08 | INDUSTRY News
NEWS IN BRIEF Berlin development
INDUSTRY By Geoff Hadwick
GERMAN developer Bauwert Investment Group is going ahead with a major €85 million apartment project in central Berlin. The 14,000 sq m site at Württembergische Straße has been acquired from the Liegenschaftsfonds Berlin property fund and construction will begin in early 2011. Located in the heart of Berlin’s western town centre next to the Kurfürstendammm it will feature 15 townhouses in a park-like setting and 210 condominiums and rental apartments are planned.
Admin for Aston Lloyd
DEVELOPERS Aston Lloyd & Partners International Ltd and its associated operating company Aston Hotel Sofi a Ltd have gone into administration. Bijal Shah and Nimish Patel of Re10 have been appointed as joint administrators for the group which was, says the administrators, “involved in the sourcing and developing of various real estate sites in Bulgaria, Turkey, Slovakia and Northern Cyprus.” “These sites are in various stages of development,” says Re10, “and there are a number of matters requiring immediate attention.”
land regulation worries FELIPE Cavalcante, president of the association for inward investment in real estate in Brazil, ADIT, has scotched worries that new Brazilian land regulations would lead to foreign investors seeing their title deeds torn up. He told OPP these proposals only apply to agricultural land. ADIT is expanding its mandate to cover all of Brazil’s 27 states, broadening its work to span across residential and commercial property-based investments, hospitality, real estate tourism and logistics.
ADIT rubbishes Brazilian
THE Association of International Property Professionals is about to launch a new, reinvigorated disciplinary code for members, which is designed to boost the AIPP’s credibility, effi ciency and independence. Speaking exclusively to OPP, new
AIPP chief executive Professor Mark Sharp said: “We are preparing to make a series of changes that will really boost the way in which we handle complaints about the industry.” The current system will be scrapped. “In the past AIPP has taken all responsibility for complaints,” says Sharp. “We tended to use a mediation process
to handle the process and this used to take up huge amounts of time. It just wasn’t a good way to do things in terms of organisational effi ciency.”
www.opp.org.uk | AUGUST 2010 AIPP prepares new code
Independence | AIPP wants to bring more credibility to its dispute process Sharp is also concerned that handling
everything in-house “left AIPP open to criticism.” He was worried that “you could argue that we ran a closed shop and that our process lacked independence.” Things were not as open and transparent as he would have liked, he says. In future, AIPP will outsource all complaints to The Chartered Institute
of Arbitrators. “They will look at the complaint from outside” says Sharp. “And they will bring a much better level of credibility. It will give us our independence back and free up AIPP staff time for other things.” Sharp is also in the process of rewriting the AIPP disciplinary code for members.
Shanghai banks face punishment
SHANGHAI’S banking regulator has threatened to “severely punish” any bank that tries to bypass China’s new mortgage policy rules, which have been set by the central government to curb speculation in the real estate market. No irregularities were found during a
June inspection of the mortgage status of the city’s four major property lending banks, according to the China Banking Regulatory Commission. But it warns of more inspections to
ensure that the banks strictly adhere to the new national tight mortgage rules. The commission also said that far fewer loans have been made for second
or multiple homes in the city and the regulator is reported to be asking banks to levy higher interest rates and far more stringent down-payment requirements on mortgages for buyers trying to acquire multiple homes. The market for individual mortgages is now growing at its slowest rate for
many years in Shanghai as the Chinese authorities continue to tighten their grip to forestall what they fear could be a property bubble and crash. It increased by 3.08 billion yuan (US$455 million) in June in the city, compared with 12.89 billion yuan a year ago, according to the Shanghai headquarters of the People’s Bank of China. There is going to be a wide variety
Shanghai | fi ghting a property bubble RUSSIANs joIN FORCES
THE estimated 300,000 Russians who own overseas properties in Bulgaria have decided to band together to protect their interests and assets. Alyosha – the Association of the Russian-Speaking Owners of Real Estate in Bulgaria – has registered branches in Burgas and Varna. The pressure group will defend property and social rights.
of different presentations for overseas property agents and developers at the OPPLive conference in London from October 14 to 16 2010. Please go to
www.propertyinvestor.
co.uk/london/ now to register.
EgypT ATTRACTS
THE Egyptian government says more than seven million tourists have visited the country so far this year and 15 million are expected by the end of the year. The majority come from Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Russia, and tourism minister Zoheir Garrana says tourism revenues were up 18% in the fi rst half of 2010 to US $5.6 billion.
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