It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “If selling apartments at one of Manhattan’s most troubled residential condominiums wasn’t hard enough, now its owners can’t even afford to rent a sales gallery to sell them. The sponsors of the under-construction 125 Greenwich Street tower in Lower Manhattan, where construction has all but stopped and two foreclosure proceedings are ongoing, are being accused of failing to pay rent for a sales gallery at One World Trade. It is the latest setback for the residential project, which has been marred by crawling condo sales and internal fighting.”
“Last summer, the project’s sponsors defaulted on loan repayments. Construction costs totalling almost $40 million also went unpaid as the capital dried up. In the last quarter of 2019, just 86 apartments were sold, the lowest of any fourth quarter in more than fifteen years, according to brokerage Corcoran.”
“The recently released Elliman Decade Survey of Residential Sales provides the autopsy details: The average sales price in the Hamptons market ($1.68 million) is down nearly one percent for the decade, and almost 10 percent from the same quarter a year ago. These are unchartered waters. The best indicator of improved sales (besides sales!) is average time on the market, which has shrunk from 155 to 141 over the decade. To accomplish this, though, sellers have had to accept deep discounts, 14.1 percent in 2019. This is a huge discrepancy that, at best, indicates wishful thinking and, at worst, delusional behavior worthy of a stay at a facility with tall walls.”
“Seattleites want to live more like Manhattanites. Or at least, that was the gamble made by developers of The Emerald, a 40-story luxury condominium near Pike Place Market, when they decided to include fewer parking stalls than any comparable new residential tower in the city. Marketing director Josh Nasvik said presales at The Emerald had been slowed by a molasses-like condo market, not the relative lack of parking. On Capitol Hill, recent condo project 750 On The Hill doesn’t have any parking. The condos there, 34 studios and one-bedrooms, go for around $400,000. Though it opened a year ago, the building is one-third empty, which listing agent Victor Smith attributed to a condo market downturn.”
“Denver’s housing market is showing a shift — with 90% surge in the number of homes for sale last month. More than 4,800 homes were for sale in January — up from 2,564 in December. A veteran real estate expert told CBS4 that buyers are in a good position to start shopping now. Todd Crosbie with LIV Sotheby’s International Realty says a lot of single family residences like condos and townhomes are on the market right now. ‘There’s an opportunity now. You can get in beforehand and start looking beforehand before the normal buildup of spring buyers happens,’ Crosbie said. ‘And it’s an opportunity — to have more opportunities. So if you’re looking to buy or sell in 2020, start now.’”
“Residents of a boutique Hamilton condominium are contemplating selling off the entire building and terminating the condo corporation as a way to ward off a financially ruinous special assessment for repairs. Because there are only 12 units in the building and 11 owners, even if the bill for repairs was spread out, each unit-holder could end up on the hook for as much as $250,000.”
“‘It’s insane. It’s the worst real estate transaction I’ve done in my life,’ said Nancy Forrester, a Hamilton real estate agent and a former member of the condo board, speaking of her decision to buy in the building at 35-43 Duke St. in 2014. ‘I look at the worst-case scenario: either we can’t sell [the building] for enough, or we make 12 people go bankrupt and then the property is worth nothing.’”
“Wheelock and Company has won a discounted residential site in Hong Kong’s New Territories amid a plunge in property prices in the Asian financial hub – a nearly 12 percent discount from the premium paid on the housing estate’s previous phase when it was awarded ten months ago. The property agency said that during the third quarter of last year the average price of new flats in the city had dropped 25 percent from its all-time high in 2018 to slide to HK$10.87 million per home. The downturn rubbed off on Wheelock’s sales of its existing developments at Lohas Park, with buyers passing on 80 percent of the homes made available at launch day of the latest tranche of condos at the developer’s Grand Marini project last October.”
“Malaysia’s property market, which has been in part supported by the easy and cheap money from the global quantitative easing (QE), could be in for a tough first half of the year as the global economy slows, and investors shy away from the market due to the coronavirus outbreak. Economist and political analyst Prof Dr Hoo Ke Ping expects the economies of many countries will be dragged down by the coronavirus outbreak as China has been the biggest provider of capital that helped boost sales at property companies across the region.”
“‘For example, Forest City and other properties in Brooklyn, New York, Australia all dried out even before this virus problem, two to three years back after China put restrictions on cash transfers. That’s why Chinese buyers cannot even buy Forest City. Forest City and Danga Bay are ghost towns,’ he said.”
“He foresees the problems in China will drag down the global economy with reports saying the global property market might be hit hard if the coronavirus becomes a pandemic. Hoo foresee the outbreak in China will last more than six months for a simple reason: It’s out of control. ‘China’s GDP constitutes a big part of the global GDP. So, when China sinks, all countries around the world whether it’s South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia (partly) or Thailand will be affected.’”
“‘When the global supply chain is affected, we will have a big negative impact. When China’s capital doesn’t come out, how or who’s to buy property?’ he said, adding that property developers in Malaysia should now instead cash out. ‘They should try to sell houses at a cheap price to raise cash for the rainy days because the rainy days are heavier and longer. Companies who went outside Malaysia must have cash. If they start borrowing, they will have problems because there is always an exception,’ he said.”
“Sydney’s prestige housing market is expected to be one of the casualties of the coronavirus after the traditional influx of high-end shoppers from China are forced to stay home. The Lunar New Year is typically the busiest time of year for visitors from China, and agents on both sides of Sydney Harbour have long made the most of the annual holiday by timing the launch of their high-end listings accordingly. ‘This has forced our best buyers to stay away,’ said Rob Klaric, of property advisory The Property Expert.”
“‘The other concern weighing on would-be buyers is the ripple effect of China’s manufacturing and economic slowdown on our Australian wallets,’ said LJ Hooker Double Bay’s Bill Malouf. Australia’s standing as an international housing destination was already suffering from this summer’s catastrophic bushfires before the coronavirus appeared, said Ken Jacobs, of Christie’s International.”
“‘This summer’s blanket coverage internationally of these huge fires, burnt animals and smoke hanging over Sydney changed that perception of blue skies and natural environments,’ said Mr Jacobs. ‘The question is, how long will that perception of Australia as a wasteland last?’”