Manhattan’s Q4 vacancy rate highest in two years
The Manhattan office vacancy rate hit a two-year high as financial services companies and law firms dumped space back onto the market, according to a report released on Tuesday by a real estate services firm. The overall vacancy rate rose to 10.9 per cent in the fourth quarter, the highest level in two years and … Read more
Aussie bank to buy A$4b of home loans
Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which last week scaled back a share sale after saying that bad debts were rising, will buy up to A$4 billion (S$3.93 billion) of loans from a General Electric Co unit to extend its lead in the nation’s mortgage market. Sydney-based Commonwealth Bank will get loans that are 100 per cent … Read more
Spain escapes US sub-prime mess but faces its own crisis
Defaults for real estate, construction firms make up half of corporate credit Spain escaped exposure to US sub-prime assets but risks its own property debt crisis in 2009 as defaults soar among real estate and construction firms that hold half of all Spanish corporate credit. Over 1,000 Spanish property and building firms will have filed … Read more
UK commercial property lending falls: study
The total value of new loans secured by UK commercial property buyers shrunk to £24.6 billion (S$52.68 billion) in the first half of 2008 – less than one third of the total loans issued in 2007, research last Wednesday showed. De Montfort University’s Commercial Property Lending Review, broadly seen as a key study of UK … Read more
Architecture book spotlights 1,037 notable buildings
The large-format Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture (Phaidon Press, 800 pages, US$195) spotlights 1,037 notable buildings completed worldwide by superstar architects and regional talents since January 2000. Innovative projects in Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South America and Oceania are shown in 4,600 colour photos, 2,100 line drawings and concise textual summaries. The … Read more
It was fun till the money ran out
The abrupt end to what had promised to be an era of architectural renaissance may not be all bad, says NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF WHO knew a year ago that we were nearing the end of one of the most delirious eras in modern architectural history? What’s more, who would have predicted that this turnaround, brought about … Read more
Celebrated architect taps deep into ecology
Environmental protection, far from being a constraint, should be a source of inspiration, in the view of celebrated Italian architect Renzo Piano. Rooftop garden: The San Francisco Academy of Sciences’ ‘living roof’, which gives off oxygen instead of absorbing heat, is a landscape of rolling green hills ‘Ecology can be a lovely source of inspiration … Read more
