TAIPEI: Taiwan officials said on Friday, Oct 15 they planned to resume construction of affordable housing after an 11-year hiatus, another step to offset rising home prices that have kept average income earners out of the market.

KUALA LUMPUR: Bina Puri Holdings Bhd has been appointed at The Haven's joint venture (JV) main contractor with Beijing Construction Engineering Group.

The Haven, which is being developed by Superboom Projects Sdn Bhd, is set to be Perak's most luxurious condominium project.

BEIJING: Chinese property prices were up 0.5% in September from a month earlier, the first month-on-month rise since May, according to an official survey of 70 cities published on Friday, Oct 15.

HONG KONG: Proposals to tackle developers who inflate the size of flats by including green features and common areas were announced by the chief executive.

The government proposes forcing developers to use saleable area — which excludes bay windows, air-conditioning plant rooms and other common facilities — as the only basis for listing the price per square foot.

HONG KONG: New measures outlined in the chief executive's policy blueprint will not satisfy people's demand for government help in becoming homeowners and will have no immediate impact on rising property prices, academics and market watchers say.

HONG KONG: It was billed as a blueprint to tackle an overheating property market and the widening wealth gap, even perhaps to shape Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's political legacy. But his penultimate policy address left observers asking whether it could leave a series of problems for his  successor.

HONG KONG: More than one in three new luxury flats in Hong Kong were bought by China buyers in the first half of this year — a rise of more than 50% compared to the second half of last year. And the trend is set to continue.

KUALA LUMPUR: DTZ Research has estimated that US$281 billion (RM867 billion) of capital will be available to invest in global real estate in 2011, a 22% increase from the previous estimate in December 2009.

KUALA LUMPUR: Investors can expect good growth coupled with decent dividends in the next few years from Glomac Bhd, according to its group managing director and CEO Datuk FD Iskandar Mohd Mansor. This is a rare proposition among local listed property developers.

KUALA LUMPUR: Pakatan Rakyat members of parliament (MPs) yesterday urged the Ministry of Finance to withdraw from Parliament the proposed amendments to the Valuers, Appraisers and Estate Agents Act 1981 (VAEA Act) which had already raised the ire of property industry players.