HONG KONG: The territory continued to hold the top spot for occupancy costs, in both the Asia-Pacific region and the world, property consultant Colliers International say.

Gross office rent in Hong Kong, which also ranked top in 2008, was US$161.14 (RM526.27) per sq ft per year last year and an increase was expected this year.

HONG KONG: Lee Wee Liat puts more than his money on the line when it comes to recommending a buy on property. As China property analyst for Japan's biggest brokerage house, Nomura, he has his reputation as a reliable researcher to consider as well as his wallet.

SINGAPORE: Indonesia's investment chief said on Wednesday (March 31) he expected foreigners to be allowed to own apartments in Indonesia by the third quarter of this year, giving the country an additional source of foreign capital inflows.

NEW YORK: US consumer confidence rebounded in March, while home prices rose in January for the eighth straight month according to a closely watched housing index, bolstering hopes for a sustainable economic recovery.

KUALA LUMPUR: Demand for secondary property in the UK is recovering alongside prime properties in early 2010, the Colliers CRE/Real Estate Capital Investor Pricing Survey of the UK market suggested.

SYDNEY: Moody’s Investors Service is maintaining its stable outlook for the Australian real estate investment trust (A-REIT) sector, in view of expectations for a continued gradual recovery in its fundamentals.

KUALA LUMPUR: It was a symbol of Dubai’s rising fortune but the Palm Jumeirah project now seems a bit out of place with the emirate’s current economic problems.

CHARLOTTE (North Carolina): Bank of America Corp has agreed to forgive some bad mortgage loans and the US government is pushing other lenders to follow suit, but on a scale too small to make much of a dent in the nation's huge pile of bad debt.

HONG KONG: Cheung Kong (Holdings), billionaire Li Ka-shing's flagship real estate conglomerate, more than quadrupled its second-half net profit on strong sales as the economy recovered and on higher contributions from associate Hutchison Whampoa.

KUALA LUMPUR: IJM Corp Bhd is bidding for projects worth RM4 billion, giving it a strong possibility of boosting its total order book past the RM4 billion mark from the current RM3.6 billion, said its CEO Datuk Krishnan Tan Boon Seng.

He said at its peak IJM used to have an order book of RM6 billion.