A report from the New York Post. "Spring may only have just begun, but the summer season in the Hamptons is already off to a blistering hot start. In Water Mill, a two-home compound spread across some 21 acres has listed for a cool $99.5 million, according to listings portal Out East. What’s more, the parcel — at 70 and 71 Cobb Lane with frontage on Mecox Bay — is now the priciest residential property for sale in the Hamptons, according to the site. Despite the nearly nine-figure ask, a sale at this sum wouldn’t break a record for the region — and it would also mark a $19 million loss from its last purchase price. In late 2021, Philadelphia real-estate developer Michael Karp purchased the grand property for an even more grand $118.5 million."

From KFOR. "Neighbors in a Northwest Oklahoma City neighborhood said they’re fed up with people living in abandoned homes next to their own that don’t belong to them. Jennifer Lowry told News 4 Monday that it’s an issue her neighborhood, just south of NW 122nd street and Council Road, has been dealing with for three weeks now. Her problems concern two homes she said have both been abandoned for a little over a year. 'I just thought they were looking for things to take and maybe sell,' said Lowry. 'But then, when suitcases started appearing and more activity, that’s when I really got concerned.'"

"A search of property records found that the property where Monday’s arrests were made belonged to Great Plains Funding LLC, based out of Topeka, Kansas. News 4 reached out and spoke with Stan Oyler, who told us the property had undergone foreclosure and was in the process of being sold to someone who planned to flip the home. Oyler said that, as far as he knew, issues with the property’s security had been resolved. 'Maybe his idea of secure in mine are two different things, but, you know, the door’s always wide open and that’s obviously how they’re getting in,' said Lowry. 'I shouldn’t have to live this way.'"

The Business Observer. "Some South Florida condo owners are in deep trouble. Three years after the deadly collapse of the Champlain Towers South in Surfside, Fla., regulations meant to prevent another building disaster are coming into effect — and look set to cost condo owners, especially those living in aging buildings. This financial hit comes against the backdrop of skyrocketing home insurance prices and a cooling luxury condo market. 'This is going to be a very rude awakening,' said Joseph Hernandez, a real estate lawyer at Bilzin Sumberg. 'Frankly, I, and others in our industry are concerned that a lot of people just can’t afford it.'"

"Take the Palm Bay Yacht Club condo in Miami Shores. Last year, homeowners were quoted $46 million in repairs, which comes to $175,000 per unit on average. With these assessments looming, owners will face a tough choice: pay up or sell. But offloading a condo is no easy task. The South Florida market, after red-hot growth during the pandemic, has cooled. Another wrinkle for condo owners is the so-called '50 percent rule.' Florida statutes stipulate that if an owner spends more than 50 percent of a building or a unit’s appraised value to upgrade it, the owner must bring the entire property up to current code standards. In practice, the rule has required owners to completely redevelop their properties and could prime more buildings toward bulk sales. Amid a tight lending market, some developers are waiting on the sidelines, hoping that, as the assessments come in, more owners will become amenable to selling. The coming year will test many buildings. 'It’s time to pay the piper!' said Doug Weinstein, senior VP of operations, Southeast at Akam, which helps condo associations with construction projects."

The Los Angeles Times. "Ken Kahan makes a living building homes. A specialty? Luxury apartment complexes in Los Angeles neighborhoods such as Palms and Silver Lake filled with mostly market rate units, but with a handful of income-restricted affordable ones as well. It can be a good business, but lately less so. 'We have pulled back,' said Kahan, the president of California Landmark Group. 'The metrics don't work.' Meanwhile, rents in many places — including Los Angeles — have dropped slightly as vacancies have risen, in part because apartment construction has been relatively robust in recent years."

"In the city of Los Angeles, developers must contend with another factor — Measure ULA. Though it's known as the 'mansion tax,' except for rare exceptions it applies to all properties sold for more than $5 million, no matter if they are gas stations, strip malls, apartment buildings or actual mansions. Under the measure, a seller is charged 4% of the sales price for properties sold above $5 million and below $10 million. At $10 million and above, the tax is 5.5%. 'ULA is like the last nail in the coffin,' said Robert Green, a Los Angeles developer. 'It couldn't have come at a worse time.'"

Business Today. "Another Washington DC office building has just been sold at a massive 75 per cent discount, a real estate entrepreneur said on Sunday. The 175k sq ft tower at 1101 Vermont Avenue sold for $16 million, he said, adding that the building was last sold for $60 million in 2006. The building's assessed value in 2018 was $72 million in 2018. The entrepreneur said that Washington DC, the capital city of the US, has been among the hardest hit office markets in America, with absolutely no rebound in sight. Kotak Mutual Fund's Managing Director Nilesh Shah said this Washington DC building goes for Rs 7,589 per square foot, 73 per cent lower than the last traded price 18 years back. 'I did this calculation twice to confirm the number. The commercial real estate in the US is truly in deflation/fire sale. Who bears all these losses?'"

Bloomberg on Colorado. "Cress Capital, a real estate investment manager, said it acquired a $113 million mortgage on a Denver office tower from an Ares Management Corp. affiliate for the equivalent of the land cost. Cress bought the mortgage at 'a major discount' for a 'level approaching or at the pre-Covid land value' of the property, according to Ryan Parkin, managing partner of the real estate company based in Newport Beach, California. In downtown Denver, more than 37% of office space was available for lease at the end of 2023 compared with 29% for the greater Denver area, according to Savills Plc. 'When they’re trading at land value, there are multiple options you can pursue,' Parkin said."

From Bisnow. "Rising interest rates remain the prevailing headwind stymying transactions in North Texas and beyond. Yet there are some vacant office buildings that aren’t feasible for conversions, which puts them at greater risk of distress. A few of those properties have already entered the foreclosure process. That trend is likely to gain momentum over the next few years, especially as owners grapple with fewer options to recapitalize their loans, Cushman & Wakefield Vice Chair Robbie Baty said. 'Developers and owners that can convert to some sort of amenitized building and have a competitive price point will do OK and eventually fill up,' he said. 'But the ones that can’t do that are going to continue to sit empty, and we’re going to see a massive wave of foreclosures and turnovers.'"

CTV News in Canada. "A fire spread from one home to another in the Calder neighbourhood Thursday morning. The blaze in a duplex at 128 Avenue and 123A Street was reported just before 5 a.m. According to Edmonton Fire Rescue Services, the flames spread to a home on the south side of the duplex. No one was home in either building and no injuries were reported."

The Helsinki Times. "House prices in Finland fell by more than five per cent year-on-year in February. Statistics Finland reported that the prices of old dwellings in housing companies fell especially in large cities – by 10.4 per cent in Vantaa, 7.1 per cent in Helsinki and 6.8 per cent in Oulu. While the six largest cities in the country recorded a drop of 6.1 per cent and the capital region a drop of 6.7 per cent from the previous year, areas outside the largest cities registered one of 4.4 per cent. Also the volume of sales decreased, with real estate agents brokering 15 per cent fewer sales in February 2024 than in February 2023."

"Juhana Brotherus, the chief economist at the Federation of Finnish Enterprises, estimated that the market will continue to decline for some time. 'The house market is being depressed by hard and soft headwinds,' he wrote. 'Buyers are losing interest because interest costs and maintenance fees can exceptionally be even higher than rents. Also loan repayments add to the monthly costs. At the same time, households are extremely cautious and sensitive to crises because their general sense of security has been shaken by the coronavirus, energy, war and, most recently, strike crises. The uncertainties are reducing especially large acquisitions, of which home is the most important.'"

ABC News in Australia. "As Steve Yates turns the key into the three-bedroom home he he's been building for the last five years, his stomach sinks. The Dandenong house in Melbourne's south-east that Steve's poured his life savings into is about 80 per cent finished — but it's not pretty. 'I absolutely hate coming in here, this is where we are meant to be living, but every time I'm here something new is damaged or stolen,' he says. There are holes punched in the walls, alcohol bottles and syringes left on the floorboards, smashed glass in the bathrooms and fingerprint dust on the broken doors from where detectives have been."

"The harder part has been the all-consuming battle he has faced with the state government's Victorian Managed Insurance Authority (VMIA), waiting for a domestic building insurance quote to get his place fixed up. 'Initially I was contacting the VMIA once every few months, then it was once a week and in the last month it has been once a day, because I'm over it,' Steve says. 'The place has got to be fixed; it has been sitting there basically abandoned for three years, in a housing crisis for god's sake.' During that time Steve has been paying a mortgage on the home he can't live in, and squatters have taken over while he is in limbo waiting for decision from the VMIA."

"He and his wife are currently sharing a house in a tight squeeze with seven family members that they are paying second a mortgage on. They are so far around $100,000 out of pocket. Steve says his fight with the VMIA has ruined him, as his bank account continues to diminish, with no end in sight. 'We are paying for bills left right and centre that we don't have the money to pay for,' he says."

Market Watch. "China’s largest property developer, Country Garden, on Monday said it had opted to suspend trading of its shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange after delaying publication of its 2023 results as it continues to grapple with the slump in the Chinese real estate market. The heavily-indebted property developer said it had decided to suspend trading of its shares in order to comply with Hong Kong stock market’s listing rules, which require it to either publish its unaudited financial statements in their current form or halt trading of its shares instead."

"The company last week said it would be delaying publication of its results in order to 'collect more information to make appropriate accounting estimates' and ensure its statements 'reasonably reflect changes in the industry' in the face of 'continuous volatility.' Country Garden has over the previous year become one of the most high-profile casualties of the slump in China’s property market that has left a raft of the country’s top real estate companies unable to pay their international debts."