Peek At Desert Home That Obama's Rumored To Be Buying

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 anned by the Los Angeles Times' very plugged-in Hot Property columnist and real estate reporter Lauren Beale, rumours have flared that President Obama and his family have bought a home in the California desert.

 

Front view of the home. Source: Yahoo

Beale's sources say Obama is in escrow on a 3-acre property in Rancho Mirage's Thunderbird Heights, an exclusive gated community once home to Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.

It has a 20-foot waterfall with a lagoon, a putting green with a sandtrap, and more recreational opportunities. Click here for a slideshow of the home.

Shortage Of Quantity Surveyors Hits Crisis Levels

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kills shortages have hit their highest level since 2008 with 54% of firms reporting insufficient numbers of quantity surveyors available to meet current workloads.

Figures in the latest RICS UK Construction Market Survey Q2 2014 show private housing, commercial and industrial sectors driving strong growth across the whole of the UK.

But a shortage of white and blue collar workers is a real threat to recovery.

The survey showed that 59% of respondents reported shortages of bricklayers and 51% reported a shortage of managerial workers.

Millennials Will Soon Be A Force To Be Reckoned With In Housing Markets

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18.4 million 20- and 30-somethings are living with their parents

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he U.S. home ownership rate dropped for the ninth year in a row in 2013, thanks in no small part to the fact that millions of 20- and 30-somethings were still living with their parents, according to the latest “State of the Nation’s Housing” report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

The decline in home ownership rates from 2004 to 2013 was most dramatic among 25- to 34-year-olds (down nearly 8 percentage points) and 35- to 44-year-olds (down 9 percentage points). Some 15.3 million adults in their 20s and 3.1 million in their 30s were still living with their parents last year, helping bring the home ownership rate down to 65.1 percent.

See full story

 

 

Walls Can Now Be Built With Shredded Paper

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esearchers at Nottingham Trent University have developed a new material made from shredded paper which is as strong as MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard).

The academics have established a new, rigid composite material which is paper-based but also fire and water resistant and strong enough to build walls.

It is made from a mixture of long strands of shredded office paper and a sodium silicate gluing agent, which protects against flame and moisture.

To make it, the two materials are mixed at a ratio of 80% paper and 20% sodium silicate and then compressed at high pressures at 90°c.

Malaysian Tycoon, Anthony Fernandes, Builds Hotel In Kenya

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alaysian multimillionaire, Anthony Fernandes, is moving into the hospitality business in Kenya.

 

According to a news report by Kenya’s Business Daily, Tune Hotels, a low-budget hotel chain owned by Fernandes’ Tune Group, will launch its first African outlet in Nairobi next year.

Construction on Tune Hotel in Nairobi began in October last year and the building is already four floors high. Tune Hotels Nairobi will be a 12-storey, 280-room facility that will operate on the ‘no frills’ model, whereby customers pay only for the amenities they use and are given a discount for booking early. The hotel will be situated in Westlands, an affluent suburb in Nairobi, and will charge customers an average of $100 a night.  The hotel chain which Fernandes started in 2007 already has about 45 outlets in Britain, Australia and India, among other countries.

Cement Scarcity Looms, As Dangote Dealers Kick Against Extortion

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here is an imminent shortage of cement in the country, particularly in the South West geo-political zone.

This is because protesting cement dealers under the auspices of Cement Transporters and Dealers Association of Nigeria (CTDAN) have since Wednesday last week stopped loading cement from the Ibeshe factory of Dangote Cement.

They are protesting multiple taxation and levies from ministries, department, agencies, local council areas and communities in Ogun State.

Speaking exclusively to Daily Independent, National President of CTDAN, Olufemi Ola, said his members embarked on the strike because of breach of agreement on the part of Ogun State Government and its ministries, agencies and parastatals.

Retail Real Estate: Will This E-Commerce Mean A Threat… Or An Opportunity?

 Olusesan Ogunyooye @Olu_Sesan

 

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f I were to be confronted with this question in a vox pop, my most likely answer will be “not anytime soon”. But after distilling a 2013 State of Digital Media Report a senior colleague shared with me; I found, among other intriguing revelations, four things worth your attention.

One, that as at 2011, 62.4bn out of the 200bn currently exchanging hands in Nigeria’s retail sector is controlled by e-commerce. Two, that 91% of the population surveyed liked the idea of online shopping. Three, that 78% of Nigeria’s 56 million internet users are between the ages of 19 and 35. And four, that 61% of online shoppers said they will make a repeat purchase.

What are the implications of these figures and why should Real Estate people care? One, in 2014, when one of the most attractive Real Estate ventures for local and foreign investors is retail; 25% of that stream being controlled by e-commerce presents a course to worry. Two, minus the reservations of most Nigerians online (which I will discuss later), 91% of them will love to shop without going to the mall(s). That will land a huge blow on retail spaces! Three, that the 19-35-year olds, who are those really given to the “shopping-at-the-mall” culture are those controlling the internet space and this population constitute about 40% of Nigeria’s 160 million population. So, the future is here.

Sir Jon Cunliffe: House Prices 'Biggest Risk' To UK Economy

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ank of England deputy governor Sir Jon Cunliffe has told the BBC that the housing market poses the "biggest risk" to the UK economy.

Sir Jon indentified "prices rising faster than people's incomes" as a particular threat. "That leads to... a big increase in the amount of debt in the economy," he added.

Last week, the Bank of England announced measures to try to prevent the housing market overheating.

These included:

Cement Controversy Wanes As Block-Makers Switch To 42.5R Cement

Chuka Uroko

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he raging controversy among cement manufacturers and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) over the application of various cement grades for building and construction may have waned as block makers in the northern part of Nigeria have started complying with the directive by SON on the classification of cement grades and their uses.

Worried by the menace of building collapse in the country, SON had issued a directive that 52.5R cement grade be used for bridges, 42.5R be used for casting of columns, beams, slabs and making blocks, while the low-grade 32.5MPA was restricted to plastering.

At a sensitisation seminar organised by Dangote Cement in Kaduna recently, block-makers in the north said they had complied with the SON directive as most of them now used 42.5R for making blocks.

Hamza Gambo, chairman, Kaduna State Blocks and Concrete Makers Association, said all his members had complied with the SON directive, adding that the directive was in the national interest and that most block-makers in the north now used Dangote 3X cement, which is the only cement with 42.5R grade that meets the SON specification.

Investment, Residency Opportunity Opens In US Through Houston EB5 Project

Chuka Uroko

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ime is now and the opportunity is there for investment and residency in the United States of America for investors interested in investing in a luxury apartment complex in downtown Houston called Block 384 through Houston EB5.

Block 384 is located in Houston Texas, which is one of USA’s most desirable real estate markets. According to Houston EB5, a real estate investment company, investing in this project which holds promise for high return on investment will qualify investors for permanent residency in the USA.

This offer is coming on the heels of the success recorded by Houston EB5’s newest real estate project called Astoria, a $70 million residential tower near the Houston Galleria. The project tapped into a federal programme that targets wealthy foreigners whose investment amounted to $30 million of the total cost of the project and the inherent 100 percent success rate so far on I526 Green Card approvals.

Acho Azuike, managing director, Houston EB5 Regional Centre, notes in a statement that majority of the investors that subscribed to their previous projects were from Mexico and Latin American countries with Nigeria close behind.

Etihad Phase Two Expansion Commences

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anchester City Football Club have given the go-ahead for phase two of the Etihad Stadium expansion.

This will see Laing O’Rourke build a further three rows of seats pitchside and take total capacity to more than 55,000.

To mark the event Laing O’Rourke has released a spectacular fly-through video showing the entire construction process for the south stand phase one expansion.

Manchester City Football Club have given the go-ahead for phase two of the Etihad Stadium expansion.

See video...

Singapore Home Prices Ease For Third Straight Quarter

Sivakumar Sathiamoorthy

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ingapore home prices dipped for a third straight quarter in the April-to-June period, official data showed on Tuesday, as property cooling measures continued to bite.

Singapore Housing

Prices of private residential property dipped 1.1 percent on quarter, according to figures from the Urban Redevelopment Authority. That follows a 1.3 percent drop in the first quarter of the year.

In the core central region, prices fell 1.5 percent after falling 1.1 percent in the previous quarter, marking the fifth consecutive quarter-on-quarter decline.

Singapore property prices have surged over 60 percent since 2009, propelled by rock-bottom global interest rates and quantitative easing in developed economies, even as Singapore's government has enacted a series of cooling measures to prevent a bubble from forming.