Category Archives: Overseas Property

A struggle to preserve the view of Mt Fuji

Posted on 13 Oct 2009 | Comments Off on A struggle to preserve the view of Mt Fuji

Group of residents faces stiff resistance from officials and developers

Growing up in prewar Tokyo, Makoto Kaneko recalls that the perfectly shaped, snow-capped cone of Mount Fuji was like a constant companion, visible on the horizon from the narrow streets of his hilly working-class neighbourhood.

Grand vista: For now, two-thirds of Mt Fuji is still visible, but residents reckon it is probably just a matter of time before another building blocks what’s left

The most majestic view was from a steep hillside affectionately named Fujimizaka, ‘the slope for seeing Mount Fuji’.

Today, Mr Kaneko’s cramped 80-year-old shop selling foods cooked in soy sauce is one of several old wooden stores and Buddhist temples that still stand here, making the Nippori neighbourhood a rare oasis of medieval charm in Tokyo’s concrete sprawl.

But the distant volcano, Japan’s tallest peak and pre-eminent national symbol, has been increasingly blocked by skyscrapers and smog.

Mr Kaneko said he and other residents did not mind because they still had the vista from Fujimizaka, which has become a minor tourist attraction.

Then, one day a decade ago, they learned of plans for a 14-story apartment building 1.6 kilometres away that would partly obstruct that view. Continue reading →

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US housing risks lurk even as buyers return

Posted on 13 Oct 2009 | Comments Off on US housing risks lurk even as buyers return

Cash-rich: Home sales are now routinely above asking prices in California, from wealthy Orange County towns like Irvine to harder-hit San Bernardino County in the high desert, east of Los Angeles

Postponed foreclosures create a backlog that banks may dump onto the market

On the surface, a glimmer of confidence is returning to the battered US housing market, after more than three years of gut-wrenching defaults, price slumps and foreclosures.

But investors and homeowners in California, the most populous US state and a benchmark for housing across the country, are bracing for another fall as emergency government support measures fall short or expire.

‘All that has been achieved is to put off the real pain until later on,’ said Mark Jacques, a mortgage broker in Corona Del Mar, California. ‘I’m hunkering down for the storm.’

California led the United States when housing prices soared early this decade, spurred by an array of public policy incentives to encourage home ownership. The boom fuelled a frenzy of lending and spending that drove the US economy. Continue reading →

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