landlords would choose to fix their mortgage.
In Poland variable rates are favoured with 49% of landlords, while 34% would choose fixed and 15% would choose trackers.
For Portuguese landlords, some 54% would choose a tracker mortgage, 26% would choose a variable rate and 12% would choose a fixed.
But while 79% UK landlords see a clear need for specialist buy-to-let mortgage, this is not the case in the three other sample countries. In Germany 94% of landlords state that a specialist mortgage is not required, with 92% of landlords in Poland and 80% of landlords in Portugal agreeing.
Steve Sandiford, head of specialist lending strategy, BM Solutions, says: “While the UK has a clearly defined concept of a buy-to-let mortgage - it appears to be something that is unique. European mortgage lenders do not offer specifically underwritten products for landlords in the same way. Personal income is a defining factor in obtaining mortgages to fund rental properties within the EU sample countries that we selected.”
Bulgaria expects €5bn in FDI in 2007
The Invest Bulgaria Agency (IBA) has forecasted that foreign direct investment (FDI) in Bulgaria will reach more than €5bn in 2007.
The data was provided at a media presentation of the annual report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and showed that foreign investment in Bulgaria was €4.4bn in 2006, with 95% of it being so-called ‘ greenfield’ investment. Around 35% of all the inflow was invested in real estate, and 25% in production activities.
The report added that Bulgaria accounted for 20% of all FDI in South-Eastern Europe (SEE) and the country ranked seventh in the world in terms of its FDI/GDP ratio in 2006. A position it is expected to keep this year.
The inflow of FDI into South-Eastern Europe and the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) increased by 68% in 2006 to reach €48.6bn. Most of the foreign investment in the region went to Russia, followed by Romania, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Bulgaria.
Worldwide News
Alarm raised over Japanese property prices
The head of Japan’s second largest home builder has warned that Japanese property prices are a bubble set to burst, fuelling concerns that real estate prices have reached unsustainable levels just a few years into a recovery from a prolonged slump.
“The property market has become dangerous and I wouldn’t be surprised if the real estate bubble goes bust”, Takeo Higuchi, chairman of Daiwa House, reportedly said.
Natasha Chetwynd, head of Japanese equities at Resolution Asset Management, says prices in central Tokyo have risen dramatically over the last few years, as much as 80% in some areas.
But according to Chris Taylor, head of research and manager of the Neptune Japan Opportunities fund, the fundamentals in Tokyo are not so good. He said: “If you look at the demographics of the Japanese workforce, the total number of yen earned is actually going to go down. There are more people retiring than there are joining the workforce and, if that wasn't bad enough, the people who are retiring are being paid twice as much as the people who are starting work for the first time.”
White House forms mortgage industry coalition
The Bush administration has announced a new mortgage industry coalition aimed at helping homeowners avoid being trapped in a rising tide of foreclosures. The new group is aimed at helping US homeowners that are facing foreclosure.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the initiative would boost financial companies’ efforts to help an estimated 2m homeowners whose introductory mortgages with low rates are resetting at much higher rates, just as the housing industry suffers through its steepest downturn in 16 years.
The House pursued its own plan for helping homeowners, passing a bill to create a federal trust fund to finance construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing. The measure would provide between $800m to $1bn a year with the goal of creating 1.5m affordable housing units over the next decade by funding grants to a variety of housing providers.
Ford and Mazda to build car plant in Thailand
US car manufacturer Ford and its Japanese partner Mazda have announced that they will develop a $500m plant to build passenger cars in Thailand, eyeing the growing market in Southeast Asia.
The plant is expected to be operational in 2009 and create 8,000 jobs, 2,000 of them directly and the rest through suppliers and related businesses, Mazda Motor Corp said in a statement.
Ford Motor Corp and Mazda, in which the US automaker holds a one-third stake, will evenly split the cost of the investment.
The plant will have the capacity to build 100,000 cars a year. It will be constructed in eastern Rayong province next to an existing pick-up truck factory of their joint venture, known as AutoAlliance Thailand.
BA increases winter flights from Heathrow to Dubai by 50%
British Airways is adding six extra flights per week from London Heathrow to Dubai this winter. The company currently operates 14 flights per week to Dubai from Heathrow, but that will increase to 20 when the airline’s winter schedule takes off on 17 December.
The additional flights will take BA’s capacity on the London to Dubai route to 8,900 seats per week.
BA’s Middle East commercial manager, Paul Starrs, said the decision to lay on extra flights to Dubai was due to ‘overwhelming’ demand during the winter period. He added: “Morning, afternoon and evening departures six days a week will suit all travel itineraries.”
