Category Archives: Overseas Property

HK developers seek cheaper land

Posted on 28 Oct 2009 | Comments Off on HK developers seek cheaper land

Hong Kong’s biggest developers signalled they want cheaper land as the government seeks to increase supply and curb speculation after home prices surged 28 per cent this year.

‘The developers are requesting the government put the prices closer to the market level,’ Stewart Leung, an executive director at New World Development Ltd, told reporters in Hong Kong yesterday after a meeting with the city’s Financial Secretary John Tsang. ‘We also hope that the government will increase the opportunities for selling land via applications.’

Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd, the world’s biggest developer by market value, and rivals including Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd fell in Hong Kong trading yesterday after the government tightened downpayment requirements for luxury homes, and suspended mortgage insurance for rental properties.

Executives from some of the city’s largest developers, including Thomas Kwok, vice-chairman of Sun Hung Kai; Cheung Kong deputy chairman Victor Li; Robert Ng, chairman of Sino Land; and Hang Lung Properties Ltd chairman Ronnie Chan met Mr Tsang at government headquarters yesterday.

Source : Business Times – 28 Oct 2009

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US may extend tax break for home buyers

Posted on 28 Oct 2009 | Comments Off on US may extend tax break for home buyers

The United States Senate could vote to extend a popular tax break for home buyers that has helped lift the housing market out of its worst slump since the Great Depression.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, speaking on the Senate floor on Monday, listed the first-time home buyers’ tax credit among proposed amendments he would like to attach to an unemployment insurance Bill.

The US$8,000 (S$11,000) credit has brought new buyers into the housing market, helping prices to rise starting in May after a serious buying drought that, along with high unemployment, has wreaked havoc on the economy.

Housing has become such a hot button issue that investors sold off US stocks and pushed the US dollar sharply higher on Monday after a misleading media headline said research firm ISI Group had written the tax credit probably would not be extended when it expires on Nov 30.

Markets partially recovered after Florida Senator Bill Nelson said he expected an extension of the tax credit would pass later this week and the headline was corrected. Continue reading →

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