Washington's commercial property market on the up.

The commercial property market in Washington should experience "solid" gains through 2006, according to the National Association of Realtors.

"Even with a lot of new construction around the country, we are seeing healthy levels of commercial real estate space being purchased, rented and occupied," David Lereah, NAR's chief economist, said in the group's latest forecast.

"As a result, vacancies are declining across the board this is improving the fundamentals for commercial real estate sectors into the foreseeable future," he adds.

Property market in Oman set for steady growth.

The average price of good quality property in Oman is set to rise on average by at least 15% pa over the next couple of years, according to Chris Steel, general manager of Hamptons International.

Steel points to the fact that demand for property, including rentals is currently outstripping supply and this forms a solid base for capital appreciation.

Steel says: "As Oman evolves from an oil dependant to a multi-diversified country, the time to buy could not be better as the growth has started and looks likely to continue. There will be expansion across all industry sectors and as tourism becomes one of the main growth areas, more and more people will come to know of Oman's appeal and want to invest here."

Property prices soaring in New York.

With traditionally low US interest rates and banks dropping their lending criteria, property prices in New York are soaring according to American property experts.

Douglas Wagner, president of the estate brokerage Benjamin James said: "With the interest rates very low and signalling that they will level off, people feel they're in a once in a lifetime market."

"There are more and more people speculating, because they've seen the success enjoyed by others," said local estate agent Stephanie Mallios.

Rate rise hits house demand.

Demand for housing in Australia has cooled following the decision to raise interest rates by 0.25% back in March, according to a Westpac Bank analyst.

Andrew Hanlan, a senior economist with the bank, said "There is evidence suggesting that the housing sector has indeed taken a backward step,"

The number of home loans taken by owner-occupiers fell 1.8% in April from March after excluding refinancing.

Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show house prices were mostly unchanged in the March quarter rising by just 0.2% on average across the capital cities, to be up 0.4% over the year.

In the big cities, however, prices are falling. In Sydney, house prices fell by 3.4% over the year to March, while prices in Melbourne dropped 1.7%. In Canberra, prices slipped 1.3%.

In Adelaide and Perth, house prices bucked the national trend, rising 8% and 9.9% respectively over the year to March, while Darwin prices jumped 9.6%. In Brisbane, growth was a little slower at 2.5%, but reports suggest that the city is now bracing itself for a downturn.

Is the Spanish government exaggerating?

Official figures relating to property price increases may be significantly exaggerated according to the Association of Developers and Constructors of Spain (APCE).

Guillermo Chicote - head of APCE, believes that Spanish property prices have been rising by around 10% pa between 2002 and 2004. However, official government figures show prices rising by 18.1% in 2002, 17.6% in 2003 and 17.4% in 2004.

In January this year, Ignacio Navas, spokesman for the Spanish Notaries organisation raised the issue when he said: "There are no reliable statistics for the property market in Spain. The figures provide by the appraisal companies can't be trusted because these companies overstate property prices to justify larger mortgages not only for buying houses but also to finance general consumption."