Archive for April, 2011
By admin in
bathroom design
Apr
13
Apr 13, 2011, 12:57 GMT
Three sites are designated for commercial use, while the others will be for residential properties.
The city has been struggling to curb property prices that have risen by about 60 per cent since 2009, as a result of property speculation fuelled by low interest rates and the influx of money from China.
Financial secretary John Tsang outlined a plan in November to introduce a special stamp duty on people who sold properties within two years of buying them to dampen short-term speculative activities.
But he said Wednesday that low interest rates driven property prices up again in the first two months of the year.
‘I am deeply concerned that overall property prices in February have surpassed the peak in 1997,’ said Tang.
‘I shall pay close attention to developments in the property market. I shall not hesitate to introduce further measures to reduce the risk of a property bubble as and when necessary,’ he said.
The International Monetary Fund has warned Hong Kong of a ‘protracted and painful’ downturn from a property bubble.
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Hong Kong – Hong Kong government on Wednesday announced the release of 12 land sites over the next three months, hoping to cool the overheated property market by increasing supply.
Three sites are designated for commercial use, while the others will be for residential properties.
The city has been struggling to curb property prices that have risen by about 60 per cent since 2009, as a result of property speculation fuelled by low interest rates and the influx of money from China.
Financial secretary John Tsang outlined a plan in November to introduce a special stamp duty on people who sold properties within two years of buying them to dampen short-term speculative activities.
But he said Wednesday that low interest rates driven property prices up again in the first two months of the year.
‘I am deeply concerned that overall property prices in February have surpassed the peak in 1997,’ said Tang.
‘I shall pay close attention to developments in the property market. I shall not hesitate to introduce further measures to reduce the risk of a property bubble as and when necessary,’ he said.
The International Monetary Fund has warned Hong Kong of a ‘protracted and painful’ downturn from a property bubble.
By admin in
bathroom design
Apr
10
BY POLLY HUI AND PRUDENCE HO
HONG KONG—Hui Xian Real Estate Investment Trust, the Beijing-focused real-estate investment trust controlled by Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-Shing, plans to raise up to 11.2 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) from its Hong Kong listing, the company said Sunday, in what is set to be the first yuan-denominated initial public offering outside mainland China.
The listing plan of Hui Xian REIT, part of Mr. Li’s flagship Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd., comes less than a month after the Hong Kong tycoon raised US$5.4 billion from a Singapore listing of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust, which owns deep-water ports in Hong Kong and China.
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By admin in
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Apr
7
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Sorry, real estate investor, the Internal Revenue Service is coming to get you, and it won’t be pretty.
The IRS is stepping up property scrutiny as a result of a 2008 Government Accountability Office finding: “At least 53% of individual taxpayers with rental real estate activity for Tax Year 2001 misreported their rental real estate activity, resulting in an estimated $12.4 billion of net misreported income.”
That spurred the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, an independent overseer, to evaluate how the IRS covers individual tax returns with rental real estate activity and to propose changes. These changes amount to a call to war on real estate tax cheats. The IRS is also going to require substantial additional accounting records and costs for all real estate investors.
Gaining From Losses
The Dec. 20 TIGTA report specifically recommended that the IRS boost the number of audits of tax returns showing real estate losses. Based on a study of fiscal 2008-09 data, it projected that increased tax examinations could add up to $27.3 million in tax assessments over five years.
“Taxpayers are likely to see rental-property-related audits rise starting almost immediately on all open tax years,” said Audubon, N.J., CPA Joel Petchon. “As of April 15, 2011, returns filed for 2007 in April 2008 will be insulated by the three-year statute of limitations. All others will be subject to potential audit.”
Real estate investors are normally in higher marginal tax brackets, so such examinations should be more productive than exams of other taxpayers.
“Harvest the crop where the yield is highest,” Petchon said. “The IRS collects a whole lot more when it disallows a loss at 35% than it does at 10%.”
The IRS is already revising Schedule E, the form on which real estate investments are reported, for 2011. Expect to report much more detail on rentals, starting with the type of property rented — such as whether it’s a condo, single-family home, duplex or commercial property. Real estate investors will also have to list the number of days the property was occupied as well as the number of days used for personal purposes.
Under existing rules, if the property was used personally for the greater of 14 days or 10% of the days it was rented to others at a fair market price, real estate deductions will be limited to mortgage interest, real estate taxes and casualty losses. Also allowed are other expenses directly related to the use of the property as a rental, such as advertising and rental agent fees.
By admin in
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Apr
4
By admin in
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Apr
1
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By MarketWatch
Don’t miss these top stories:
As home values fell and unemployment rose, an increasing percentage of homeowners opted to make their credit-card payments before their mortgage payments — a trend that has been occurring for about three years, according to TransUnion, a credit reporting company.
But that may be changing.
A TransUnion study released this week found that the percentage of consumers who remained up to date on their credit cards but were delinquent on their mortgages reached as high as 7.4% in the third quarter, up from 4.3% in the first quarter of 2008. However, the percentage dropped to 7.24% in the fourth quarter, TransUnion reported. Traditionally, consumers make their mortgage payments the priority, so as not to default on their loan and possibly face foreclosure.
“The reversal of the traditional payment hierarchy was driven in large part by home-value depreciation and rising unemployment, both of which speak to consumer willingness and ability to pay their mortgages versus their credit cards,” said Ezra Becker, vice president of research and consulting in TransUnion’s financial services business unit, in a news release. “Home-value concerns and stubbornly high unemployment continue to drive this dynamic, though the decline in the number of consumers delinquent on mortgages and current on credit cards may be a sign that the divergence in the payment hierarchy has peaked.”
Read more in this week’s real-estate pages, including the last on home prices, a Home Economics column on how world events affect mortgage rates, and a Realty QA about one couple’s challenge of tearing down their home and building new on the lot.
As the job market improves and housing values stabilize, the thinking is that more consumers will revert to a traditional order when it comes to their monthly financial obligations: They’ll pay their mortgages before their credit cards. But the return to a “traditional payment hierarchy” will be gradual, said Sean Reardon, the author of the study and a consultant in TransUnion’s analytics and decisioning services business unit, in the release.
“Though we saw the first decline in the number of consumers who are delinquent on their mortgages and current on their credit cards in the most recent quarter, the percentage of people in this position still remains more than 72% higher than it was at the beginning of the Great Recession,” Reardon said.
—Amy Hoak, Real Estate writer
World events affect your mortgage rate
As world events dominated the news in recent weeks, mortgage rates enjoyed a reprieve from a climb that began late last year, keeping the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage down below 5% at the start of what is traditionally the home buying and selling season.
Read more: World events affect your mortgage rate.
Banks offer mortgage-servicing proposal
Five of the nation’s largest banks have sent government officials a proposal that outlines a set of mortgage-servicing standards they would abide by as part of a settlement of abuses in the industry.
Read more: Banks offer mortgage-servicing proposal.
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