WELLINGTON: New Zealand house prices and sales fell in December, offering another sign of a slow economic recovery and reaffirming expectations that rates will be on hold for months to come.

The Real Estate Institute of NZ's (REINZ) house price index fell 0.6% on the previous month, and was 1.6% lower than a year earlier.

LONDON: The European office sector stood out in an environment of broadly flat rents in 4Q 2010, recording the largest yield reduction and highest year-on-year (y-o-y) rate of rental growth of the three main sectors, according to CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) latest Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Rents and Yields Indices.

Funds raising

4QFY10 : Within expectations

Of Bangsar Land and Corporate Exercises

THE BUZZ

On 17 Jan 2011, SP Setia announced the following:

KUALA LUMPUR: UOA Real Estate Investment Trust (UOA-REIT) has appointed Kong Sze Choon as its CEO, according to the company’s filing on Bursa on Jan 17.

JOHOR BAHRU: UDA Holdings Bhd will spend about RM80 million to relocate and redevelop the Kampung Tanjung Tokong squatter settlement in Penang by the end of the year.

Chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said the redevelopment model was the first of its kind among developers where each squatter household would get a house without having to pay for it and the transfer cost.

BEIJING: China's annual property price rise in December marked its slowest pace in a year, but the government may intensify cooling measure to further slow the upward march of home prices.

Property prices grew 6.4% in December from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday, Jan 17, the slowest since November 2009 when it hit 5.7%.

TAIPEI: Taiwan has decided to reimpose a tax on undeveloped land holdings, the finance minister said on Monday, Jan 17, the latest government measure to address rising asset prices on the island.

Finance minister Li Sush-Der did not say how much the tax would be or when it would be implemented. The measure needs final parliamentary approval.

KUALA LUMPUR: Axis REIT Managers Bhd (ARMB), the manager of Axis Real Estate Investment Trust (Axis-REIT), has entered into a sale and purchase agreement for the disposal of Axis North Port LCI, to Freight Management (M) Sdn Bhd for RM14.5 million, according to statement by the company on Monday, Jan 17.