Propertyslot.com

Тверская Москва квартиры

2011-07-25T07:17:00.000+01:00

Property in the area of Tverskaya Moscow has risen 3% in the last 4 months, making this one of the fastest places of growth in Europe. Not only that, but in Moscow in general property prices have risen 2.3% on average across Moscow since the beginning of the year. Speculation as to how high the price of property in Moscow will go has been something of great debate among some of the economic minds of today. We at Propertyslot have had our eyes firmly glued to central Europe over the last 18 months that we can conclusively state that Moscows property boom is in full swing and well ahead of those stable rises seen across the UK and western Europe. Tverskaya Moscow

Is Aeroport becoming the destination?

2011-06-17T22:06:00.000+01:00

Aeroport is one of Moscow's most popular areas. It is also fast becoming the place where young professionals are flocking to to rent. This is down to the cheap rental costs and the close proximity to the city centre (13 mins on the Metro). Search for an apartment in Aeroport.

Smolenskaya fever

2011-05-14T14:05:00.000+01:00

Upon a recent trip business trip to Moscow, it was made abundantly clear that Smolenskaya is the place to be seen and heard. The hugely wide roads lined with exotic cars the price of real estate here was most definitely going to be through the roof; Even by comparison to the rest of Moscow, which is now one of the most expensive cities in the world to live.

After enquiring as to the price of some of these apartments and told of the waiting list some of these premises have, a 2 bedroom apartment in this area can easily be sold for anything in the region of $1,000,000 USD.

With prices like these it is sure to keep the rich amongst the rich - which explains why each of these £100,000+ cars parked outside, had its own guard. Bizarre yes, necessary maybe.

The only conclusions we can draw from this is that the price of real estate in the Smolenskaya area of Moscow seems only destine to rise further.

North by North

2011-04-16T16:34:00.000+01:00

In recent months North London and more specifically Alexandra Palace and the Wood Green area have seen a rise in the number of people moving to the area. This has been as a result of lower house prices and a regeneration in the area. Stathi Efstathiou of Property Professionals in Wood green have told us "The recent surge in property demand in the area is directly correlated to the lower houses prices in the area as opposed to the surrounding areas and the regeneration in the area, such as road improvment works on the North Circular Road (A406). This will inevitably allow easier and more fluid traffic around the area and allow for people to commute"

This is something that will without doubt cause the house prices to rise in the future, but for now; it seems that North London is proving popular ground for the professional Londoner.

Sunnier times ahead for Limassol

2011-03-25T16:46:00.000Z

With the current economic climate as it is around Europe it's hard to believe that any tourist destination could be surviving let alone thriving. "Air fairs have gone up almost 15%" says Diane Forgacz head of internet based travel company medresorts.net "With tough times ahead for countries relying on the tourism industry expect a slump in travel, with higher air fairs as airlines struggle to cope with rising fuel prices and less demand"

With outlooks like that it seems almost dier that Cyprus could be experiencing a pick up in property developments which of course are directly linked to the housing market picking back up. This has been seen as a result of land and property being so cheap that foreign investors are snapping up the prime real estate and looking to hold on to it until the prices start to rise.

Good news for buyers in a sense, prices are low and with 11 months of sunshine a year it seems a case of "why not!"

Negative equity mortgages offered by Lloyds

2011-02-20T18:14:00.000Z

The Lloyds Banking Group has become the single latest lender of finance to offer negative equity mortgage loans to help existing borrowers stuck in negative equity homes

The deal is targeted at homeowners who need to move house but are unable to do so because of low or negative equity. Negative equity mortgages allow people to move house even if they owe more than their current home is worth.

Lloyds’ scheme allows existing customers who are in negative equity of up to 120% loan-to-value to move to a property of the same value, buy a bigger home or downsize.

However, it does not permit any additional borrowing to be taken out. Borrowers looking to purchase a more expensive property will have to use their own funds.

A similar scheme was set up in 2009 by Nationwide building society. Schemes like these are increasing in popularity, with more and more people finding themselves in negative equity homes. Many banks and building societies already offer negative equity loans to existing customers, but only on a case-by-case basis and they are often reluctant to publicise the deals.

Lloyds’ scheme allows its existing customers who have a portable mortgage to keep their current rate, making this an extremely attractive offer for those currently on a low rate. However, customers on the bank’s cheap standard variable rate of 2.5% which is not portable, will have to switch to one of the bank’s current mortgage deals at a higher cost; this includes a two-year fixed-rate mortgage at 4.79% with a £999 fee, or a three-year fixed-rate at 5.69% with no fee.

The deal is currently only available direct from Lloyds.

Facebook to go public in 2011

2011-01-27T00:01:00.000Z

Word in the city is that Facebook are planning to go public in 2011. With the estimated value of FB currently valued at $32b we currently value the 2 year yield at a 130% growth. Based on the current valuation, prices are almost guaranteed to double by 2012 and increase further from there. 3 of the big 5 banks in the UK are currently planning to invest on opening day and hold for 13 months. This stock WILL be the hottest stock of 2011 IF they go public this year, rumors are estimated for end of Q2 to beginning of Q4.

Top 10 Hot stocks 2011

2011-01-26T23:50:00.000Z

1. China Tel Group Inc. (CHTL.OB)
2. CrowdGather, Inc. (CRWG.OB)
3. Lithium Corporation (LTUM.OB)
4. Pepper Rock Resources Corp. (PEPR.OB)
5. JayHawk Energy, Inc. (JYHW.OB)
6. Bonanza Oil & Gas, Inc. (BGOI.OB)
7. International Stem Cell Corporation (ISCO.OB)
8. BLOGGERWAVE INC (BLGW.OB)
9. Drinks Americas Holdings, Ltd. (DKAM.OB)
10. Quasar Aerospace Industries, Inc. (QASP.PK)

Biggest U.S homebuilders gain market share

2011-01-19T15:47:00.000Z

The biggest U.S. homebuilders are poised to benefit from a fledgling rebound in demand for new houses this year. With most going out of business during the recession, steep rises are forecast for the near future.

D.R. Horton Inc., Toll Brothers Inc. and Lennar Corp are among companies planning to boost their community counts by at least 10 percent this year after writing down property values, buying land at discounted prices and obtaining financing unavailable to smaller builders.

“It’s a definite bull tenet for the big builders,” said Ivy Zelman, chief executive officer of Cleveland-based advisory firm Zelman & Associates, who rated all homebuilders “sell” in December 2006 and now has “buy” on five of the 13 she covers. “That’s one of the reasons we’re recommending investors be long a handful of homebuilding stocks.”

The National Association of Home Builders expects new single-family home sales to rise to 405,000 this year, while Moody’s Analytics Inc. projects an increase to 540,000. The annual pace of sales averaged 319,640 for the 11 months through November, down 15 percent from a year earlier, according to Commerce Department data.

Demand for new homes has tumbled as lenders seize almost 100,000 houses a month through foreclosures, consumer confidence remains weak and U.S. unemployment lingers above 9 percent. Sales of new single-family properties totaled 375,000 units in 2009, the previous low in Census records dating to 1963. In 2005, builders sold a record 1.28 million single-family homes.

Redesign

2010-10-28T21:59:00.000+01:00

Propertyslot is undergoing a redesign as of September 2010 and will be up and running live as of enf of November 2010.

‘Fatal flaw’ in new rule

2010-10-01T03:29:00.000+01:00

New rules for all mortgage lending are “fatally flawed” and will cause banks and building societies to lend even less than they do now, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) has warned.

The trade body said the proposed legislation for the mortgage market by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) would lead to a fall in the number of mortgages approved and create a swathe of “mortgage prisoners” – borrowers who become unable to remortgage or move home.

“We do not want to sleepwalk into a housing finance market which is sustainable but meets almost nobody’s aspirations because it In a speech this week, Michael Coogan, director general of the CML, urged the FSA to re-evaluate its proposals.

is so risk-averse,” said Coogan.

He also said that lenders might not lend more even as the economy improves.

“Net lending is less
than £10bn compared
to over £100bn in 2007. The risk of negative net lending is real as we
enter 2011 because of funding issues, but if the unspoken aim is to shrink mortgage debt, then this could become the norm,” he said.

Coogan added that even the FSA’s own impact assessment of its mortgage market review showed that the rules, if implemented, would cause house price falls.

The CML’s warning comes as the regulator reiterated a suggestion by the Bank of England last month that it could introduce a cap on mortgage lending as part of a range of new measures to stop risky lending.

Adair Turner, chairman of the FSA, said in a speech this week that maximum loan-to-value ratios could be used to slow down “excessive credit growth”.

Skipton restricts interest-only lending

2010-10-01T03:26:00.000+01:00

Skipton Building Society will no longer offer borrowers the option of interest-only repayments if they are borrowing more than £500,000, as part of the latest clampdown on interest-only lending.

The lender will also no longer offer the product to first-time buyers and is reducing the maximum loan-to-value to 75 per cent, with effect from Friday. Any amount above 75 per cent loan-to-value will have to be taken on a capital and interest repayment basis.

Tracy Fletcher of Skipton Building Society said the decision to restrict lending was in response to a probe by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) on interest-only mortgages. In July, the regulator said it would look at tightening regulation on interest-only mortgages amid concerns that they are being used by borrowers who have no repayment method in place. A consultation with the industry will take place later this year.The move makes the building society the latest group to restrict its policy on interest-only lending following similar moves by Lloyds Banking Group and Northern Rock in May.

But mortgage brokers are concerned that high-street lenders are refusing interest-only loans to even wealthy borrowers who are eligible for such products.

In August, Coventry Building Society said it would not offer the product to first-time buyers or borrowers requesting more than £500,000. In May, Lloyds Banking Group also said it would not offer the deals on loans of more than £500,000.

“We think the vast majority of our existing borrowers who already have interest-only loans would still qualify under our new criteria - this is more of a tweak to make sure that we don’t end up outside of market trends,” said Fletcher.

“We believe it’s important for first-time buyers to get used to capital and interest repayments when they are embarking on a mortgage for the first time.”

Paragon resumes buy-to-let lending

2010-10-01T03:25:00.001+01:00

Paragon, the buy-to-let mortgage provider, has resumed lending to customers on Tuesday after withdrawing from the market in 2008.

The lender has launched a new range of buy-to-let products that target professional landlords, an area of the market currently underserved by buy-to-let lenders.

Mortgage brokers welcomed the return of the specialist buy-to-let lender. “Paragon’s return has long been rumoured but now it’s a reality,” said David Hollingworth of London & Country, the mortgage brokers.Paragon said it will commence lending with immediate effect through a panel of brokers after securing fresh funds from Macquarie Bank. The buy-to-let lender was forced to stop lending at the height of the financial crisis following the collapse of the wholesale markets.

Paragon’s return will especially provide a boost to professional property investors. It will provide criteria that is not widely available elsewhere in the market, such as limited companies, multi-unit blocks and Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs).

“We are particularly please to see the focus on facilities for more complex buy-to-let scenarios,” said David Whittaker of Mortgage for Business, one of the brokers that will have access to Paragon’s new products.

The buy-to-let mortgage market has been hit hard by the credit crunch. The number of lenders in the market as well as the choice of products have been significantly reduced. The majority of buy-to-let business is now written by BM Solutions, the specialist buy-to-let brand of Lloyds Banking Group, and The Mortgage Works, part of Nationwide Building Society.

Last week, Lloyds restricted the maximum number of buy-to-let loans per landlord to just three properties, up to a maximum of £2m worth of lending - limiting its exposure further to the buy-to-let market.

Borrowers were previously able to take out up to nine mortgages with a total value of up to £3m across all of the group’s brands, a change only introduced last year.

Whittaker said the majority of lenders currently in the market have preferred to stick with “vanilla” buy-to-let products for novice and small-scale landlords.

Nigel Terrington, chief executive of Paragon, said it had remained “steadfast” in its commitment to return the business to new lending when conditions permitted.

“Competition is vital for a healthy and vibrant buy-to-let market and we aim to provide that competition,” he said.

Paragon’s new range will include fixed-rates starting from 5.3 per cent and tracker rates starting from 4.3 per cent. It will lend a maximum of 75 per cent loan-to-value.

U.S. 30-Year Mortgage Rate Declines to Record 4.32%

2010-10-01T03:24:00.002+01:00

Mortgage rates for fixed 30-year U.S. loans dropped for the first time in four weeks, matching a record low, as housing demand remains depressed.

Rates for 30-year mortgages fell to 4.32 percent in the week ended today from 4.37 percent, Freddie Mac said in a statement. The average 15-year rate was 3.75 percent, according to the McLean, Virginia-based mortgage finance company.

This week’s 30-year rate matched the record reached four weeks ago that was the lowest in Freddie Mac data dating to 1971. Low borrowing costs have done little to bring homebuyers back to the market as unemployment hovers near 10 percent.

“There’s a problem with confidence because the unemployment rate remains very high,” saidDonald Rissmiller, chief economist at Strategas Research Partners in New York. “We have a housing market struggling to stay flat at very depressed levels.”

Home prices in 20 U.S. cities rose at a slower pace in July from a year earlier as the end of a federal tax credit hurt sales, the S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values showed this week. A high number of foreclosures also is reducing demand for homes. Banks seized a record 95,364 homes from delinquent borrowers in August, according to RealtyTrac Inc.

The Mortgage Bankers Association’s loan application index fell 0.8 percent in the week ended Sept. 24 to the lowest level in almost two months. Purchase applications increased 2.4 percent, while refinancing declined 1.6 percent, the Washington- based group said yesterday.

Floods Delay U.S., China-Built Dam in Power-Starved Pakistan's Northwest

2010-10-01T03:23:00.003+01:00

Pakistan’s Gomal Zam dam, needed by the government to ease power and water shortages, will be completed six months late because of delayed funding and damage from recent floods, its project manager said.

The barrage, being built by China’s state-owned Sinohydro Corp., “will begin operating in April 2011” instead of this month, said Colonel Muhammad Zaheer, who oversees the work for the army’s Frontier Works Organization. “The construction is 92 percent complete,” Zaheer said in an interview Sept. 28 at the dam site.

The dam, in the impoverished district of South Waziristan, is a key part of Pakistan’s economic development plan to undercut the Taliban guerrilla movement. Militants had their main base in the district until the army seized it last year, and 1,500 troops protect the construction site, Zaheer said.

The first of two planned turbines will add 17.4 megawatts of electricity to the national power grid, against Pakistan’s supply shortfalls this year of 5,000 megawatts or more.

Canals built by Istanbul-based Tekser Construction will irrigate 66,000 hectares (163,000 acres) of farmland in South Waziristan and adjoining districts, Zaheer said.

Work on the dam began from 2002 until 2004, when it halted after Taliban fighters kidnapped two Chinese engineers, one of whom was killed in a Pakistani army rescue operation. The original Chinese contractors withdrew from the project, and the army’s construction branch resumed work in 2007, subcontracting to Sinohydro and Tekser.

Worst Floods

This year’s monsoon floods, Pakistan’s worst ever, submerged the site’s rock-crushing plant and caused mudslides that buried access roads, causing $800 million rupees ($9.3 million) in damage, Zaheer said. He declined to provide details on the delays in construction funding.

The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad said by e-mail in July that President Barack Obama’s administration would step in to pay $108 million of the $136 million projected cost for the dam and irrigation project. The aid is part of U.S. efforts to improve power supplies and agriculture as a way of stabilizing a country it sees as crucial to its fight against Islamic militant groups in South and Central Asia.

Sinohydro, which helped build China’s Three Gorges Dam, is also working on the Khan Khawar Dam in Shangla, a northwestern valley that has suffered attacks by the Taliban.

General news about Pakistan: {NI PAKISTAN BN} News about Taliban: {NSE TALIBAN BN}

Fannie Wins Dismissal of Some Securities Fraud Claims in Shareholder Suit

2010-10-01T03:23:00.000+01:00

Government-controlled mortgage financier Fannie Mae won dismissal of some claims in a securities fraud suit that accused the company of recklessly disregarding the deterioration in the U.S. housing market, causing its stock price to crash.

U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty in New York today granted Fannie Mae’s request to dismiss claims that it misrepresented its exposure to subprime and Alt-A mortgages, two types of home loans that contributed to more than $1.8 trillion in worldwide financial losses and asset writedowns. Shareholders are allowed to proceed with allegations that Fannie Mae misled them about its internal controls and risk management practices.

“E-mails suggest that Fannie was conscious of its internal inability to manage the risks associated with subprime loans,” the judge said.

Shareholders sued Fannie Mae and its former executives in 2008 after the U.S. government took control of the company. The shares plunged to 27 cents today compared with a high of $69.49 in June of 2007.

The plaintiffs, including common and preferred stock investors who bought shares between Nov. 8, 2006, and Sept. 5, 2008, claim the company and its executives continued to invest in risky mortgages without regard for the housing market’s growing volatility.

Lied About Risk

The complaint also says Fannie Mae lied about its market exposure and its ability to handle the risk.

Prices of existing U.S. homes fell 11 percent during the period the plaintiffs bought shares in Fannie Mae, which owns or guarantees U.S. residential mortgages. Declines were driven in part by rising foreclosures on subprime loans to borrowers with weak or spotty credit histories.

Defaults also climbed on so-called Alt-A mortgages, which carry higher interest rates and required little documentation of the homeowner’s finances.

Janis Smith, a spokeswoman for Fannie Mae in Washington, declined to comment on the ruling. Donald Hall and Glen DeValerio, lawyers for the investors in the case, didn’t immediately return calls to their offices.

The case is In re Fannie Mae 2008 Securities Litigation, 08-7831, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York.

Bayrock's Arif Detained in Turkey as Prostitute Probe Sparks Raid on Yacht

2010-10-01T03:22:00.000+01:00

New York-based property developer Tevfik Arif is being questioned by Turkish police as a suspected organizer of an international ring of high-price prostitutes, after he was arrested this week in a raid on a luxury yacht, a Turkish official said.

Arif, who is of Kazakh origin, is being held at police headquarters in Belek, near the Mediterranean resort of Antalya, and questioned in relation to the prostitution scandal, said Mahmut Deniz, head of press and public relations at the Antalya governor’s office. He said there’s been no decision on whether to press charges.

Arif is the victim of a “smear campaign” and will “vigorously defend himself in any court of law,” his lawyer Engin Agyuzlu said in an e-mail today.

Arif was cited as the chairman of New York-based property group Bayrock Group LLC in a September 2007 press release by real-estate mogul Donald Trump’s Trump Organization to publicize the group’s SoHo Hotel Condominium in New York, in which Bayrock was a partner along with Trump and the Sapir Organization. Bayrock’s website lists that project and the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Fort Lauderdale, Florida among its projects. Bayrock’s executive vice president, Julius Schwarz, didn’t immediately return a voicemail message seeking comment.

Agyuzlu, of Istanbul-based law firm Gur, said the arrest didn’t follow due process and involved “illegal activities such as phone-tapping.” Amy Doshi, an associate attorney at New York-based law firm Akerman Senterfitt, said in a telephone interview that her firm has represented Bayrock and that she wasn’t able to discuss the allegations against Arif.

Below Legal Age

Deniz said Arif and nine other people are being held in connection with running the prostitution ring. He said 10 Russian and Ukrainian women suspected of prostitution were also detained in the operation, and one was later released. Two of those women were younger than the minimum age of 18 for legal sexual consent in Turkey, he said.

Richard Rubenstein of Rubenstein Public Relations, a spokesman for Bayrock, couldn’t provide immediate information on the issue, and Rhona Graff, a spokeswoman for Trump, declined to comment. Alex Sapir, president of the Sapir organization, the third member of the Trump SoHo Partnership alongside Trump and Bayrock, couldn’t immediately be contacted.

Fettah Tamince, main owner of Turkish hotel chain Rixos and builder Sembol Insaat, said in a written statement that Arif doesn’t have a stake in either venture. Istanbul-based Hurriyet newspaper yesterday referred to Arif as Sembol’s majority owner. Tamince said he had built a hotel in Antalya with Arif in 1999 and later transferred full ownership to his partner. He said they have no other joint ventures.

$10,000 Per Night

Russian, Kyrgyz and Kazakh businessmen and high-level government officials were also among those detained in the raid on the Savarona, a 136-meter (446-foot) yacht used by Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk before he died in 1938, Hurriyet said, citing unidentified local prosecutors.

The businessmen were taken into custody aboard the Savarona by Turkish military police at the end of a seven-month investigation into an international prostitution ring, Hurriyet said. They paid $3,000 to $10,000 per night to sleep with Russian and Ukrainian women obtained through modeling agencies, the newspaper said.

Turkish prosecutors aren’t accusing Bayrock of any wrongdoing, according to Hurriyet. The prosecutor’s office in Antalya, cited by the newspaper as having interviewed detainees in the case, declined to give details of the investigation when contacted by phone.

Brooklyn Waterfront

Arif, a graduate of the Moscow Institute of Trade and Economics, worked for 17 years at the Soviet Ministry of Commerce and Trade, where he served as deputy head of the hotel management department, according to a profile published in Real Estate Weekly in September 2007. After moving to the U.S., his first property deal was buying and redeveloping a 280,000 square-foot waterfront shopping center in Brooklyn, and he has investments in Miami, Switzerland and France, it said. Hurriyet said he’s a Turkish citizen.

The Savarona, built by German shipyard Blohm & Voss AG, is the longest yacht in the world available for charter, according to Power and Motoryacht magazine. In 1989, Turkish businessman Kahraman Sadikoglu paid $60 million to the Finance Ministry for the rights to operate the Savarona for 49 years, Turkey’s Haberturk newspaper reported. He typically charges $30,000- $40,000 a day for its use to help cover yearly upkeep costs of some $3 million, Haberturk said.

Yusuf Hakki Dogan, chief prosecutor of Antalya’s organized crime division, said the group he’s investigating has also used luxury hotels in Belek for its prostitution ring, Hurriyet said.

Hotel Developer Cohen Denies Hiding Flatotel Proceeds, Assets from IRS

2010-10-01T03:21:00.002+01:00

Hotel developer Mauricio Cohen Assor took the witness stand today at his criminal trial to deny he cheated the Internal Revenue Service.

Cohen, 77, and his son, Leon Cohen Levy, 46, are on trial in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on charges of conspiring to defraud the IRS and filing false tax returns that hid income and more than $150 million in assets. Cohen built hotels in Europe under the “Flatotel” brand, as well as one in New York, which was sold in 2000.

Prosecutors accused Cohen and his son of failing to declare $33 million in proceeds from that sale, and of using offshore corporations to hide their assets from the IRS. Cohen told jurors that he was the manager, not the owner, of the companies, including the one that owned Flatotel, and so he didn’t owe taxes.

“Just like if you see Mr. Hilton walking into a hotel, everybody thinks he is the owner, but it is a franchise and many people are owners,” Cohen said. “Just like the employees of Flatotel saw me walking around supervising and they would think I was the owner. I used to smile when my friends would say I was the owner because I was not the owner.”

Prosecutors said Cohen and his son put $33 million in proceeds from the New York Flatotel sale in a Swiss account of HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s largest bank by market value, and failed to tell the IRS.

Homes, Yacht, Cars

They also are accused of hiding ownership of two Miami Beach homes once valued at $26 million and $20 million, while failing to declare $45 million in investments, commercial properties worth $55 million, a yacht, and cars including a Rolls-Royce Phantom, a Porsche Carrera GT and a Ferrari Testarossa.

Cohen spoke in French, testifying through an interpreter. He was born in Algiers, spent most of his life in France, and retired to Monaco, his attorney Michael Pasano had told jurors.

Cohen testified that he started out making $10,000 a year, and the most he made in salary was $45,000. He said he named a yacht after his wife even though it was owned by a corporation he started with a partner to sell timeshares in yachts.

“I put my wife’s name on the boats because I love my wife very much,” he said. “The client could change the name” once they bought the boat, he said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Neiman questioned Cohen about his claim that he didn’t own anything even though he was successful in all of his ventures.

‘Died in Misery’

“Sir, there are painters who have died in misery and yet they have been very successful in their lives,” Cohen said. “I was never owner of anything.”

Cohen said he was merely the franchisee of the Flatotel brand.

“I was the face of the company,” he said.

“It’s not because I don’t like being the owner that I’m not the owner,” he testified. “I’m not the owner because I’m not the owner.”

He defended his testimony that he never made more than $45,000 a year.

“I don’t need large sums of money,” he said.

Neiman asked: “Your testimony is that you don’t own the house you live in and designed, the boat named after your wife or the car with the vanity plate?”

“Indeed,” responded Cohen, who finished his testimony today. responded.

Leon Cohen Levy will testify when the trial resumes Oct. 4, Pasano said.

The case is USA v. Assor, 10-cr-60159, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida (Fort Lauderdale).

2010-10-01T03:20:00.005+01:00

Standard & Poor’s, the credit- rating firm criticized for certain AAA rankings it assigned to U.S. mortgage bonds, said it downgraded 224 classes of the securities after discovering a “system error.”

The company reviewed ratings on bonds created through 50 securitizations that bundled residential mortgages from 1994 through 2007, New York-based S&P said today in a statement. S&P examined 470 securities in making the cuts, and boosted ratings on 17 bonds.

The changes stem from “the correction of a system error that had caused the loan group mapping for these transactions to be incorrectly displayed in our surveillance systems,” Jessica Barbara and Terry G. Osterweil, analysts at S&P, said in the statement.

S&P and credit ratings company Moody’s Investors Service, which both reported record profits from 2004 through 2008, “failed to assign sufficient resources to adequately rate new products and test the accuracy of existing ratings,” according to the U.S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The committee is among the congressional panels that held hearings on the global financial crisis that sparked more than $1.8 trillion in losses and asset writedowns worldwide.

Ed Sweeney, a spokesman for New York-based McGraw-Hill Cos.’s S&P unit, declined to immediately comment beyond today’s announcement.

Ratings Changes

S&P said in March it had lowered its ratings at least once on $2.3 trillion of $3.3 trillion of U.S. residential securities issued from 2005 through 2007. Lawmakers and investors including public pension funds have accused S&P and Moody’s of helping fuel the financial crisis by giving top rankings to mortgage bonds based on the firms’ business interests, rather than the creditworthiness of the debt they reviewed.

In a report last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission criticized Moody’s for a 2007 decision against changing ratings on certain so-called constant proportion debt obligations, even after it discovered a modeling error that rated the securities 1.5 to 3.5 notches higher than they should have been.

While the SEC said a Moody’s committee in Europe improperly valued its reputation above keeping investors informed, the agency decided not to sue because of jurisdictional issues.

2010-10-01T03:20:00.002+01:00

The firing of Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov will create new opportunities for real estate developers in the capital as Luzkhov’s wife, billionaire Yelena Baturina, and other established builders lose influence at city hall.

ZAO Inteco, Baturina’s closely held firm, and companies such as PIK Group may have projects frozen while a new administration takes over, said Dmitry Khalin, head of strategic consulting at real estate agency IntermarkSavills in Moscow. PIK’s London-listed shares have fallen 6 percent since Luzhkov was ousted Sept. 28, their biggest three-day drop in six weeks.

“The faces at the table may change, but I’m not convinced the rules will,” said James Beadle, a U.K.-based consultant for investors in Russia. “Luzhkov has been very good at protecting his own people. Will the person who replaces him be more open or still inclined to protect insiders? That’s an open question.”

Moscow, which has $30 billion in annual housing sales and the second-highest prime office rents in Europe, is recovering from last year’s property crash, with home prices up 18 percentfrom their September 2009 lows. President Dmitry Medvedev fired Luzhkov after state TV accused him of corruption and favoritism toward his wife. Luzhkov, 73, denies the accusations.

PIK has “substantial exposure” to Moscow real estate, including plots of land scheduled for development, and “may be affected by the uncertainty over the future regulation of the market,” said Andrey Kuznetsov, a strategist at Troika Dialog in Moscow.

Dmitry Ivliev, a spokesman for Moscow-based PIK, declined to comment.

Federal Ties

Companies that may benefit include St. Petersburg-based LSR Group, said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib Capital in Moscow. London-traded Sistema-Hals and Don-Stroi’s residential property unit, both controlled by state-run VTB Group, are also well-placed, according to real estate analysts.

“You have to look at which companies are close to the federal government; they will get the privileges,” said Sergei Zharkov, an analyst from Moscow-based property research group, IRN. A new mayor “will have a big effect, especially on the use of influence and the opportunities this grants market players.”

LSR, controlled by Andrey Molchanov, son of St. Petersburg Vice-Governor Yuri Molchanov, a former colleague of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s at Leningrad State University, has risen 13 percent to $8.50 since Sept. 28 in London. Sistema-Hals gained 1.2 percent to 819 rubles yesterday in Moscow trading.

Yulia Sokolova, a spokeswoman for LSR, said the Russian capital, which today accounts for 3.5 percent of LSR’s property holdings, is a focus for the future.

Building Relationships

“With a new mayor comes the prospect of new people in senior positions,” Weafer said. “That offers newcomers, such as LSR Group, a better opportunity to get approvals, etc., and form relationships that can help smooth their business growth.”

Baturina earned more than $1 billion last year, according Luzhkov’s 2009 financial disclosure filed in May. She owns property including a 445 square-meter (4,800 square-foot) apartment in Russia and a 321 square-meter house in Austria.

Forbes magazine ranks Baturina, 47, as the world’s third- richest woman, with a fortune of $2.9 billion.

Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister and opposition politician, published a report last year in which he suggested Inteco received favorable treatment in acquiring land from city hall, as well as securing building permits and exemptions from paying for connection to municipal utilities.

Inteco and Baturina sued Nemtsov for defamation. A Moscow appeals court on July 19 rejected complaints related to assertions that Inteco got preferential treatment in real estate development, while ordering Nemtsov to retract other comments. Both sides have appealed.

Permitting Power

Baturina has denied getting special treatment from the city. Luzhkov said Sept. 13 that he had never given a preference to Inteco and that Baturina would be “even richer” if she hadn’t been his wife.

“As long as I don’t break the law, I have the right to do what I do,” Baturina said in a Sept. 20 interview in The New Times, a Moscow-based magazine. “I have no idea what preferential treatment I’m supposedly getting.”

Billionaire Alexander Lebedev, a Luzhkov critic, said the couple’s main asset was the power “to permit or deny permission” for projects in Moscow.

“The end will come for the business activities of the Baturina clan,” Lebedev said Sept. 15.

VEB, Russia’s development bank, isn’t in a position to proceed with a $2.5 billion project to build housing in the regions with Inteco, Chairman Vladimir Dmitriev said Sept. 29, according to state-run news service RIA Novosti.

‘New Opportunities’

Inteco spokesman Gennady Terebkov requested e-mailed questions when asked for comment for this article, then didn’t respond.

Acting Mayor Vladimir Resin, who oversaw city construction projects as Luzhkov’s deputy, declined to comment when asked at a Sept. 29 news conference whether policy would change.

Luzhkov’s administration wasn’t “accommodating” for business in the way he managed the construction market, said Evgeny Nadorshin, head of economic and strategic research at real estate broker Jones Lang LaSalle in Moscow.

His departure may “provide new opportunities, not only for existing companies, but newcomers, although private investors will have to compete with state-connected interests to be the first to grab these opportunities,” Nadorshin said.

Profiteering mortgage lender?

2010-08-24T14:07:00.000+01:00

Yet again mortgage lenders have been accused of profiteering at the expense of borrowers as fixed-rate mortgage margins reach a high of more than 20 years.

The cost of fixed-rate mortgages has been shrinking since Q1 as swap rates - which indicate expectations of future interest rate rises - have fallen.

The margin on an average two-year fixed-rate deal has risen from 1.28% two years ago to 3.29% today.

The increase in margin means that on a £150,000 mortgage, a borrower is repaying £149pm more, equivalent to an additional £3,576 over the two year term.

Margins on three and five-year fixed-rate mortgages have also widened further.

Aug/Sept psStockwatch

2010-08-11T22:55:00.000+01:00

August and September's Bulls

S&P 500

Teco Energy - Electricity $16.34 *****

Public Service Enterprise Group - Electricity, natural gas $32.90 *****

Energen - Natural gas $44.44 *****

América Móvil - Telecommunications $49.61 *****

CPFL Energia - Electricity $69.87 *****

ITC - Electricity $56.74 *****

General Communication - Telecommunications $8.48 *****

AT&T - Telecommunications $25.94 ****

Cleco - Electricity $28.55 ****

UniSource - Energy Electricity $32.28 ****

Northeast Utilities - Electricity, natural gas $27.84 ****

DTE Energy - Electricity, natural gas $46.16 ****

UIL - Electricity $27.25 ****

Constellation Energy - Electricity, natural gas $31.60 ****

NorthWestern Energy - Electricity, natural gas $28.20 ****

NStar - Electricity $37.16 ****

AGL Resources - Natural gas $38.00 ***

FTSE

LLoyds Banking Group - Banking £1.50 ****

Bank of Ireland - Banking £1.50 ****

Royal Bank of Scotland - Banking £17.33 *****

GlaxoSmithKline - Pharmaceuticals £14.26 *****

BT - Telecommunications 207p ****

Absolutely hilarious!!

2010-08-11T21:16:00.000+01:00

Just something to brighten up everyones week..

2010-08-03T14:21:00.000+01:00

Image courtesy of splendorsofeurope.com : Photographer Stephanie Hug

Zurich and Geneva have recently become the world’s most expensive destinations for residential and commercial property and real estate developers. This has been brought on by the recovery in the Swiss building industry which has pushed up material and labour prices.

The soaring construction rates helped the country overtake Denmark as the world’s priciest building market during the past 12 months and made it almost twice as expensive as some of its European neighbours, according to a construction cost comparison report published on Monday by EC Harris.

The high prices were driven in part by strong demand, supported by government spending on rail and road building compared to other European countries, but were also inflated by the costs of transporting heavy materials across the landlocked country.

The cost of building in the UK was some 60% cheaper than in Switzerland. Construction rates in Britain fell 10% amid the worst contraction in demand for new building work since the 70s and is expected to decline further still this year.

The bulk of the major European economies, where demand for new building has remained rather sluggish, were in line with the UK in terms of material and labour prices.

However, Ireland remained one of the most expensive countries in which to build, with costs running about 20% above those in Britain.

BP oil spill estimated real estate damage to be $3b

2010-08-03T02:27:00.000+01:00

The BP oil spill's impact on home values in 15 coastal counties along the Gulf of Mexico could total $3 billion over five years, according toreport released today by business information company CoreLogic.

An additional $28 billion loss in values could also occur in the unlikely event that oil reaches communities around the Florida Keys and up the Atlantic coast, the report said.

The report analyzed the spill's potential effect on home values in one Alabama county (Mobile); one Mississippi county (Harrison); and 13 Florida counties (Bay, Brevard, Broward, Collier, Duval, Escambia, Hillsborough, Lee, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Palm Beach, Pinellas, and Volusia).

Specifically, CoreLogic measured the spill's impact on properties' economic value associated with beach access, which the company refers to as "beach amenity value."

"Using well established economic techniques for the measurement of the economic value of environmental amenities, an estimate of the loss in beach amenity value is substantial," said Mark Fleming, chief economist with CoreLogic, in a statement.

"While it is by no means a certainty that the major coastal communities along both coasts of Florida will be impacted at all by the oil spill, the lost amenity value in these markets could be particularly high.

"The total loss in amenity value in communities already being impacted by the oil spill to date is potentially as high as $3 billion over five years. Our hope is that the oil spill is contained and the loss in amenity value is further moderated by a speedy cleanup and a return of beach amenities to the affected communities' homeowners."

The company examined counties that are at risk of oil coming ashore and the closure of beaches to human recreation for a five-year period. Formerly part of The First American Corp, CoreLogic maintains large databases of information for real estate transactions and mortgages, and offers a range of consumer, financial, and property information to businesses and government.

"Buyers of homes in these coastal communities paid premiums when they purchased their homes for access to the beaches and the amenity benefits that they represent," the report said.

The report is based on public record and parcel data, as well as CoreLogic's geospatial coastline data. In the 15 at-risk counties examined, the company identified more than 600,000 properties within 1,000 meters of the coast that could be affected.

"The approach, used in this analysis, to the valuation of environmental amenities was developed in the late 70s and early 80s and is a well-accepted technique for measuring the value that consumers place on a variety of different environmental and residential amenities," the report said.

To obtain the five-year estimate, the company took their one-year loss estimate, $648 million, and multiplied it by five. The one-year estimate is based on the annuity value of the perpetuity value of access to the beach, measured in distance. The closer to the coast, the greater the impact on value. Beachfront homes could incur a loss of up to $80,000 each, the report said.

Average estimated losses in the three coastal communities most affected by the spill, Harrison, Mobile, and Escambia counties; range from an average of $39,882 to $56,469.

If oil sullies the beaches of Florida's Gulf Coast communities of Panama City, Tampa Bay, Cape Coral, and Naples, the impact could be felt by 238,000 homes, reaching a total loss of $11 billion. Some of these areas have already been hit hard by high numbers of foreclosure properties.

"In addition to the loss estimates of the economic value of beach access, the already fragile housing markets in many of these communities are likely to experience further distress due to the potential impacts of the oil spill on local economies," the report said.

Sales in Panama City and Cape Coral were down 9% and 12% year-over-year, respectively, in June. Tampa saw sales rise 13%.

Kaiser Realty, a brokerage that specializes in vacation rentals in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach, Ala, saw its year-over-year occupancy numbers drop 33% in June and 45% in July. It expects business to drop further in August as the school year starts up again, that company reported.

"Revenues during the 10-12 week window we are finishing now are what sustain the businesses in a small tourism market like ours throughout the year. We have several who have already gone out of business, and anticipate more. Kaiser Realty will survive but this will always be remembered as one of our most trying years in our now 30-year history," said Emily Gonzalez, the brokerage's marketing director.

Some real estate professionals on the ground did not agree with the report's findings, however.

"I believe their estimates are grossly incorrect. First, the cleanup is still in progress and some commercial fishing areas are already opening back up. The effects of the spill appear to be diminishing every day. Less oil is reaching the shoreline. BP is already reducing its fleet of responders," said Sterling Joe Ory, president of the New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors.

Though the report did not cover Louisiana beaches, the impact in other states was less dramatic, he said.

BP has asked that at least the 250 class-action lawsuits filed against it be sent to the energy industry's corporate capital, Houston, according to the Los Angeles Times.