KUALA LUMPUR: Retail and office units at the Oasis Ara Damansara project in Ara Damansara, Petaling Jaya are seeing encouraging take-ups with the latest shops and office units in Block C and Block D having sold 60% and 90% respectively, since their launch in late November last year.

BEIJING: Some banks in Beijing have raised mortgage rates on first homes to 85% of the benchmark lending rate from 70%, the official China Securities Journal reported on Jan 25.

The story cited an unnamed banker at a state-owned lender and also said some banks have lifted second-home mortgage rates to the benchmark level.

DUBAI: State-linked Dubai World's property and investment assets exceeded US$120 billion (RM410.4 billion) at the end of 2009 and could cover its debt of US$57 billion, an Arabic-language daily said on Jan 14.

DUBAI: State-owned Dubai Properties, a unit of Dubai Holding, plans to spend up to 4 billion dirhams (RM3.73 billion) annually in the next three years on its future plans, an Arabic-language daily said on Jan 24.

BEIJING: When wealthy Beijingers bought flats in one of the city’s most exclusive apartment complexes, they claim they weren’t told a four-lane highway would be built beneath their windows.

Now hundreds of them are threatening legal action against secretive Hong Kong billionaire Hui Wing-mau, the founder and chairman of the Shimao Group.

PETALING JAYA: Umno Youth on Jan 24 called for immediate action be taken by the relevant authorities, especially the police, the Customs Department and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on the illegal sale of sand to a neighbouring country.

Its chief, Khairy Jamaludin, said based on media reports, the matter involved not only illegal sale, but also smuggling.

KUALA LUMPUR: Scientex Quatari Sdn Bhd, the property division of industrial plastic products manufacturer Scientex Bhd, is planning to launch a high-end property project in Pulai, Johor to take advantage of the increasing demand for housing in the area, said Alex Khaw, the group property division general manager.

Bus station, office towers, hotels and even a shopping mall… These are just a few of the guesses being bandied about on the ultimate use of the prized vacant plot where the Unilever headquarters and factory once sat in Jalan Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur.

Prima Properties Management Sdn Bhd may be an unfamiliar name  in the local building fraternity but this developer has set its sights on becoming a major property player in Malaysia’s information and communications technology (ICT) hub Cyberjaya.

As I stood on the second floor of ONE KL, the latest addition to the high-end condominium market in the Kuala Lumpur city centre, a refreshing breeze made me wonder why we don’t experience this more often in Malaysia, where the heat can be rather unbearable.