The week in real estate: green walls, winter sports and big shiny awards

This weeks round-up of property news from around the world

Which country is seeing its land prices soar due to skiing tourists?

Who won the most prestigious awards in Thailand property?

Why are people paying to have grass grow inside their house?

Read on to find out…

New research

JLL Asia Pacific Property Digest: Q2 2016

This comprehensive report includes residential breakdowns on key Asian cities including: Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Bangkok and Jakarta.

Home buying activity has stabilized in Shanghai following cooling measures. Meanwhile, sales increased in Hong Kong and Singapore as developer incentives enticed some buyers to return to the market.

Read the research here.

Colliers Post Referendum: Impact on UK commercial property

This week marks the three-month anniversary of the shock UK Brexit vote.

With the devalued sterling, new sets of international investors have been drawn the the UK market. Investment groups from Asia are key buyers.

While the UK’s politics has dwarfed other European news, the report reminds us: ”A lesser known Italian reform referendum and a perpetually hung Spanish parliament are also likely to begin changing the political geometry of the EU, as will next year’s elections in France and Germany. The UK may yet prove to be a beacon of stability.”

Read the report here.

Country news

Thailand

Yesterday saw Thailand’s leading property professionals gather to celebrate the 11th annual Thailand Property Awards. The glitzy event paid tribute to the best developments in the country, and there were almost as many sequined gowns as there were big golden awards.

The event is the Kingdom’s biggest and longest-running annual real estate event, attended by more than 600 guests and leading figures including VIP guest and speaker Khun Suwat Liptapanlop, former Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand.

MQDC Magnolia Quality Development Corporation, which collected a total of eight awards, waltzed away with the year’s highest honour for Best Developer.

Read more about the event and the winners here.

China

Following the G20 summit in Hangzhou earlier this month, residential property transactions reached new heights.

Around 5,105 homes were snapped up in Hangzhou on Sunday, the most transactions in a single day in the city.

At around 5 pm on the same day, authorities announced a measure forbidding non-residents, or those without a “hukou” (household registration certificate) from acquiring a second house in the downtown area. The measure took effect Monday.

Non-local buyers accounted for 39 percent of home sales in the week following the summit, according to data from the city’s housing department.

This news echoes the recent panic buying in Shanghai, which followed a rumour that the government intended to impose tightened measures on Shanghai’s housing market.

Japan

Foreign skiers are driving up residential land prices in Japan, a land survey by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism revealed this week.

Kutchan, a town in the skiing region of western Hokkaido has seen the highest land price increase, with a 27 percent rise.

The town is located 14 kilometres away from Niseko, a skiing resort destination famed worldwide for slopes laden with powder snow. Net rental yields from Niseko ski properties range between 3 to 6 percent, while capital gains have reached 10 percent per annum over the last five years.

Elsewhere in Japan, the country’s three biggest metropolitan areas — Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya — saw residential land values rising 0.4 percent in the year to July. This increase is happening on the back of record tourist arrivals in the country, which reached 14 million between January and July, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization.

Trends

Green walls

With the world becoming increasingly sensitive to the need for greater sustainability and green initiatives, living walls, both inside and outside buildings is proving an attractive solution to climate issues.

The benefits, according to Veera from living wall company Greenology, are “completely mindblowing.” A green wall can both insulate your home if you live in a cold climate, or cool it by as much as 3-5 degrees if you live in a hot climate, the latter being particularly significant in the Asian heat.

Plants also produce oxygen, which is not only an environmental benefit but also a health one.

Psychological health is also a key factor, with studies showing that time close to nature promotes greater calm and emotional wellbeing. Hospitals are catching onto what is known as ‘horticulture therapy,’ and as such many are including more plants in their wards, and even investing in landscaped gardens for the patients to enjoy.

“We’ve also worked with dementia patients,” Veera says, “we’ve seen remarkable changes. We’ve seen social improvements, cognitive improvements, psychological, physical – they tend to become completely different people when they’re around plants. It’s amazing.”

Source: Property Report