Buyers desert Australian market
Overseas buyers appear to be losing their enthusiasm for Australia, with ABC News revealing a multibillion-dollar drop in foreign investment in homes in the country. The news site covered a report from the country’s Foreign Investment Review Board, which showed foreign real estate approvals totalled A$25.2bn ($19.2bn) in 2016-17, compared with A$72.4bn in the previous financial year.
Cyprus buoyed by visa scheme
In Cyprus, meanwhile, the country’s golden visa scheme — which grants full citizenship to those purchasing a home worth at least €2m on the island — has helped encourage an influx of foreign investment and new development, reported the Financial Times. According to the paper, Russians have dominated the mix of overseas buyers, followed by purchasers from the Middle East and China.
Airbnb attacks ‘punitive’ Paris authorities
CNBC covered the ongoing tussle between holiday lets group Airbnb and the Parisian authorities, ahead of a legal hearing on June 12 in which the city will claim the platform is listing thousands of unregistered properties. Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk is said to have called local rules governing short-term rentals “punitive”.
Morocco portal sold to Pakistan group
The property deal making the headlines in north Africa and the Middle East was not a house purchase but the sale of the country’s largest property listing portal. Casablanca-based Mubawab was bought by Pakistan-based Emerging Markets Property Group, which also owns real estate portals in the United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Pakistan, revealed The National.
Saudis set Washington sale record
Meanwhile, Washington DC has just recorded its most expensive residential sale to date, reported The Wall Street Journal. According to the newspaper, the Saudi Arabian government paid $43m for Merrywood — a nine-bedroom pile on the banks of the Potomac river and childhood home of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis — which it intends to use as an embassy.
Photographs: Getty Images; Shutterstock/Motortion Films; Davide Leggio/Visit-In; Shutterstock/Nessa Gnatoush; Gordon Beall
