• Prices drop 2.5 percent in first decline since 2011, FHFA says
• Buyers may be held back by affordability constraints

San Francisco, which in recent years had the biggest home-price gain in the U.S., was the country’s weakest market in the first quarter, with values falling for the first time since 2011.

Single-family home prices in the region that includes San Francisco and San Mateo counties dropped 2.5 percent from a year earlier, the worst performance among the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, according to an index released Wednesday by the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Grand Rapids, Michigan, a relatively affordable area where prices jumped 13.7 percent, had the biggest gain…

Canada’s exuberance with real estate is beginning to wane.

Weekly polling data show real estate price expectations have come down from record levels, in a sign that Canadians are anticipating housing markets in places like Toronto will finally cool. The share of people saying home prices will rise in the next six months fell for a second week to 46 percent, according to data compiled by Nanos Research Group for Bloomberg News. That’s down from 47.7 percent the previous week and below a record 50.1 percent two weeks ago…

Canadian Real-Estate Sentiment Slips After Home Capital Meltdown

Industry veterans tackled oversupply, mixed-use development strategy and caveats during day one of ICSC’s annual retail real estate convention in Las Vegas.

At a time of rapid change and looming uncertainty for retail real estate, experts at RECon wasted no time before tackling the industry’s biggest issues during the first day of the International Council of Shopping Centers’ annual convention in Las Vegas.

The issue ahead is “how are we going to make the retail supply that we’re planning and projecting and built and received somehow match the retail spending that we have,” asserted Heather Arnold, director of research and analysis for Streetsense…

• Average asking prices in capital jump 2.1 percent in May
• National price growth accelerates to annual 3 percent

London house prices rebounded in May, rising to a record as buyers and sellers defied the usual trend of holding off on property transactions before an election.

The average asking price in the city rose 2.1 percent from April to 649,864 pounds ($846,000), property website Rightmove Plc said on Monday, even with the upcoming U.K. general election on June 8. The annual rate of growth remained subdued at 0.9 percent following a 1.5 percent drop last month. That was the biggest annual decline in almost eight years…

• Unit sales drop 16% in first two weeks of May, data show
• New house listings soar 47% as price growth slows to 17%

Home price growth in Toronto slowed in the first two weeks of May and sales fell 16 percent from last year, signaling that a new tax on foreign buyers and funding crisis at mortgage lender Home Capital Group Inc. may be cooling the market in Canada’s biggest city.

There is still no consensus on why the last housing boom and bust happened. That is troubling, because that violent housing cycle helped to produce the Great Recession and financial crisis of 2007 to 2009. We need to understand it all if we are going to be able to avoid ordeals like that in the future.

But the explanations for what happened in housing are not, I think, to be found in the conventional data favored by economists but rather in sociologically important narratives — like tales of getting rich through “flipping” houses and shares of initial public offerings — that constitute the shifting mentality of the era.

Landlords are cutting rents and prices, spooked lenders are holding back, and the industry loses hope for Trump tax cuts.

Real estate developer Louis Ceruzzi has grand plans for a sleek $1 billion Manhattan skyscraper, featuring luxury shops and condos that soar high above Fifth Avenue.

Two years after Ceruzzi and a partner bought the site, they have yet to break ground. For now, all he has to show for his trouble is an empty lot, an idle backhoe and scattered piles of rubble.

In addition to the data center, the REIT bought four health care facilities in Illinois and Texas, the purchase price for all five properties being over $141 million.

Carter Validus Mission Critical REIT II Inc. acquired five properties for an aggregate purchase price of $141.5 million. The assets include four health care facilities and the Norwalk Data Center, the largest data center in the state of Connecticut. The acquisitions add up to approximately 362,000 leased square feet.

Following the deal, the REIT entered into two term loans: a $34.2 million loan with Bank of America and a $39.9 million loan with Capital One…

• Investors urged to vote against slate backed by dissidents
• FrontFour, Sandpiper own 6.2 percent of REIT’s shares

Granite Real Estate Investment Trust, Canada’s largest industrial real estate landlord, plans to nominate two new board members amid a push for change by activist investor FrontFour Capital Group and its partner, Vancouver-based Sandpiper Group.

Granite, in a regulatory filing Tuesday, cast the changes as part of a board renewal process that began last year. The Toronto-based company urged its investors to vote against a slate backed by the dissident shareholders that it was told privately would include FrontFour co-founder Zachary George and Sandpiper Chief Executive Officer Samir Manji…

• Benchmark home price in Canada’s biggest city up 5% on month
• New listings increase 36% in Toronto to new record levels

Toronto home prices continued surging in April, prompting a rush of new listings that hints the rally could soon be poised to slow.

Toronto’s benchmark home price index rose 5 percent last month, the second highest gain in data going back to 2005, a report Monday from the Canadian Real Estate Association showed. The record gain was a 6.2 percent advance in March, bringing year over year price increases to 32 percent.

The property will be located at The Strand at St. Johns Town Center, a 45-acre, mixed-use development comprising residential, retail, restaurant and hotel space.

Concord Hospitality began construction on Hyatt Place Jacksonville, a 160-key hotel scheduled to open in late 2018.

The five-story property will feature the Gallery, which will offer 3,000 square feet of meeting space, an outdoor pool, a fitness center and an outdoor deck for events. The asset will be part of The Strand at St. Johns Town Center, a 45-acre, mixed-use development comprising residential, retail, restaurant and hotel space…

Concord Hospitality Brings Hyatt Place to Jacksonville

• Sales surge adds to sign of renewed vigor in housing market
• Singapore, Hong Kong have grappled with property overheating

Developers’ hunger for Singapore land is adding to signs that the city’s housing market is making a comeback after three years of price declines.

As new home sales surge after an easing of property restrictions in mid-March, developers are becoming more aggressive in bidding at land auctions. On average, they’ve paid a 29 percent premium, the highest level in at least five years, according to broker Cushman & Wakefield Inc., which makes comparisons with the past prices of similar properties…

• G-10 house-price report finds New Zealand’s most over-valued
• Goldman sees 40% chance of prices dropping in next two years

New Zealand’s housing market is the most over-valued among the so-called G-10 economies and the most at risk of a correction, according to Goldman Sachs.

In research published this week, the investment bank said there is about a 40 percent chance of a housing “bust” in New Zealand over the next two years, which it defines as house prices falling five percent or more after adjustment for inflation.

For much of last year, Greg Rubin was looking to buy a bigger house. He has been in the same two-bedroom home for 17 years and hoped to upgrade to a place with a guest room, a home office and a workshop for his guitars, radio-controlled planes and gardening equipment.

This year, Mr. Rubin has a new plan. He stopped looking and embarked on an ambitious renovation project that will begin with a new kitchen and end with a workshop for all the man toys…

Real Estate’s New Normal: Homeowners Staying Put

• Sunday information session in Guangzhou drew about 50 people
• Kushner Cos. apologized after presentation cited Trump links

A real-estate project linked to U.S. presidential adviser Jared Kushner’s family hasn’t attracted any early financial commitments after investor presentations in four different Chinese cities, an organizer said.

About 50 people attended a presentation Sunday at the Four Seasons Hotel in the southeastern city of Guangzhou that was sponsored by QWOS Group, an immigration consulting company focusing on special visa programs. Similar events in Beijing and Shanghai last week generated controversy after Kushner’s sister, Nicole Meyer, invoked his work for President Donald Trump, his father-in-law…

• ’Material uncertainty exists regarding funding capabilities’
• Mortgage lender to address analysts on conference call Friday

Woes at Home Capital Group Inc., the embattled Canadian lender facing a run on deposits and a regulator investigation, mount as the company said it’s unsure of funding abilities while announcing first-quarter results.

“Material uncertainty exists regarding the company’s future funding capabilities as a result of reputational concerns that may cast significant doubt” on the ability to continue operations, Home Capital said in a statement Thursday. “Management’s focus is on finding more sources of funding in the near term so we can be more active serving our customers, and on seeking longer-term solutions that put the business back on track,” interim Chief Executive Officer Bonita Then said…

Hong Kong has overtaken London as the world’s top market for luxury homes after seeing a record number of $100 million-plus deals.

Four out of the record 10 homes that sold for this amount last year were in Hong Kong, according to a Christie’s International Real Estate survey published Wednesday. London, which notched up two $100 million deals, dropped to second place in the broker’s luxury-homes ranking for the first time in its five-year lifespan. New York retained third place.

• They had been top contenders for 95-acre Jersey City site
• Pitches to investors in China brought unwelcome spotlight

A company owned by the family of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, has abandoned plans to buy a sprawling industrial site in New Jersey from Honeywell International Inc., a major federal contractor, and develop it into a residential community.

Kushner Cos. had been the leading bidder for the 95-acre formerly contaminated site known as Bayfront, which is co-owned by Honeywell and Jersey City, city officials said. The company had submitted plans to build as many as 8,100 housing units to be marketed to Orthodox Jewish residents of the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn who are being priced out of that neighborhood…

The Atlanta-based developer will build a 15-story Hyatt House hotel a block away from the Vanderbilt University. The 201-key hotel will be completed by early 2019.

Songy Highroads LLC recently announced its plans to develop Hyatt House West End Hotel in Nashville, Tenn. Construction will start in June and completion is slated for the beginning of 2019. Songy Highroads is developing the 15-story hotel in a joint venture with an affiliate of Hyatt. Wakefield Beasley & Associates is the architect of the project.

• Jersey City deal lost startup WeWork and city’s help on bonds
• Effort shows Kushner pattern of relying on Chinese investors

When Jared Kushner’s sister took the stage in two Chinese ballrooms over the weekend to urge investors to fund a New Jersey development through a controversial visa program, she mentioned her brother’s role in the White House and displayed a photo of President Donald Trump. It was a not-so-subtle signal that hers is a family company with connections.

Catalyst will be government’s affordable housing push

In a country where slums sit cheek-by-jowl next to palatial luxury — including what’s been reported as the world’s most expensive private home — India’s unhoused may soon become a more potent economic growth driver.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s drive to bring homes to the country’s 1.3 billion people, rising incomes and the best affordability in two decades will unleash a $1.3 trillion wave of investment in housing over the next seven years, according to CLSA India Pvt…

$1.3 Trillion Housing Boom Set to Be India’s Next Growth Driver

The company’s broker negotiated on behalf of both Wendover Village in Greensboro, N.C., and Cornelius Shops in Cornelius, N.C. The two leases total 2,820 square feet.

Divaris Real Estate Inc., (DRE) a Virginia-based firm, recently announced the completion of two leases in North Carolina. DRE’s Charlotte-based Charles Neil represented the landlord in both negotiations.

Londoners are paying lower home rents for the first time in more than seven years amid rising supply and weakening demand from senior executives for properties.

The average rent paid in April for new lettings in Greater London was 1,519 pounds ($1,968) a month, a 1.2 percent decline from a year earlier, HomeLet, the U.K’s largest reference-checking and rentals insurance company, said in a statement on Monday. Annual rental inflation across the U.K. was 0.4 percent in the same period, the lowest in seven years…

London Home Rents Fall for First Time Since December 2009

• Investors kept out of NYC ‘unless you’re a multimillionaire’
• Company is seeking to raise $50 million for property purchases

A new real estate investment trust opened shop this week, seeking to raise $50 million from investors online. It plans to use the money on some of the most sought after properties in the world: New York apartments.

NY Residential REIT is a “blind pool,” meaning it owns no assets and is courting investors on the strength of its management team to purchase properties once it has funds. It’s springing to life partly from Manhattan’s growing supply of costly apartments, and partly from a Securities and Exchange Commission rule making it easier for small companies to access capital…

• Lender’s woes can deflate Canada’s housing bubble, hurt banks
• Seen as unlikely to trigger a 2008-type financial crisis

The downward spiral of Home Capital Group Inc. could start to deflate Canada’s housing market, pushing down bank shares and the broader index, according to Edward Jones & Co.

The mortgage lender’s woes will insert caution into property funding, Craig Fehr, Canadian investment strategist at Edward Jones, said in an interview in Toronto on Wednesday. This would slow the economy because of its outsized reliance on real estate and damp prospects for the bank-heavy S&P/TSX Composite Index, he said…

Enhanced workspace flexibility is the top perk millennials seek and one of the key features of the new 14,500-square-foot office in the Gateway Tower West.

Ernst & Young LLP (EY) is relocating its Salt Lake City office at 178 S. Rio Grande St. to a more millennial-friendly environment only 1 mile away. The new home at Gateway Tower West offers a range of settings and technologies to enhance work space flexibility and allow for headcount growth.

Located at 15 West Temple, the new office features approximately 14,500 square feet of space, open layout, more collaboration rooms, tech-enhanced work spaces and a coffee hub. Half of all the new workstations and collaboration rooms offer a sit-to-stand option…

• Cost of typical home rises 11% in April from a year earlier
• Buyers in ‘fierce’ competition as condos get multiple offers

Ripples from the downward spiral of mortgage lender Home Capital Group Inc. haven’t yet reached Vancouver.

The cost of a benchmark home in the Pacific Coast city surged 11 percent to C$941,100 ($685,233) compared with a year earlier, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reported Tuesday. Condominiums were the big gainers, climbing 17 percent to C$554,100…

Vancouver Home-Price Surge Defies Canadian Housing Jitters