A report from Business in Vancouver in Canada. "Metro Vancouver’s sluggish residential real estate market has caused some developers to pull the plug on projects. 'The market is totally in the dumps right now,' said Holborn Group of Cos. CEO Joo Kim Tiah. 'I don’t think people are aware or have a full grasp of what is going on. The B.C. economy is headed for tough times. The real estate economy is not going good.'"

From Mingtiandi on the UK. "The £1 billion ($1.2 billion) centrepiece of a scheme to regenerate London’s Greenwich Peninsula has been quietly dropped by the Hong Kong-based company set up seven years ago by billionaire property tycoon Henry Cheng to develop the £8.4 billion scheme."

"Critics have accused Knight Dragon of ramping up prices in the development by targeting Asian property investors, with homes in the completed Upper Riverside project listed on JLL’s Hong Kong website at rates starting at £550,000. When challenged on the issue by CNBC last month, Knight Dragon’s chief executive officer, Richard Margree, was unable to quantify how many low-cost flats costing £300,000 or less had been sold and denied that the company was dragging its feet on the development due to the stagnant property market."

From The Nation on Kenya. "It has been this way for some time now - property prices in Nairobi are way above the roof, a factor that has significantly slowed down the market. For the last three years, there has been a housing glut build-up, and ready developments are simply sitting idle with no takers."

"In the peri-urban outskirts of Nairobi, in Kitengela, Athi-River and in Ngong area, high-end residential estates that took millions to put up stand empty and forlorn as developers that hoped to make a handsome profit sink in debt they are unable to pay."

From Bloomberg on Ghana. "Isaac and Bless Boahen saved for months to fund her economics doctorate, but when the time came to cash in the investment, they were left empty handed. The couple are among at least 70,000 investors who have become collateral damage from a cleanup of Ghana’s banking industry."

"The crackdown, which reduced the number of lenders by a third and saw the closure of 23 savings and loans companies, also triggered a run on fund managers, who couldn’t sell their holdings fast enough to meet demand. 'My wife was very disturbed,' the 36-year-old said by phone from Kumasi in Ghana’s Ashanti Region. They’re not getting answers and are now worried they’ll never get back the 12,000 cedis they expected back from their investment. 'If I knew this would happen, I wouldn’t have gone there.'"

The Sunday Guardian on India. "From filing an FIR and staging demonstrations to approaching the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) and the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the situation of homebuyers of 3C Company’s Lotus brand projects is back to square one. Despite several protests, thousands of buyers are wondering what years of struggle and court battles have led to."

"Jaya Dikshit, a Lotus homebuyer said, 'My payment was delayed for some reason and they charged interest as penalty for that. But what about the builder’s penalty for delayed projects as per the BBA? I am still paying EMIs for the flat, but I don’t know when I am going to get it. Then, there is depreciation of property. I won’t get the same market rate if I want to resell my property.'"

The Australian Financial Review. "When Christine Robinson bought a high-rise apartment in June 2017 she didn't know she was also buying a building manager's services - for 25 years. Robinson, a nurse, and her IT worker husband Chris also didn't know that they, and the other owners in the North Melbourne building, would be paying that building manager, CP Property Pty Ltd, an increase of 4 per cent after the first year and 5 per cent every year after that."

"It is a deeply problematic building and Robinson already plans to move out of what was to be her 'forever' home. As the hangover from Australia's high-rise construction party kicks in, tales of weak regulation and poorly built buildings are all too common. Robinson's building is a case in point. Scheduled for completion in January 2018, her apartment was three months late."

"In some cases it's a matter of not getting what was promised. The tasteful hard-backed sales booklet for Reflections promised a 24/7 concierge service, a key selling point for Robinson, a shiftworker, who sometimes works late hours. But no such service exists, nor was ever demanded of the building manager by the developer. On the desk in the lobby where the promised concierge would be is a lonely sign saying 'building manager,' with a mobile number."

"Robinson and her husband don't want to stay in the building. Given the defects already apparent, she looks at high-profile building failures such as Sydney's Opal and Mascot Towers and wonders what problems lie undiscovered in her own building."

"'I’m so sad,' she says. 'This could have been a magnificent building, but no. We’re going to get leaks in time with that garden above us and roots we know are growing into the building,' she said. 'There’s part of me that absolutely loves our apartment but another part of me that absolutely loathes it. I feel like Jekyll and Hyde.'"