The National Association of Estate Agents (NAEA) is calling on the UK government to consider the option of transforming vacant high street retail property into much needed housing in certain areas.

‘With the government still yet to formally respond to Mary Portas' review of the high street, swift action from local authorities and forward-thinking developers is crucial to revive the UK's town and city centres,’ said Peter Bolton King, chief executive of the NAEA.

‘Commercial property owners are facing high business rates for buildings that no one occupies. Therefore, in the right circumstances, converting these buildings for residential use could have...

The Mayor of London intends to implement his London Wide Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) from the beginning of April 2012 which means that any development that receives planning permission after the first of the month is liable for the charge.

The charge is intended to raise £300 million towards the delivery costs of Crossrail. It will be applied to all new commercial development of 100 square meters or more or which includes the creation of one or more dwellings, even where these are less than 100 square meters, anywhere in Greater London.

The amount will vary according to which borough the development falls in. In general terms, the central and south west bo...

Property prices in more than two thirds of China’s major cities dropped further in January from the previous month, the latest figures show.

Of the 70 major cities monitored by the government, 48 saw prices fall month on month, the data from the National Bureau of Statistics show. This is slightly fewer than the 52 cities which saw prices drop in December. Twenty two other cities were seen as stable, compared with 16 in December.

It means that year on year, 15 cities saw a price fall in January, compared to nine in December.

Wenzhou, a highly speculative market that was recently hit by a private financing crisis, recorded the largest monthly drop among all cities ...

Almost 70% of landlords were more confident about the UK buy to let market in January than they were at the end of 2011, according to new research.

They highlighted rising tenant demand, high rents and reduced housing stock as the main reasons for boosting their assurance in the sector, the research from online lettings agency Upad shows.

‘More and more people are choosing to rent as they struggle to get on the property ladder and with and estimated double digit increase in the number of people who will choose to become professional tenants this year, landlord confidence in 2012 is on the up,’ said James Davis, chief executive officer of Upad.

The rese...

It may not be the first question a prospective buyer considers, but research suggests that property near award winning Michelin starred restaurants command a higher price.

On average areas with a Michelin starred restaurant have house prices some 42% more than the surrounding region’s average, and a third of these have asking prices that are typically 50% above the regional average.

The new research from PrimeLocation shows that the highest is Ascot in Berkshire, home to Coworth Park, where house prices are 146% higher than the regional average.

The effect is not limited to towns in the south of England. Pately Bridge in North Yorkshire has the greate...

Rents may have risen in the private rented property sector in the UK over the last year, but professional landlords are feeling the pinch, it is claimed.

The latest findings from the BDRC Continental quarterly Landlords Panel research reveals the biggest rise in the number of portfolio landlords making a loss since the Landlords Panel began in 2006.

The research shows that in the fourth quarter of 2011, the number of portfolio landlords, that is those with 20 or more properties, who reported making a loss rose from just 1% in the third quarter of 2011, to 8% in the last quarter of the year.

At the same time, while portfolio landlords reaped the highest rental yields at...

Residential property sales in the United States edged upwards for the seventh month in a row in January, according to the latest RE/MAX national housing report.

It shows that real estate sales are now 3.4% above levels seen a year earlier in the 53 metropolitan areas covered by the survey.

In January, the median price of homes sold in the 53 metros was $129,306, only 0.8% lower than a year earlier and a 3.4% drop from December.

Perhaps due to falling foreclosure numbers, for the 19th consecutive month, inventory levels dropped in January. The average inventory of homes for sale dropped 24.1% from a year earlier and 4.2% from December.

‘If sales continu...

Restricted supply and strong demand has meant office rents have risen sharply in some parts of London, particularly Covent Garden and Soho, according to the fourth quarter report from property consultants EA Shaw.

The report says that a buoyant end to 2011 took take up over the year to four million square feet for the Soho, Covent Garden, Midtown, City Fringes and Southbank markets, making it the best year since 2007.

Take up in 2011 was 500,000 square feet more than in 2010 and 600,000 square feet more than the long term average with Covent Garden emerging as the year’s strongest performer. Take up exceeded long term average levels by 55% at 1.241 million square feet in contrast to WC1 which had the lowest level sin...

Residential property rents in prime central London fell by 0.2% in January and are now 0.6% below their September 2011 peak, according to the latest report from Knight Frank.

However, despite the drop, rents are still around 7% higher than a year ago and Liam Bailey, head of residential research pointed out that rental falls in winter are not uncommon as the employment market is quieter and fewer people are typically looking to move to new positions.

‘However, there are signs that the weakness in the City of London jobs market, where new employment vacancies are currently down 51% year on year according to Morgan McKinley, is beginning to feed through to the rental sector,’ said Bailey.

‘With ...

The first units on Bahrain’s $1.6 billion Dilmunia Health Island project are expected to be ready to handover by the middle of 2014, the developer behind the project has announced.

The first of four infrastructure development phases, which will include the 125 hectare island's highways, bridges, landscaping, power, water, sewerage, drainage and telecommunications supplies has been offered to 30 contractors.

The winning firm will be appointed by the end of the first quarter of 2012 and work is due to start in the second quarter. Construction is expected to take 24 months to complete, enabling subcontractors to begin work in parallel.

‘End users can be handed the keys to their units by the middle ...