14 | DEVELOPER & MEDIA


NEWS IN BRIEF Free listings’ site launches


NEWS By Ecaterina Ciobanu


A new website called www. homesacrosstheworld.com is being launched off ering free listings for all developers and overseas property service providers across the world until January 14 2012. Based in Mumbai, India, the new site says that it will “off er free listings not just to property developers and builders, home owners and realty agents (in some countries, brokers), but also to the entire eco system that supports this industry.” The portal opens for business on December 14, 2011 and users can “list their properties and services for free, by uploading an online form,” says the site.


Egypt must capitalise ALEMBIC HC Securities is urging Egypt’s hard-pressed property developers to change their business models urgently if they want to benefi t from the country’s government housing initiatives as the economy starts to rebuild after the revolution. The analysts argue that too many Egyptian developers have concentrated on serving the needs of the “wealthy elite” and building homes that are too expensive for the majority of Egyptians. “The sector is not fully represented by the current Egyptian stock exchange, which mainly consist of luxury developers,” Ankur Khetawat, an analyst at AlembicHC Securities in Dubai told OPP.


New service to help sales


A British company has developed a new online service designed to help reduce the number of housing transactions that fail during the pre- contract process. Entrepreneur Tim Price has launched what he describes as a “pioneering service that ensures the completion of a home sale by committing the seller and buyer to enter into a pre-exchange bond with funds held in a secure bank account – so if either party subsequently withdraws, the bond is automatically forfeited to the other party.” Called AssuredSale, the online package “charges a fee to both the buyer and seller,” Price told OPP. And “the cost of the bond to buyer and seller is tiered in line with the value of the property.”


Thai developers suddenly have a “golden opportunity” to buy up land in fl ooded areas at bargain prices according to Patima Jeerapaet, managing director of Colliers International Thailand. He believes that the effect of Thailand’s worst fl ood in 50 years will be a change in the way all property sectors in the country are evaluated and developed, as well as a change in “home-purchasing sentiments.” People are going to be more cautious he says and it will take at least six months for the market to return to normal. Overall, however, Jeerapaet thinks


that Thai buyers will stick with familiar locations and that there probably won’t be any large migration of residents away from the fl ooded areas. The opportunity will arise because “homebuyers will wait and see the situation after the fl oods and delay making a decision. Housing sentiment will resume towards the middle of next year at the earliest and


www.opp.org.uk | DECEMBER 2011 Thai fl ood cheapening land


“Golden opportunity | the fl oods could change how Thai property is evaluated


housing developers will delay launching new projects,” he told OPP last month via a conference on the post-fl ood Bangkok real estate market. While new low-rise launches will be postponed, inner-city condominiums, especially near mass transit stations, will continue to enjoy healthy sales, he says. Most experts in Thailand agree that investors considering buying residential properties there in the future will pay more attention to the product, design features and fl ood protection measures


of the development in question. Housing developers will also be forced to ensure fl ood prevention measures. Drainage systems will be improved, water storage tanks installed and electrical sockets moved up. “The popularity of single houses and townhouses will stay the same,” Jeerapaet said. “But their design may change to that of high-rise developments, with parking on the ground and the living area including the electricity system starting from the second fl oor.”


Fast-track plan for Oz Go Mexico


Australian developers who build into their plans proposals to overcome common residential problems should be allowed to win a fast-track, 15-day building approval says a new report out from the Grattan Institute, called “Getting The Housing We Want.” It currently takes more than six


months for many Australian councils to process a typical residential planning application. The report also called for Melbourne’s adversarial planning application system to be replaced with a universal housing code. The Grattan Institute is also proposing


that a think tank of architects, builders and planners should be set up in Australia to produce innovative designs. “This will bring together expertise from different groups,” the report said, “enabling them to share innovations, further reducing the risk and expenditure of innovating.” In July of this year, another Grattan


housing stock and the mix of properties that buyers are looking for. Melbourne has 200,000 fewer semi-detached homes than people wanted, and 125,000 fewer apartments in buildings of four storeys or more, according to the institute. Residents denied a say in how their


neighbourhood develops often feel that they have no choice but to oppose all change. Developers point to barriers to building the diversity of housing that Australians want. More than 70% of the companies currently building multi- unit apartments and townhouses earn less than $100,000 a year, making them much less likely to invest in innovation or design, the report noted.


The Immobel Global Real Estate platform has said it will enable the property listings of the members of the AMPI (Asociación Mexicana de Profesionales Inmobiliarios), to be shown by US overseas property agents on their own websites in English. “The AMPI announcement comes


during a wave of new globalisation initiatives by Realtor.com and ReMax. com. And AMPI will benefi t from much more than just translated listings, though,” Janet Choynowski, CEO of Immobel, told OPP. “Through the Immobel Global


Listing Exchange, the AMPI Mexico MLS listings will be shown by up to half of all US realtors on their own websites, creating a huge market impact.” And, “in turn, AMPI members in


Institute survey called “The Housing We’d Choose,” identifi ed “a clear mismatch” between Melbourne’s current Paperwork | may fall for Oz developers


Mexico will also be able to show several hundred thousand MLS listings from the US in a Spanish language translation on their own websites to their local buyers in Mexico.”


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76