KUALA LUMPUR: The newly completed Empire Shopping Gallery in Subang Jaya has leased out 70% of its lettable units, said managing director of Couture Homes Sdn Bhd Datuk Sean Ng. Couture Homes is a member of the Mammoth Empire Group of Companies.

KAMPAR: A committee headed by Education Director-General Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom will investigate the collapse of a suspension bridge over the Kampar River at a school near here on Oct 26 in which one pupil drowned and two others have gone missing.

PUTRAJAYA: Putrajaya Holdings Sdn Bhd is planning to start construction a commercial project adjacent to Alamanda shopping complex in Precinct 1, Putrajaya sometime next year, said chief executive officer Datuk Azlan Abdul Karim.

Azlan said the company plans to build “a big box retail area” that is designed for retailers of home furnishing and electrical goods.

PETALING JAYA: Sunway City Bhd announced on Oct 27 it has signed an MoU with Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City Investment and Development Co Ltd (SSTEC) to develop a project in Tianjin Eco-City with a gross development value (GDV) of RM2.48 billion.

NEW YORK: Fewer US households are prepared for retirement after the value of their homes and investment portfolios declined in the recession, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co said.

KUALA LUMPUR: Boutique property developer KL Metro Group is gearing up to expand its signature water homes resort to Penang, said Datuk Low Tak Fatt, managing director, KL Metro Development Sdn Bhd during a press conference on Oct 27. Water homes are properties built on a platform or surface over water, in this case, over the sea.

WASHINGTON: The stabilisation in US home prices won’t last, according to economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc in New York.

Their counterparts at BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research see a “treat” rather than a retreat.

KUALA LUMPUR: The latest Economic Pulse report from Cushman & Wakefield shows that inflation is a likely scenario for Asia excluding Japan in the medium- to long-term future.

Hence, the international real estate services firm suggests investing in selected Asian real estate asset markets as a logical strategy under present circumstances.

LONDON: InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is set to open its new 254-room six-storey hotel in Westminster in central London by late 2011. The 120,000 sq ft site for the hotel is presently office and retail space.

SINGAPORE: Policy makers from South Korea to Singapore, confronted with rising real-estate values that threaten to mimic in Asia the US mortgage bubble that roiled the global economy, are stepping up efforts to rein in prices.