Kevin Brass
Through booms and crashes, Kevin Brass has covered international property markets for the International Herald Tribune and New York Times. His work focuses on news and trends that impact shifting markets, providing essential information to agents, investors and consumers looking to buy or sell property.
Solid Report for Trump Project in Panama
The Trump Ocean Club, the bellwether project under construction on the bay in Panama City, is still hitting its financial and construction targets, the developers told bondholders last week. Newland International Properties sold 23 units in the first half of the year, bringing the total sold to 832 of the 1,004 condominium and hotel units, according to the report, which can be found on the Panama Investor Blog.
While there have been accounts of steep discounts and stagnant sales in other Panama City towers, the Trump project is discounting units an average of only about 13 percent, Newland told investors. The average price for a two-bedroom unit is about $683,000 or $4,452 per square meter.
Like many projects that carry the Trump name, Newland is simply licensing The Donald’s brand. Widely believed to be the most expensive of the many new towers sprouting in Panama City, the Trump Ocean Club’s progress has been closely watched, amid concern the Panama City market is over heated.
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In U.K., Talk of ‘Sporadic and Shaky’ Recovery
As wishy-washy forecasts go, it doesn’t get much more wishy-washy than the Council of Mortgage Lenders prediction for activity in the U.K. Activity increased 26 percent from June to July, the highest level in nine months, according to the industry association’s latest report. But the CML wasn’t exactly popping corks. Lending activity in July was the lowest since 2001, down £11 billion from the July average of £27 billion (and nowhere near the £35 billion of 2007, the golden year of the frenzy).
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No Bargains on the French Riviera
Villa Shamballa
The French Riviera may be one of the few markets where nobody really cares about the global economic showdown. Sure, there may be fewer Russian oligarchs wandering the docks, but a château overlooking the Mediterranean will always be priced the way it is priced, and that’s just the way it is and the way it will always be. If you can’t afford it, there’s always Spain, the locals are happy to point out.
Case in point is a modern villa on a hillside less than 1 mile from Monaco, which recently hit the market with a hefty price tag of 38.5 million euro.
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‘Green’ Songdo City Moving Ahead
Unlike many grandly-announced ambitious eco-cities, Songdo in South Korea is actually happening. The first phase of the 1,500-acre complex west of Seoul opened earlier this month, promising, among other things, to set a new standard for green cities in Asia.
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Inside the Trump Tower in NYC
Luxist offers a glimpse at what $14.9 million buys in the Trump Tower on Fifth Ave. in New York City. The 48th floor duplex with 4 bedrooms and 4.5 baths offers floor-to-ceiling windows with panoramic views of the city. And the master bedroom is “designed so that the bed is positioned perfectly so that Central Park views are the first thing you see in the morning for a very master-of-all-you-survey feeling.” So it has that going for it. Read more
Dubai Faces Sea of Empty Units
Somehow this is not a big surprise: Dubai, the poster child for the boom years, is facing a surplus of 31,000 homes by the end of the year, according to a new JP Morgan report.
You don’t need a fancy economic degree to figure out the reasons for the sea of empty homes. “Modest economic forecast and negative population growth estimates” are blamed for the surplus. In other words, the flow of overseas buyers has dried up for all those new, ground-breaking, one-of-a-kind developments.
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