Jones Lang LaSalle plans to form a China-based real estate investment trust (REIT) for investors outside of China.

According to James Wong, the company's Asia head of management, it is likely that the REIT will be listed in either Hong Kong or Singapore as Chinese regulations do not currently permit such a trust going public.

According to figures released by the Bank of Spain, the financial debt of Spanish households hit a record high last year of €595.18 billion. Booming property prices has been blamed, with far more Spaniards being required to take out bigger mortgages.

Interest rates are current at bargain-basement levels and there is now a fear that they may rise.
Consequently the Bank of Spain and the IMF warn of the dangers to both the real economy and the financial system should interest rates rise sharply or indeed house prices fall considerably.

Chinese property market rattled.

China may have the world's fastest-expanding economy, but property prices in Shanghai are plummeting.

Reports coming out of China's richest city claim that property prices in the mid - luxury range have fallen by up to 10% in the last couple of weeks, with further falls still likely.

Local estate agent at Hong Kong-headquartered Midland Realty said: "We think prices might fall another 20% in the next three months."

Her adds: "It's because in the last two years the market has gone up so fast, a bubble formed."

US office market leads the way.

US cities make up the top five slots as the most attractive destinations for surging international investment in office property markets, according to U.S. consultants Property & Portfolio Research.

Chief Executive Bret Wilkerson, pinpoints that the most attractive office markets are in the United States, because these tend to be the most economically robust, have the highest levels of liquidity and transparency and are the least risky.

New York, Northern New Jersey, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington were PPR's leading cities, followed by London, Tokyo, Sydney, Boston and Singapore in the top 10.

New Polish developments unveiled.

Work is set to begin on three new apartment developments in Warsaw. A total of 300 new homes will be built in Fort Bema (in the suburb of Bemowo) on ul. Obroñców Tobruku. While a further 400 hundred new homes are being built in Zespól Mieszkaniowy Bemowo on ul. Osmanczyka and ul. Plaskowickiej, in the suburb of Ursynów. Work is due to be completed in autumn 2006.