It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “The city’s for sale, but who’s laying down millions and buying in? Michael Nierenberg and his wife bought a three-level Greenwich Village penthouse for less than half the seller’s initial ask of nearly $34 million. Next door to the Hovnanian’s former home, another 20-foot wide townhouse sold — but at a loss to the seller.”
“Sales in Bella Collina continue to look desperate, considering it is 19 years on the market with only about 10% real family residents occupancy. Some may call it ‘pathetic’ or ‘grand failure.’ Homeowners in Bella Collina continue to face difficulties selling their homes like in the rest of the country. ‘It seems to me like homeowners are disappointed in Bella Collina, named GHOST TOWN in the media, says Don Juravin, a resident of Bella Collina, in central Florida, located in a remote location about 30-50 min from Orlando.”
“Bostonians face the increasing threats of eviction and foreclosure as winter’s grip grows tighter on New England. Greater Boston isn’t known for being packed with major landlords who can be flexible at the end of each month. Many times, it is the owner of a three-decker who lives in one unit and rents out the rest to pay the mortgage. ‘They are often the people in trouble,’ said Larry DiCara, a Boston-based real estate lawyer. ‘If hypothetically nobody pays rent, then nobody pays the mortgage. Then you really have a problem.’”
“The Helping Hands for Housing Coalition estimates Wisconsin’s rent shortfall could be upwards of $465 million. There is another problem though: most local landlords can’t pay their mortgages if their tenants can’t pay rent. ‘The moratorium is not a solution, it’s just kicking the can down the road,’ said attorney Tristan Pettit. “I have clients that are in a lot of trouble. They’re talking about just turning their property over to the bank because they just don’t know what to do.’”
“Legislation extending the eviction moratorium until June in Oregon also includes an amendment that provides compensation to landlords who are struggling due to tenant non-payment. Wendy Roberts and her husband temporarily moved out of their Jacksonville home to allow renters in order to make some extra money, but when the pandemic hit she found herself with a tenant that either could not or would not make payments.”
“‘We had zero support. I looked and looked – I made calls to everybody I could. I know there are more people like me. We needed help and we got zero support,’ Roberts said. ‘We can’t just magically be paying everything.’”
“There’s no time like the present to sign a lease in San Francisco. As many as 89,000 people may have left the city since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and vacancies have more than doubled since last year. ‘There’s a huge amount of vacancies being unloaded on the market, and people aren’t moving here,’ says Jackie Tom, who owns a leasing agency that focuses on filling vacancies for landlords. Locking in a tenant now also means throwing in generous moving bonuses and concessions like months of free rent — or in Tom’s experience as a property manager herself, lots of free furniture.”
“When a prospective tenant complained about the lack of storage space in Tom’s four-bedroom Victorian property, she offered to buy complimentary IKEA closets (of the tenant’s choice!) for all the bedrooms and a shelving unit for the back porch. ‘And then I threw in a barbeque grill to seal the deal,’ she laughs.”
“Realosophy shows the average cost of renting a home in Central Toronto dropped to $2,132 in December. This is compared with a slightly higher $2,152 for Toronto as a whole and $2,227 for the GTA. This put Central Toronto rents down more than 18 per cent from the same time in 2019 — a more substantial drop than the GTA, where rents fell 9.75 per cent year-over-year. It’s definitely something new for the region, in which prices have always been higher in the downtown core, as they tend to be around any major city. As Realosophy President John Pasalis said, he ‘never thought [he] would see this.’”
“Despite the decline, Amsterdam still tops the list of rental prices. Rents have also dropped in The Hague, Rotterdam, Utrecht and Eindhoven, Pararius said. The decline has been boosted by the collapse of tourism and the fact new expats are not arriving, but rent levels had already reached a maximum before the coronavirus pandemic started, says Pararius director Jasper de Groot. ‘Prices are simply high,’ De Groot said.”
“House prices in Spain fell 5.7% in November compared to the previous year, the College of Notaries said, as the coronavirus pandemic has depressed the real estate market and sellers lowered expectations amid a swelling housing stock. With tourism limited and much of Spain’s activity shifting online, two of Spain’s largest property portals said earlier this week, forcing landlords to either lower rents or sell, which has dragged house prices down as the stock grew.”
“The amount of rental homes available was 78% higher at end-2020 than when the year began, property portal Idealista said, meaning rents in once red-hot real estate hubs like Madrid and Barcelona fell by 7.3% and 9.4% respectively.”
“Average prices for new and resale condo supply are projected to continue falling this year as the glut of unsold condos is overwhelming, with new units added to the stockpile. Nexus reported a year-on-year decrease of 11% in average condo prices in Bangkok to 126,909 baht per square metre in the fourth quarter last year. ‘New condo supply will remain low this year, with around 33,000 unsold condo units being completed that will add to unsold stock,’ said Nalinrat Chareonsuphong, managing director of consultant Nexus Property Marketing Co.”
“Even in a slump, Hong Kong’s famously lofty property prices can be enough to send a shudder down the spine. But if that doesn’t do it, how about the thought of sharing a flat with a ghost? Homes touched by untimely or violent death more often than not come with huge discounts for those brave enough to take the plunge, say agents. Banks are more conservative with such properties because ‘haunted flats may be difficult to resell as the Chinese tend to avoid them,’ said Eric Tso, chief vice-president at mReferral Mortgage Brokerage Services. ‘The range of customers is narrower and the resale value is lower. There will be a larger discount [in valuation] if they have concerns.’”
“Chinese housing app Danke Apartment, once considered one of the country’s most promising start-ups, has reportedly left many young Chinese – potentially thousands – homeless. Some say they have been forced out onto the streets in the middle of a freezing winter, and one even reportedly killed himself. Many homeowners also say they are owed massive amounts of unpaid rent. Experts say the company expanded its debt-fuelled model too aggressively and too fast.”
“‘The company has certainly failed from a financial point of view, but its impact is even worse from a social point of view. Regular folks do not understand how its business model works, so the firm managed to take advantage of a lot of young people,’ says Ms Edith Yeung, a general partner at venture capital firm Race Capital.”
“Sydney unit rents have recorded their steepest drop in more than 15 years, new data shows, giving tenants in some pockets the chance to negotiate hundreds of dollars off asking prices. In the city centre, where renters are spoilt for choice, some landlords have slashed prices by up to 35 per cent to secure a tenant, said Michael Lowdon, principal of Ray White Residential Sydney CBD, with some renters considering up to 20 properties at a time. ‘[Renters] are very, very picky at the moment, because they hold all the cards,’ Mr Lowdon said.”
“Tessa Pang was able to negotiate a rent reduction late last year for her two-bedroom apartment in Paddington. The landlord was willing to drop the rent by $30, bringing the rent down to $470 – less than the $475 the property was advertised for back in 2010.”