15 | October | 2009 | Lush Dream Home

Odds are high once its rental income is steady and asset size exceeds $1b

YING Li International Real Estate may spin its assets into a real estate investment trust (Reit) by 2013 once its rental income is steady and asset size exceeds $1 billion.

Mr Fang: He says the group may tie up with other established players, such as Macquarie Pacific Star, to tap their expertise

This could materialise when its current project International Financial Centre (IFC) is completed and revalued on a mark-to-market basis.

‘We wish to go into an asset-light model. We are talking to established international players to eventually securitise our assets – to inject our properties into a Reit,’ Ying Li chief executive Fang Ming told BT yesterday in an interview. Continue reading →

More in London want subsidised housing

Posted on 15 Oct 2009 | Comments Off

Number of applicants on wait list up 6%, the highest since 1999

The number of Londoners waiting for government-subsidised housing rose by 6 per cent to the highest since 1999 as the UK economy soured and the supply of new homes tightened.

‘The average rent in London is £206 a week, compared with £86 in a subsidised house or apartment.’

– Belinda Porich,

London regional head of National Housing Federation

The waiting list increased to 353,130 households in 2008, or one in nine London families, from 333,857 a year earlier, the National Housing Federation said in a report called ‘Home Truths’ published yesterday.

‘The economic situation is putting pressure on social housing,’ said Belinda Porich, London regional head of the federation, in an interview. ‘We are building way less than the number of people coming onto the list each year.’

The worst economic slump since World War II has increased unemployment, reduced home construction and raised demand for social housing in the UK capital. It’s a category that includes rent-subsidized, council apartments and houses and properties purchased using low-cost, government-backed plans.

The federation says there continues to be an ‘affordability gap’ in the UK capital. It estimates that the buyer of an average-priced home in London, which costs £362,810 (S$798,182), would have to have an annual income of £93,294. That’s based on a mortgage for 90 per cent of the property’s value and three-and-a-half times the buyer’s salary. Continue reading →