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Dubai conglomerate Al Habtoor Group plans to acquire commercial property in Europe this year as part of its expansion plans and expects 15 per cent to 20 per cent revenue growth across its businesses in 2023.

The family owned business, with interests in the property, hospitality, automotive, insurance, education and publishing sectors, is looking at countries near Hungary, including Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Romania to buy property, its vice chairman and chief executive Mohammed Al Habtoor told The National in an interview.

The company currently owns an office complex and two hotels in the Hungarian capital, Budapest. It also has hotels in Austria, the UK, Lebanon and the US.

Mr Al Habtoor did not disclose how much the company plans to spend in buying property but he said they were “looking for the right thing which has a good yield”.

The company aims to fund the new deals through its own resources and has no plans to borrow from banks or raise cash through bonds or sukuk.

The prices are “good now … there is an opportunity”, he said.

Europe faces economic headwinds with higher inflation and a tightening of monetary policy by the European Central Bank.

The euro area, which includes 20 EU countries that use the euro as their primary currency, is forecast to grow by 0.8 per cent in 2023, following a 3.5 per cent expansion in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The company aims to double or triple its portfolio in the next five years.

“With our investment in Europe, here or in the region, we have the appetite and capability to expand more.

“All the sectors, even in the schools, we are looking to expand in different areas, to go to different countries,” Mr Al Habtoor said.

The company intends to expand in the UAE and plans to unveil a new real estate project in Dubai by the end of the year following the launch of a Dh3.7 billion residential tower in Al Habtoor City, on Sheikh Zayed Road, earlier this year.

It has been “very busy” on the sales side at the new property, which it says is one of the largest residential towers in the world with more than 1,700 units.

“The general demand in Dubai for real estate is huge. There is still an appetite but [it] depends on the location, as well as the amenities you provide and the surroundings,” Mr Al Habtoor said.

Dubai’s property sector performance reached a total transaction value of Dh157 billion in the first quarter of 2023, an 80 per cent annual increase, the Dubai Media Office said in April.

The number of real estate transactions during the period grew 49 per cent to 38,715.

High-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) from around the world plan to spend $2.5 billion on Dubai property this year, according to global property consultancy Knight Frank.

Government initiatives such as residency permits for retirees and remote workers, and the expansion of the 10-year golden visa programme, as well as the economic boost from Expo 2020 Dubai and higher oil prices, have buttressed the UAE’s property sector over the past two years.

Dubai will continue to attract new buyers because property is less costly to buy in the emirate, compared with big cities such as New York or London, and offers a good lifestyle for families and individuals to live, he said.

“The property sector is undervalued,” Mr Al Habtoor said.

It is also one of the safest places in the world, with an attractive business environment and policies for businesses to thrive and expand their operations, he said.

“[Doing] business is easy and the government rules are very clear. There are no surprises and hidden things that you get surprised in the future. That’s why people have trust.”

Most banks and financial institutions have set up offices in the emirate to cover the Mena region, as well as the Indian subcontinent, Mr Al Habtoor said.

Dubai was the world’s top destination for greenfield foreign direct investment projects in 2022 for a second consecutive year, cementing its position as a worldwide FDI centre despite global economic headwinds, a report found.

The emirate, the tourism and commercial centre of the Middle East, achieved 89.5 per cent annual growth in FDI projects announced last year, the Dubai Media Office said in May, citing data from the 2022 Financial Times fDi Markets report on Sunday.

The company expects revenue growth of 15 per cent to 20 per cent revenue across its businesses in 2023, compared with last year. This does not include sales from Al Habtoor Tower.

The hospitality and motoring divisions contribute the lion’s share of revenue, at 65 per cent, followed by real estate, education and insurance.

The company, founded in 1970, owns seven hotels in Dubai and is the distributor of global vehicle brands such as Mitsubishi, Chery and JAC Motors. It also has two schools in Dubai.

On the initial public offering plans of the company, Mr Al Habtoor said they might have something to announce by the summer of next year.

“By one year from now, maybe next summer, we might have something ready to be announced, but the chairman will take a final decision.”

Source : TheNationalNews

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Ocean views, sought-after schools and hardly a property for sale in sight. Some of Sydney’s most tightly held suburbs had only a handful of sales within the past year.

The number of Sydney properties for sale plummeted amid the market downturn and economic uncertainty caused by rising interest rates, further reducing supply in areas with already low turnover – such as prime locations and smaller suburbs.

Waterfront Watsons Bay, Kirribilli and Whale Beach, where houses are in limited supply to begin with, were among more than 80 Sydney suburbs where five or fewer houses traded over the year to March, Domain data shows.

House sales were also limited in similarly small prestige suburbs like Point Piper, Darling Point and Tamarama, which each had between six and 12 transactions.

However, even areas with more housing, such as Bondi Beach, North Manly, Narrabeen and Brighton-le-sands, were among more than 370 Sydney suburbs where house sales slumped below 50, the benchmark used by Domain research to calculate a suburb’s median price.

As were middle ring suburbs like Summer Hill and North Epping, and outer suburbs like Mount Kuring-Gai and Camden.

For apartments, South Coogee, Clovelly, Millers Point, Enmore and Willoughby, were among the suburbs with limited sales.

It comes amid a drop in homes for sale, as sellers hesitate amid falling prices and rising interest rates. While prices have now been rebounding for several months, the number of homes listed for sale in May, was still down 20.7 per cent annually.

Ray White’s head of research Vanessa Rader said properties in prime locations, whether that was a waterfront or beach side position or a family-friendly suburb with good schools, were traditionally tightly held.

“These are typically pockets that have some kind of geographic advantage. You can’t just go recreate that too easily,” she said.

“If someone is selling an asset in these locations, where are they going to move to,” she said, adding this had become a greater concern amid low supply levels.

Rader said would-be sellers held back as prices declined. That then reduced the options for buyers, further deterring homeowners from selling, as they feared they would not find a suitable home to move to.

“It’s hard to find somewhere to buy, and if you have to go into the rental market, the vacancy rate is at a longtime low,” she said.

Uncertainty about the property market and broader economic outlook was also deterring sellers, as was the increasing difficulty of refinancing.

Eastern suburbs agent Ric Serrao, principal of Raine & Horne Double Bay, said traditionally tightly held suburbs had become even more so.

“There’s a percentage of clients who are opportunistic and when they feel the market prices are not on their side they just don’t list,” he said.

Limited supply increased competition for available properties, putting a floor under price declines, and supporting the recent rebound.

“How can something go down, when every time you’ve got a property you’ve got 10 to 15 people turning up,” Serrao said.

It was a similar story in the northern suburbs, where Pello Northern Suburbs principal Michael Dowling has seen listings become even fewer in low turnover suburbs like Denistone and East Ryde, which recorded 40 and 38 house sales, respectively.

“[East Ryde] is a very family orientated area, one of the areas in the Ryde district where all the neighbours seem to know each other … and there’s a lot of older people who have been there since the dress circle estate was built,” he said.

The area was popular with upgrading families from the north shore and inner west, seeking a comparatively more affordable house, in a family-friendly area and a central location.

Deciding to leave such a suburb behind is not easy, as East Ryde sellers Mark Khoo and Andrea Wong know, having recently listed their five-bedroom house to relocate closer to family.

They purchased one of the suburb’s original estate homes 18 years ago, from the property’s first owner, and later rebuilt on the block.

“East Ryde has been perfect for us raising a young family, it’s a very central location, close to schools, shopping centres and amenities, we’ve got lots of lovely neighbours, a strong sense of community and there’s lots of surrounding greenery,” he said.

“It was a difficult decision to decide to sell, but the market seems to be in a healthy state,” he said, adding there had been a strong level of interest so far.

“I think this reflects that it’s a sought after area with not much turnover.”

Dowling added that several months of price growth had given buyers and sellers more confidence to transact.

While listing volumes were still low, there had been a recent uptick in home appraisals across the northern suburbs, which could lead to an increase in homes for sale in three to four months time.

Source : TheSydneyMorningHerald

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THE first weekend of spring was one of the biggest of the year for auctions, representing a return to form following a lacklustre start to last year’s peak-property season.

Potential homebuyers could have choosen from 2401 properties listed for auction across the nation’s capital cities this weekend, according to data from CoreLogic Australia.

It’s a 5.4 per cent bump on listings from the previous week, making it the third busiest of the year behind the weeks ending 26 February and 2 April, which saw 2429 and 2687 auctions respectively.

It is also a 46.6 per cent jump in the number of listings compared with the start of last year’s spring season, which Corelogic economist Kaytlin Ezzy blamed on weaker selling conditions at the time, including rising interest rates and falling dwelling values.

Chief economist for Ray White Group, Nerida Conisbee, said spring generally sees increased levels of activity on the property market.

“It is where we see a bump in properties for sale generally, because homes look better and people are back from the June-July holiday period,” she said.

“It does generally mean we see more properties coming to sale and buyers come out.”

Ms Conisbee said despite more properties coming to market and interest rates high, prices have failed to pull back as much as could have been expected.

“Even though more properties are coming to market we’re just not seeing a price reduction as a result of that occurring,” she said.

“We did see them pull back very briefly in July, but it was a really tiny reduction and in August it has surged back again.

“If you were a buyer and you were hoping to pick up a bargain, that time has really come to an end and it is looking a lot better for sellers at this point.”

Last weekend, 66.8 per cent of the 2278 homes that went to auction sold, a higher clearance rate than the same time last year.

In Sydney alone, 1010 homes are due to go under the hammer this week, and on average will fetch the highest prices in the country.

Melbourne will host the busiest auction market this weekend, with 1020 homes on the auction block representing a small decline in the number of listings last weekend.

Of the smaller capitals, Brisbane will see the most auction action, with 155 homes listed, followed by Adelaide with 104 and Canberra with 101.

Contributing to the bump in listings is a higher number of investors choosing to exit the market, believed to be partially due to higher interest rates and a lower opinion of landlords generally, according to Ms Conisbee.

“It’s actually quite unfortunate, because landlords do provide 90 per cent of rental homes,” Ms Conisbee said.

“So if we do see a lot of investors selling and those properties go to owner occupiers then we lose them from the rental pool.”

Source : BendigoTimes

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The Ministry of Digital Governance has been forced into a new delay for the implementation of the digital property file, with which notaries could complete property transfers in a short period of time by obtaining the required supporting documents through interoperability.

Although it was supposed to be fully operational on November 1, this date has been pushed to January 1, 2024. Of course, the market considers the schedule set by the relevant ministry to be unattainable, as there are insurmountable problems, which for now at least cannot be resolved.

At the same time, the notary will not be able to draw from the digital property file all the required supporting documents (they amount to approximately 17 in each case), but only six to eight supporting documents, while the system will work exclusively for properties that are registered.

Persistent red tape

Essentially, the bureaucracy remains and there will be few, it seems, real estate transfers that can be served by the digital real estate file. And this is because, as the notaries report, approximately 85% of the properties that have acquired a KAEK (land register number) present errors. Obvious mistakes (in name, etc.) will be addressed, they note, however differences in area cannot be addressed.

Although the government claims that they will be able to unlock KAEK and proceed with corrections, in practice this is impossible. And this as in the case, for example, that a plot of land has been declared to cover 160 square meters and from the registration and the engineer’s topography it stems it is 160.8 sq.m., then no correction can be made. Such a change is likely to create a problem for the neighboring plot, reducing its declared square meters.

All these have not been foreseen by the new system. In this context, a meeting of notaries with the staff of the Ministry of Digital Governance was planned last week for an exchange of views and the presentation of the new system.

It is noted that before the notary can start the transfer procedures, the pre-procedure by the engineer must be finished, which also requires in many cases months to complete the collection of the documents from the town planning and cadastral offices. In fact, as the notaries claim, today there are approximately 30,000 pending property transfers, as it is impossible to collect the data.

Interoperability

However, the Ministry of Digital Governance claims that with the digital property transfer file notaries will be able to obtain the necessary supporting documents and complete the relevant contracts in a short period of time, without having to wait for the municipalities, the tax office or other state bodies to issue them. All documents will now be pulled through interoperability. With the planned changes, the transfer of property can, they claim, be completed in a few days, while the legality check will also be completed in one day.

According to the competent ministry, from January 2024 the digital property transfer file will operate, in which the notary will enter a digital application and send an invitation via gov.gr to the buyer and seller. Within this common digital environment, tax information, insurance information and some other supporting documents will be collected.

Upon completion of the process, the digital contract will be created. This means that the title deed will be a digital document whose content will not need to be repeated in various documents as is done today.

Source : Ekathimerini

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The share of properties available to rent in Australia has hit a record low after the national vacancy rate recorded its largest drop in over a year, a new report has revealed.

Rental vacancy rates fell 0.14 percentage points in August to hit a new low of 1.10%, with the share of rental properties on the market now 54% lower compared with pre-pandemic levels, the report by property data firm PropTrack shows.

The data come as advocates for housing affordability argue that without government intervention, the crisis will become more severe.

PropTrack economist and report author Anne Flaherty said there was “a host of drivers” that have led to the tight vacancy rate, including a growing population, the number of people in each dwelling falling and first home buyers being increasingly locked out of the market.

“For renters who may be looking to be first home buyers, they’ve faced a situation where because of interest rate rises, they can borrow 30% less on average,” Flaherty said. “But at the same time, property prices are still sitting as high as ever.”

Housing affordability has now hit its worst level in at least three decades, according to PropTrack. Households earning a median income of just over $105,000 can afford the smallest share of homes since 1995 when records began, at just 13% of homes sold in the past year, a report from PropTrack revealed last week.

“The amount homebuyers are having to save is incredibly high,” Flaherty said. “Those mortgage repayments are very, very high and the amount that they can borrow is less. So that’s also keeping people in the rental market longer.”

The supply of vacant rental properties in regional areas has also deteriorated, with the vacancy rate falling to just 1.1%.

“Rents are predicted to continue rising off the back of these incredibly low vacancy rates, which are driving up competition for properties,” she said. “But if rents reach high enough, it might lead to a tipping point for some tenants where the amount they would be paying in mortgage repayments would be less than their rent.

“So I think that when we start to see that happen, that could lead to a bit of a shift.”

Maiy Azize, a spokesperson for the housing affordability advocacy group Everybody’s Home, said the low vacancy rates proved “only the federal government can create affordable rentals for the people who need them, when and where they need them”.

“For years governments have been walking away from social housing, relying on the private sector to deliver affordable homes,” Azize said. “These numbers show that’s a dangerous approach.

“Australia’s social housing shortfall is massive. We need to create 25,000 new social homes across the country every year. We’re calling on the government to act now and end the shortfall for good.”

Source : TheGuardian

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The largest proportion of global wealth is held in the residential property market, and it’s been outperforming almost every other asset class.

Any budding investor weighing up their options may consider putting their money into bonds, funds, stocks, gold or even cryptocurrency, among other things, but it is the real estate market that not only has the highest level of investment globally, but has soared in value in the past three years.

The latest research published by Savills shows that the world’s property market was worth a huge £379.7trn as of the end of 2022, with more than three quarters of this to be found in residential property specifically. The sector alone was worth £287.6trn globally by the end of last year.

Further to this, the residential property sector saw a huge 21.1% leap in its value in the three-year period between 2019 and 2022, faring well through various factors that created market turbulence elsewhere, such as the Covid pandemic.

The only asset class to perform more strongly during the three-year time period was gold, which saw its value grow by 26.9%. However, as Savills points out: “The total value of gold is still dwarfed by the value of the real estate markets worldwide.”

Outperforming bonds and equities

Residential property across the globe “significantly” outperformed both bonds and equities over the last three years. Over the past year, the global value of equities has fallen by 20.3%, followed by agricultural land by 11.4% and debt securities by 3.2%.

Across the whole of the real estate sector – including both commercial and residential property – there has been an 18.7% hike in value over the past three years. Commercial real estate was slower to climb, though, with a 14.4% rise in value.

The most valuable real estate market, says Savills, remains China, as it makes up more than a quarter (26%) of the world’s total real estate value. Of course, it is also one of the most highly populated countries in the world, with 1.4 billion people and a vast amount of land space.

The US was the country with the second highest value real estate market, accounting for 19% of the total; but again, it is a large and highly populated country. After this, Japan came in third position, followed by Germany and then the UK.

Savills explains the balance: “Significant real estate wealth is concentrated in Europe and North America. The value of property in these two regions accounts for almost half (47%) of the total value worldwide, despite them being home to just 17% of the global population.

“Asia-Pacific (excluding China), by contrast, has 37% of the world’s population but accounts for only 17% of global real estate value.”

UK residential property hit £8.68trn in 2022

As of the end of 2022, Savills estimates that the total value of UK residential property was a record-high £8.68trn, having grown by 5.1% since the previous year. This comes off the back of accelerated house price growth over the past three years.

Lucian Cook, head of research at Savills, said: “The total value of all housing has risen by almost a quarter (+23%) since 2019, while outstanding mortgage debt went up by a lower +11%. So, while outstanding borrowing increased by £168bn, the growth in the total equity pot was well over nine times that figure at £1.46trn.”

The residential property market in the UK remains an extremely popular asset class among investors. It has continued to perform strongly throughout the past few years, in spite of some major shifts within the economy, and appetite remains strong despite rising mortgage rates.

Estate agency Hamptons recently released a forecast indicating that the market will return to growth from 2025, in what it deems to be the start of a new “property market cycle”, so the total value of UK residential property looks set to continue to climb.

Source : BuyAssociation

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CHINESE property developer Yanlord Land Group recorded 26.1 billion yuan (S$4.8 billion) in total contracted presales from residential units, commercial units and car parks for the first nine months of the year.

The presales were for a contracted gross floor area of about 1.02 million square metres (sq m) and were 51.7 per cent lower than presales for the year ago period, the group said in a bourse filing on Tuesday (Oct 10).

Presales include those by the group, its joint ventures and associates.

Yanlord Land’s total contracted presales for September was down by 83.2 per cent to 1.6 billion yuan for a contracted gross floor area of 67,835 sq m.

In its unaudited key operating figures for the nine months ended Sep 30, Yanlord Land said it has approximately 2.6 billion yuan of subscription sales, which are expected to be turned into contracted presales in the coming months.

Five cities in China – Nanjing, Suzhou, Shenzhen, Jinan and Tianjin – accounted for about 59.5 per cent of total contracted presales for the first nine months of the year.

For the first six months of 2023, Yanlord Land posted a net profit of approximately one billion yuan for the half year ended June 2023, down 20 per cent from the 1.4 billion yuan a year ago.

Property prices in China have slumped amid worsening business sentiment as property giants Country Garden face potential debt default and Evergrande Group aims to restructure US$22.7 billion of offshore debt.

Source : TheBusinessTimes

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Perth is the most competitive housing market in the country right now and whether you’re buying or renting there’s a shortage of stock on the market. 

With home prices up 10.90% over the past year, Perth is Australia’s top performing capital city market when it comes to price growth.

That’s more than five times the the historic average pace of annual growth experienced in Perth, bringing prices to a record high.

If growth continues at the same pace as over the past quarter, prices in Perth would be set to end the year up 12%.

Perth’s rental market is also challenged. Although the greatest increases in advertised rents over the past year have been seen in Sydney (+18.2% year-on-year), closely followed by regional WA (+16.7% year-on-year) and Perth (+14.9% year-on-year).

The critical lack of available rentals is causing rental prices to increase at a rapid pace.

Buyers and renters competing for fewer homes

Total for-sale listings are currently at historic lows in Perth (on records back to 2004) and total rental listings are also at historic lows.

At the same time, the pipeline of new supply remains constrain

As a result, growth in the supply of new housing is limited at a time when there is already a shortage.

The number of enquiries per rental listing are the highest in Perth (50.3) of any market, illustrating the severe imbalance between rental demand with rental properties in short supply.

To put this into perspective, nationally, the number of enquiries per for sale listing increased 14.1% year-on-year in September but remains below the record high levels seen in late 2021.

In contrast, enquiries per for sale listing in Perth have jumped by 93.9% year-on-year and are sitting at a record high level.

Fewer new listings and faster selling times have driven total for sale listings lower, and there were 25.7% fewer homes listed for sale in Perth in September of this year compared to last.

This strong competition is likely one reason why Perth has overtaken Adelaide as the strongest performing capital city market for price growth over the past year, as buyers compete for limited options.

Limited supply amid strong buyer demand has resulted in a sellers’ market, with prices in Perth outpacing all the other capitals.

Prices in Perth were unaffected by last year’s rate rises, and while prices fell in most markets, Perth avoided the downturn. That stronger growth has continued into this year.

The attraction of Perth

One reason Perth is one of the hottest markets in the country is its relative affordability.

Despite recent gains, Perth housing values remain affordable compared to other capital cities after a decade of underperformance relative to east coast capitals. Darwin is the only capital with a lower median dwelling value.

The PropTrack Housing Affordability Index shows that housing affordability is highest in Western Australia, a factor likely to attract both local, international, and interstate buyers.

Strong population growth is also adding to housing demand, predominantly in the rental market given recent arrivals are most likely to rent. In the 12 months to March 2023, Western Australia’s population grew by 2.8% – the fastest growth of all the states and territories.

Population growth is also driving demand in the market to buy, particularly given the challenging conditions in the rental market that may incentivise some to purchase sooner than they otherwise would have.

The Western Australia government is actively promoting the state as a destination for skilled work regional migrants (491 visas) and has successfully lobbied to have the entire state declared a designated regional area. This means that skilled migrants on regional 491 visas can arrive, live and work in Perth, making it the only capital city which has achieved this distinction.

The outlook for Perth remains challenging with net migration and population growth set to remain strong, with vacancies already historically low.

The comeback state

Western Australia has historically been the most volatile state in terms of economic performance.

Following a period of rapid expansion during the mining boom, Western Australia’s economic growth lay largely in the doldrums until 2019.

But the state is now making a comeback. Buoyed by strong export demand, Western Australia’s economy has grown more rapidly than any other state’s over the past year, with state final demand up 2.8% the 12 months to March.

The city of Perth is booming. Picture: Getty

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Western Australia has one of the lowest rates of unemployment at 3.4%, and one of the highest participation rates.

The strengthening economy, strong demand for labour and prior decade of underperformance relative to the east coast capitals are all likely to be ongoing drivers of Perth’s housing market.

It seems unlikely that these conditions will change any time soon given resurgent population growth, the lack of new home completions and the overall strong demand for housing.

The comparative affordability of homes, population growth, a shortage of housing and very tight rental markets are likely to continue to buoy both home price growth and rental price growth in Perth.

Source : RealEstate.com.au

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