UK

Original article taken here:

http://www.propertywire.com/news/europe/uk-lettings-market-index2015091110972.html
Growth in Rental Prices Dawdling but is Still Higher than Previous Year
The most recent lettings index reveals that rent price growth has slowed down in all
of UK from June to August 2015 compared to values from March to April of the same
year.
But according to the results from HomeLet rental index, rent price growth still
increased by almost 11 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
The data reveals that all around UK the average rent in the three-month period was
992 monthly. It also shows that in Greater London, the monthly value is higher at
1,558.
The report further shows that the improvement in rent prices is specifically
noticeable in regions where rents have increased quickly such as in East Anglia and
South East of England.
Despite all that, annual rent prices are still significantly higher compared to the
previous year.
Generally, the average UK rent for new occupancies has risen by almost 2 percent
in June to August of this year as compared to a 2.2 percent rise from May to June of
this year.
Rents increased by 2.5 percent in Wales for the period of June to August of this year
while other regions experienced no more than 2 percent increase. In the same span
of time, North West, South East and North East regions of England suffered a fall in
rents for the same period with the largest fall experienced in the North East. On the
average, rents for new occupancies fell by 2.1 percent in the period of May to July.
Martin Totty, the chief executive officer of Barbon Insurance Group, the parent
company of HomeLet, said that there is the rental market all over UK can be
considered generally healthy except for two regions the South West, where rental
price increase are still very high and East Anglia, where rental prices increased
quickly in the previous year but significantly slowed down this year.

India
Original article taken here:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Mumbais-Lincoln-House-sells-for-Rs750cr/articleshow/48951365.cms
Lincoln House in Mumbai Purchased by India Billionaire for Rs 750 Crore
Billionaire Cyrus Poonawalla is to pay $113 million or Rs 750 crore for the popular
Lincoln House located in Breach Candy, South Mumbai. Poonawalla says that the
new property will be used as a new family home.
The two-acre property facing the beach has been used by the American consulate
for some time now before the agency transferred four years ago to Bandra-Kurla
Complex.
The house was also named Wankaner Palace before it was called the Lincoln House.
It was constructed in 1938 by the Maharaja of Wankaner and is now considered as a
grade III heritage infrastructure.
The mansion comes with a vast lawn facing the beach and presently has a small
garden area and a tennis court. Four years ago, it was set for a reserve price of Rs
850 crore but the US government did not find any takers.
Poonawalla said that there was no interested builder that would be willing to
develop the house because of its heritage value and some other limitations that
came with the property. He added that there was no broker or property consultant
that managed the deal for him and his family in obtaining the property.
Poonawalla confirmed of his familys plans to use the palace as their family home
after renovations are done since a large part of the house was utilized for office
space. He further said that the negotiations for the house were initiated by his son
Adar. It may take time for Poonawallas family to move in, he said, due to the
paperwork that has to be finished first.
Poonawalla is popular for his large collection of cars and horses. He was ranked as
Indias 11th richest person in 2015 by Forbes and his businesses includes a
biotechnology company, the Serum Institute of India. His net worth is estimated at
$6.6 billion or Rs 43,700 crore.
Three years ago, the Tata Housing Development Company became interested with
the Lincoln House but the transaction did not proceed further due to regulatory
issues.

South Africa
Original article taken here:
http://www.africapropertynews.com/southern-africa/3145-cape-town-gets-365mmixed-use-development.html

Cape Town to Undergo Property Development Worth $365M

A portion of Cape Town conveniently located in Milnerton, Western Cape is planned
for development into a mix-use zone that would include commercial, retail,
warehousing and light industrial properties. The area for development spans 84
hectares.
On Tuesday, Atterbury Property said that it had come to a deal to develop Richmond
Park, which is a recent multi-million dollar development in Cape Town. The company
also owns development rights of 300,000 square meters in the next 5 to 10 years
where they plan to invest $365 million for the duration of the development.
Atterbury is the developer of Gautengs Waterfall City, considered as among the
most expensive and largest developments in South Africa. The property
development company is partly owned by Attacq.
Gerrit Van den Berg, development manager of Atterburys West Cape developments,
said that the development is going to be a gigantic construction and will
concentrate more on warehousing and commercial properties. This is because of
areas location within the industrial zone of Milnertion, the development manager
added.
The land belongs to Richmond Park Communal Property Association has been leased
to the above mentioned development company and two other community
developers.
Van den Berg added that although Atterbury is a major shareholder, they are also
partnering with Qubic 3 Dimensional Property and Bethel Property.
Bethel Property representative Richard Glass said that around 400 families were
compulsorily evacuated from the land back in 1972 and were resettled in Cape Flats
and Atlantis. The families now represent five generations and have risen to 5300
people. The property was also transferred back to them last year in December.
The association then made up their mind to lease the land to the local developers,
which would also give them a quarter shareholdings in the consortium known as the
Richmond Park Development Company.