Tis that time of year, time to reflect back over the past year and appreciate all the good things we have enjoyed. And, in this reflective mood, one must not forget to appreciate what an excellent place London is to live in, with its parks, arenas, hospitals, transportation system, including support facilities and organizations.

General Growth Properties is now officially owned by the Simon Property Group and is considered one of the group’s largest transactions. The Simon Property Group will take over bankrupt, General Growth Properties for $33.5 billion. An offer of $20 per share and having Blackstone Group also invest in the company is as far as Simon is willing to go as of now.

It has been reported that the prices of the private homes in Singapore has defied all the property cooling measures that have been recently implemented and although the growth rate has been slightly moderated, they just continued to surge ahead in this year's first quarter.

It has been reported that new home sales have risen in March at the fastest single-month rate in 47 years. According to a report released by the Government on Friday, this rise can be attributed to buyers grabbing properties before the expiry of the tax credit.

The recently released federal data on Friday uncovered that newly built homes sales marked a steep rise 27 percent in March, outlining the largest monthly gain witnessed in nearly five decades, backed by mild weather and a lucrative tax credit triggered by demand for homes across all the four regions of the country.

It has been reported that Homebuilder MDC Holdings Inc reported a much lesser quarterly loss, assisted by home gross margins among a wobbly U. S. housing market improvement.

According to the firm, home orders rose year-over-year for the fourth consecutive quarter.

Research suggests first time property buyers will now find property affordable in nearly four out of ten areas of the UK.

According to high street bank Halifax, any individual buying property for the first time and whose has average earnings, can afford to purchase property in 39% of local authority districts, a marked improvement from 2007, when house prices peaked and someone with average earnings could only afford to buy homes in 6% of the areas.

According to Nationwide building society, there has been some recovery in the price of houses from last year’s massive fall of 15.9%, with UK house prices showing a rise of as much as 5.9% in
2009.

For the eighth month in a row, the average cost of a home went up 0.4% in December to £162,103. Despite the recession, the past decade has shown the strongest on record for house prices, according to Nationwide, with property values rising 117% since end-1999.

According to the nation’s chief surveyors’ body, house prices are not expected to see any significant increase during the coming year, as the property market continues to face significant challenges, due to weak economic growth, tax increases and high unemployment hampering buyers’ ability to pay.

In its official forecast of house prices and demand in the UK for next year, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said there would only be a modest increase in prices, as little as 1 to 2%, even though more homes would be bought and sold in 2010 compared to 2009.

Having completed a new mortgage financing for $175-million Friday, HRPT Properties Trust says it will use the proceeds for reducing all outstanding debt under its revolving bank credit facility.

HRPT Properties, in its third-quarter earnings conference call in November said it had $2.8-billion of outstanding debt i.e. 47% of its total assets, with no significant debt maturities until 2011.