Construction Maison

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...

San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin has asked the city attorney to explore legislation to impose a vacancy tax on large property owners who leave residential and commercial buildings empty . During a supervisors meeting this month, Peskin said he continues to receive complaints about the impact of “ghost buildings” on neighborhoods. The problem is, nobody really knows how many vacant homes there are in the city and whether a vacancy tax would be legal or effective in freeing up much-needed housing. In an interview, Peskin cited a 28- unit apartment building at 1656 Powell St. that was vacated after a fire damaged some units in December 2013. It remains empty. The three-story building is in a prime North Beach location across from Washington Square Park . Four businesses on the building’s ground floor — a liquor store, a bar, a Thai restaurant and a seafood restaurant — are open, but the apartments above still have boarded-up windows and a littered lobby. Some work was done in the...

Last week the Columbia Falls City Council approved the development of a new 18- unit apartment complex in downtown. The council gave the green light to Mick Ruis’ proposal, which is emerging as his latest local investment . The apartment complex , valued at an estimated $3 million, will replace the former DaVall Building at the corner of Fifth Street West and First Avenue West. Ruis, a prominent local developer and philanthropist, purchased the empty building two years ago and is replacing it with a three- story apartment complex . According to plans submitted to the city, the 22,000-square-foot complex will feature 12 two-bedroom units and six three-bedroom units. There will be 18 parking spaces on the north side of the building. Ruis has purchased several pieces of property in Columbia Falls in recent years and is overseeing several redevelopment projects. He is developing an eight- unit condominium building on Nucleus Avenue next to the Park ...

As teachers, cooks, cashiers, and bus drivers are being priced out of Charlotte, one question looms: How does a growing, thriving city in modern America keep housing affordable for its working-class citizens? By RACHEL JONES Published: 2017.08.23 06:21 AM Jacqueline Ingram (middle) works full-time at the Ross Dress For Less distribution center in Rock Hill. But in this booming region, her salary isn’t enough to comfortably buy a home for her and her kids, 12-year-old Nya and five-year-old Rejonee. PHOTOS BY ANDY MCMILLAN ONE RECENT SUNDAY AFTERNOON , Jacqueline Ingram and her two daughters explore an empty four-bedroom house for sale on a Brianna Way cul-de-sac in southwest Charlotte , filling it with their dreams along the way. “This one is mine,” 12-year-old Nya says of an upstairs bedroom with a view of the Clanton Park neighborhood . “I could put my chest over there, and my table there.” As five-year-old Rejonee sprawls out on the carpet in the room across the hall, In...