Construction Maison

It was only four years ago that Africa’s richest square mile became the destination of choice for SA’s major financial firms , sparking the largest commercial property development boom of the decade. Corporates including Investec , Nedbank, RMB and the JSE were the early movers into Sandton during the 2000s, and several firms have since followed suit. Sasol, Webber Wentzel, Alexander Forbes, EY, and Bowman Gilfillan have anchored their main offices in Sandton in recent years while Discovery and Old Mutual Emerging Markets will soon pile into the area. Property developers believe the catalyst for Sandton was the advent of rapid rail system Gautrain in 2010, which unleashed billions of rands in office, retail and residential property developments . Over the last three years, developers launched high - rise luxury apartments , piggy-backing on the relocation of corporates into the area that would, in theory, create demand from buyers who desired to live closer to work. However, the s...

High- density proposal in El Pueblo Viejo District draws opposition from historic preservationists , Anacapa School unit apartment building is proposed for 800 Santa Barbara St . in downtown Santa Barbara . The project would include eight studios, 10 one-bedroom units and five two-bedroom units; commercial space; and underground parking for 29 vehicles." height="667" width="1000" id="upsize" /> A three-story, 23- unit apartment building is proposed for 800 Santa Barbara St . in downtown Santa Barbara . The project would include eight studios, 10 one-bedroom units and five two-bedroom units; commercial space; and underground parking for 29 vehicles. (Hochhauser Blatter Architecture & Planning rendering) A three-story, 23- unit apartment complex with an underground parking garage has received a key approval for its proposed construction at the corner of Santa Barbara and De la Guerra streets , near El Presidio de Santa Bá rbara State Hist...

Samuelson Development has spent the past 15 years building and managing apartments in Sioux Falls, one of the fastest growing cities in the nation. Now, the construction firm has struck out for the west where it is seeing new opportunities and investing millions of dollars. "We love the Rapid City market ," said Matt Petersen, property manager for Samuelson Development . "Our research showed there was a high demand for luxury housing."  The company, which has about 600 properties in its portfolio, is spending about $16 million on the Copper Ridge Apartments project now under construction at 2000 Golden Eagle Road in southwest Rapid City , project manager John Samuelson said. It is the company's first project in Rapid City. The construction of those apartments, along with the Gateway Apartment project on Marlin Drive in southern Rapid City that has a permit value of $15.1 million, represents a resurgence in the construction of new multi-housing projects...

I just finished my all-new DAVOS portfolio that includes the following best-in-class REITs: Digital Realty (DLR), American Tower (AMT), Ventas, Inc. (VTR), Realty Income (O), and Simon Property Group (SPG). As a reminder, the DAVOS REITs were picked because of their high-quality attributes and most importantly for their dividend repeatability. While these REITs do not represent all of my favorite picks, they embody a diversified basket that serve as a proxy for robust dividend growth in the REIT sector. I’ll be honest, the last pick was the hardest. It was easy for me to select DLR, VTR, O, and SPG – because these four REITs have scale, experience, and muscle – all essential elements of durability. However, I was torn between the last pick, debating most of my Saturday as to whether I would go with American Tower or AvalonBay (AVB). I was really leaning to go with AvalonBay, but I decided at the last minute to include American Tower . It was a tough call, but after reading this ar...

After a UBS housing report pointed to as many as one in four homes owned offshore by mainland Chinese buyers being kept empty, and a further quarter used on a "temporary" basis, experts have been quick to say the results do not apply to Australian real estate . Among the naysayers is Jane Lu, head of Australia for Chinese international property site Juwai . She said there was "no hard data" and called the idea of vacant apartments held by offshore buyers as an "urban myth". "Most Chinese buyers of inner- city apartments are not so wealthy that they can afford to leave their property vacant ??? rather than renting it and earning some sort of income. There are some who do not live there full-time, because it is their second home. " Chinese investors are no more likely to turn down easy rent money than are Australians ... Australian second-home owners probably have more vacant properties in Ballina and Byron Bay than Chinese investors do...

Take a walk east from the gold-plated cupola of San Francisco City Hall and the landscape transforms into the Tenderloin, a patchwork of residential hotels, small delis and social service clinics that cater to the poor. It winds into the city’s main tourist corridor , and, farther along, a glossy cluster of condominium towers where upper- story penthouses cost millions . These symbols of extreme poverty and prosperity are wedged together in District Six, which serves both as a portal for visitors and a cauldron where San Francisco ’s most pressing political issues simmer . For 20 years, District Six voters have reliably concluded that the solutions to those issues come from the progressive viewpoint. And while it’s more than a year until the next election for supervisor, the contest is already shaping up as a test of whether that is still true. From the Tenderloin to the Mission Bay waterfront , District Six has seen a rush of development over the past two decades, and residents are ...

Let’s face it: Nobody really knows what to do about the homeless crisis. The sheer numbers of 60,000 people in city shelters and nearly 4,000 more on the streets — many in the latter group psychotic, drug-addicted and violent — overwhelm the best-intended plans to help them. That said, there are better and worse ways to cope with the nightmare. It’s bad enough that the city now spends $2.3 billion a year on homeless services including $1.4 billion on shelter housing , twice what it spent just three years ago. But making things worse : City Hall is now paying landlords more money to put up the homeless than the property owners could make by renting apartments and hotel rooms to non-homeless people at ordinary market rates . Shouldn’t developers be incentivized to create actual affordable housing for permanent residents — not more shelters for transients with no links to a community? The hapless Department of Homeless Services has gone off the deep end at a site in The Bronx, whether ou...