International Property Journal - News and information on global property markets

The next year will develop as the “era of less, the Twilight Zone” for commercial real estate in the United States, Urban Land Institute senior fellow Stephen Blank told a group in Philadelphia this week.

Blank was presenting the results of the institute’s latest Emerging Trends study, which surveyed 875 industry professionals. The research found industry professionals expecting “high single digit returns for core properties.” But with lenders stepping up foreclosure activity, valuation on many properties could “reset 30-40 percent below 2007 peaks.”

The National Association of Realtors, one of the founding members of the International Consortium of Real Estate Associations, is resigning from the group, effective Dec. 31.

NAR members had “limited access to global tools through ICREA,” NAR senior vice president Janet Branton wrote this week in a widely-circulated e-mail. Instead of membership, NAR is proposing a “non-dues” sponsorship agreement with ICREA, which will be discussed at NAR’s national meeting later this week in New Orleans.

The amount of global capital targeting commercial real estate is expected to jump in the next year, with the U.S. the biggest recipient, a new report says.

DTZ Research estimates $281 billion will be available for investment in commercial real estate purchases in 2011, a 22 percent increase from its earlier estimates. The U.S. is expected to see a 54 percent increase in activity, while Asia Pacific might see a 29 percent bump, the consultancy’s latest report says. (Europe remains the largest target market.)

While many markets in Florida show signs of stabilizing, Orlando prices continue to drop.

After an 8 percent dip from July to August, Orlando’s median home prices are now under $100,000, a decrease of more than 60 percent from August of 2006. The median price for a condominium was $44,000 in August, according to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.

Ultimate Escapes, one of the largest luxury destination clubs in the world, filed for bankruptcy last week, the latest blow to the struggling residence exchange industry.  

In a court filing, Florida-based Ultimate listed assets of $10 million to $50 million and debts ranging from $100 million to $500 million. Earlier this month chief executive Jim Tousignant told members the travel company was in default of a $90 million loan, Bloomberg reported.

While hardly a blast of optimism, Knight Frank’s just-released forecast for global residential property markets points to an industry returning to some degree of normalcy.

Sixty-one percent of countries surveyed by the property company reported positive value growth from 2009 to 2010, up from 35 percent in the previous 12 months. “Data from the second quarter of 2010 suggests that the recovery is continuing to spread,” Knight Frank says.

Shares in SouFun Holdings Ltd., which runs China’s largest online property site, jumped 73 percent on Friday after the company’s initial public offering in the United States.

In a shaky season for IPOs, the offering was seen as a success, pricing the company at a bit more than 14 times earnings. Two private equity firms, Connecticut-based General Atlantic and London-based Apax Partners, each announced plans to take a 19 percent stake in the company, a key player in China’s fast-growing online property business.

After months of negotiations, the National Association of Realtors and Move Inc. reached a new agreement that will allow changes to Realtor.com, the most-viewed real estate site on the Internet.

Under terms of the new deal, Move, the Nasdaq-listed company operating Realtor.com, will be able to make “innovations” to the site without prior approval from NAR. The new “clarity and alignment” to the 14-year-old agreement will allow Move to “drive faster and more competitive improvements on Realtor.com,” according to a press release.

YoVenice

Rumors are swirling that Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko is ready to buy a block of oceanfront property in Venice, the Los Angeles suburb.

Melnichenko’s distinctive 394-foot yacht was spotted off the coast, fueling speculation. Several web sites picked up on the report, which centers on a block of Ocean Front Walk, home to the city's famed array of fortune tellers, jugglers and speed-crazed rollerbladers.

The Hawaii estate where President Obama and his family enjoyed heavily-secured dips in the Pacific Ocean was sold last week for $6.9 million.

Located in the exclusive Oahu neighborhood of Kailua, the 4,900-square-foot, five-bedroom “plantation style” estate was used for the Obamas winter vacations in 2008 and 2009.

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser identified the buyer as developer Glenn Weinberg, vice president of the Cordish Company, and nephew of famed Hawaii “real estate baron” Harry Weinberg.