LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Britain’s housing market suffered the most widespread price falls since 2009 last month as the run of interest rate increases over the past year weighed on would-be buyers, according to a survey published on Thursday.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) house price balance, which measures the gap between the percentage of surveyors seeing rises and falls in house prices, fell to -47, the lowest since April 2009, from -42 in December.
A measure of interest from buyers also fell to -47, its lowest since October last year.
Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at RICS, said the overall mood of the market as measured by surveyors remained subdued.
“However, it is questionable how much downside to pricing there is likely to be given that recent macro forecasts from the Bank of England and others are now envisaging a less harsh economic environment this year,” Rubinsohn said.
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The BoE last week said Britain’s economy would probably fall into recession in early 2023 and would only come out of it in early 2024, a shorter period of contraction than in its previous set of forecasts.
The RICS report showed surveyors were less pessimistic about the outlook than in December with a measure of expected sales over the next 12 months improving to -20 from -42.
Other housing market measures have also recently shown a loss of momentum following the surge in demand seen during the coronavirus pandemic.
A Reuters poll of economists and analysts in November predicted house prices would fall around 5% this year having surged by 28% since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
RICS said the rental market continued to show strong interest from tenants with limited availability of stock.
Reporting by William Schomberg; editing by David Milliken
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SYDNEY, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Australia’s house prices extended declines for the ninth straight month in January amid high mortgage rates, a drag on household wealth that will further erode consumer spending and add to economic stress.
Figures from property consultant CoreLogic on Wednesday showed prices nationally fell 1.0% in January from December, when values dropped 1.1%.
Prices were down 7.2% from a year earlier. They were also 8.9% lower from their April peak, making last month the largest and fastest decline in values since at least 1980 as the Reserve Bank of Australia embarked on the most aggressive tightening campaign in modern history.
The monthly fall was led by Sydney where prices slid 1.2% in the month to be down 13.8% on the year, while Melbourne dropped 1.1% on the month and 9.3% on a year earlier.
Prices across the combined capital cities fell 1.1% in the month, while outlying regions – which have performed better in this housing downturn – lost 0.8%.
Tim Lawless, research director at CoreLogic, does not expect listing and purchasing activity would return to average levels until consumer sentiment starts to improve, after prices suffered the biggest fall since 2008 last year.
New listings in capital cities in January were 22.2% lower than over the same period last year, implying that most home owners seem to be prepared to wait this downturn out.
“Until Australians have a higher level of confidence with regards to their household finances and the outlook for the economy, it’s likely they will continue to delay major financial decisions,” Lawless said.
The RBA has lifted rates by 300 basis points to a 10-year high of 3.1% to curb red-hot inflation. Investors are wagering rates would rise by another 25 basis points next week when the Board meets for the first time this year. ‘
Consumers are already feeling the pinch from rising borrowing costs and sky high inflation, with December retail sales tumbling the most in more than two years, in a warning for the economy.
Reporting by Stella Qiu; Editing by Jacqueline Wong
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Jan 31 (Reuters) – Japanese trading firm Marubeni Corp (8002.T) started commercial operation based on the feed-in tariff program for renewable energy at Akita Port offshore wind farm on Tuesday, it said in a statement.
Japan’s offshore wind power market, part of the country’s goal to be carbon neutral by 2050, is set to grow as the government eyes installing up to 10 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030, and up to 45 gigawatts by 2040.
Marubeni’s 100 billion yen ($768 million) project of two wind farms with 140 megawatt capacity at Akita Port and Noshiro Port in northern Akita prefecture is Japan’s first large-scale commercial offshore wind power project.
With its Noshiro Port offshore wind farm operating since late December last year, the launch of the Akita Port farm brings the project to the full-scale operation, Marubeni said.
Power from the two wind farms will be sold to Tohoku Electric Power for 20 years under a power purchase agreement based on the feed-in tariff program.
Marubeni’s 12 partners include Obayashi Corp, Tohoku Sustainable & Renewable Energy Co, Cosmo Eco Power Co, Kansai Electric Power Co and Chubu Electric Power Co.
($1 = 130.2900 yen)
Reporting by Katya Golubkova, Editing by Louise Heavens
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LONDON, Jan 26 (Reuters) – Britain’s commercial real estate sector is increasingly feeling the pinch of higher borrowing costs, as investor enquiries declined in the fourth quarter and the outlook for the year ahead worsened, an industry survey showed on Thursday.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said 83% of respondents to its quarterly commercial property survey thought the market was already in a downturn, up from 81% a quarter before. Almost half considered this downturn to be in its early stages.
RICS said investor enquiries fell across all sectors for the first time since the start of the pandemic, with a net balance of -30 of respondents citing lower investment demand.
Tarrant Parsons, senior economist at RICS, said the investment side of the commercial property market was “significantly affected” by the Bank of England’s (BoE) tighter monetary policy, and that higher borrowing costs were weighing on investor demand and hurting valuations.
The BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee raised its main rate at its last nine meetings and markets have priced in a half percentage point increase to 4% for Feb. 2.
British consumer price inflation was running at 10.5% in December, nearly five times the Bank’s 2% target.
Near-term capital value expectations dropped sharply across the board, and the industrial sector saw the weakest reading since 2011.
“Linked to the rise in government bond yields over the past six months, capital values have pulled back noticeably of late, while expectations point to this downward trend continuing over the near term,” Parsons said.
Looking at the year ahead, average capital values were forecast to fall further in all parts of Britain.
The survey of 940 companies was conducted between Dec. 7 and Jan. 13.
Reporting by Suban Abdulla; editing by David Milliken
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Jan 20 (Reuters) – Land Securities Group Plc (LAND.L), Britain’s top commercial property landlord, has appointed broadcaster Channel 4’s Ian Cheshire as its next chairman, the company said on Friday.
The new Landsec chairman takes over the mantle at a time when UK commercial property values are seeing a slump, pressured by rising interest rates and broader economic uncertainty.
Aggressive interest rate hikes to tame stubborn inflation and deepening recession worries are dampening a tentative recovery in the British commercial property sector from the pandemic fallout.
Cheshire, the chairman of Channel 4 and private hospital operator Spire, replaces Cressida Hogg, who was named the next chair of defence firm BAE Systems (BAES.L) last year.
He will join the Landsec board in a non-executive capacity on March 23 and take over the chairman’s role on May 16, when Hogg retires after almost five years in that position.
Cheshire, 63, is currently a non-executive director at BT Group (BT.L) and will retire from the communications firm at their annual general meeting in July.
A veteran in the retail industry, Cheshire had joined Channel 4’s board last April and was in the forefront of discussions with the British government over its now-abandoned privatisation plan.
Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Sherry Jacob-Phillips
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BEIJING/HONG KONG, Jan 13 (Reuters) – Chinese government-linked Xiamen C&D Inc (600153.SS) said on Friday it plans to acquire a 30% stake in home furnishings store operator Red Star Macalline Group (601828.SS) in a deal worth up to 6.3 billion yuan ($938 million).
The transaction, which would involve buying a 29.95% stake from Red Star Macalline’s current controlling shareholder, will require approval from the state asset regulating authority in the city of Xiamen, which controls Xiamen C&D, the company said in a stock exchange filing.
Red Star Macalline in the third quarter of 2022 reported a 8.4% fall in revenue and a 47.3% drop in net profit citing disruption caused by COVID-19 outbreaks to its businesses.
Sluggish new home sales in the world’s second largest economy have hurt demand for home decoration and furnishing, analysts have noted.
Property sales by floor area in January-November fell 23.3% from a year earlier, China’s statistics bureau reported.
For the first nine months last year, Red Star Macalline recorded total liabilities of 76.0 billion yuan versus assets of 133.7 billion yuan.
As for the firm’s controlling shareholder Red Star Macalline Holding Group, a Fitch Ratings report in September said the firm faced “heightened refinancing risks” related to its “large onshore bond maturities” over the coming 12 months.
In July 2021, Red Star Macalline Holding Group agreed to sell 70% stake in a property development unit to an entity linked to Sino-Ocean Group (3377.HK) for 4 billion yuan.
($1 = 6.7147 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Kane Wu; editing by Jason Neely
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HOUSTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) – A 3D printer is taking home building to a new level — literally.
The enormous printer weighing more than 12 tons is creating what is believed to be the first 3D-printed, two-story home in the United States.
The machine steadily hums away as it extrudes layers of concrete to build the 4,000-square-foot home in Houston.
Construction will take a total of 330 hours of printing, said architect Leslie Lok, co-founder of design studio Hannah and designer of the home.
“You can actually find a lot of 3D-printed buildings in many states,” Lok said. “One of the things about printing a second story is you require, you know, the machine…And of course, there are other challenges: structural challenges, logistic challenges when we print a second-story building.”
The three-bedroom home with wooden framing is about halfway finished and is being sold to a family, who wish to remain anonymous, she said.
[1/4] A 12-ton industrial 3-D printer is used to print concrete for the first 3-D-printed, two-story home currently under construction in Houston, Texas, U.S., January 3, 2023. REUTERS/Evan Garcia
The project is a two-year collaboration by Hannah, Peri 3D Construction and Cive, a construction engineering company.
Hikmat Zerbe, Cive’s head of structural engineering, hopes the innovative technique can one day help more quickly and cheaply build multifamily homes.
In addition, concrete can withstand the hurricanes, heavy storms and other severe weather in Texas that is becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change.
And since the printer does all the heavy lifting, less workers are needed at the construction site.
“Traditional construction, you know the rules, you know the game, you know the material properties, the material behavior. In here, everything is new,” Zerbe said. “The material is new, although concrete is an old material in general, but 3D printing concrete is something new.”
Read more:
Scientists chip away at how ancient Roman concrete stood test of time
Reporting by Evan Garcia; Editing by Lisa Shumaker
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LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) – Self-driving software startup Oxbotica has raised $140 million from investors to speed deployment of autonomous vehicles (AVs) in areas including heavy industry, ports and airports.
The Series C round includes funding from new investors including Japanese insurer Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance, the venture capital arm of software company Trimble (TRMB.O) and the venture capital arm of Japanese oil refiner Eneos (5020.T).
It also includes fresh funding from existing investors including Tencent (0700.HK) and the venture capital arm of BP (BP.L), as well as Kiko Ventures, the clean tech investment platform of IP Group (IPO.L) and Oxbotica’s first institutional investor.
Oxbotica has now raised about $225 million in total and the company said that additional investors are expected to sign up before the funding round closes in a few months.
The startup is working on specific applications for strategic investors. These include AVs for remote BP locations, a people mover for German auto parts supplier ZF Friedrichshafen and for last-mile delivery by British online supermarket and technology group Ocado (OCDO.L).
The clamour for robotaxi applications, however, appears to have subsided.
Ford Motor Co (F.N) said in October that it was winding down its Argo AI self-driving business, saying robotaxis were still too far off to continue investing.
Oxbotica Chief Executive Gavin Jackson told Reuters that AVs using the startup’s software will enter service in 2023 in the energy and agriculture sectors, plus private truck yards, followed by fixed-route passenger shuttles in 2024.
Once regulations catch up with the industry, the company will start running tests on limited routes for Ocado in 2025, Jackson said.
He said the company has customers in mining, construction, agriculture, airports, ports and the logistics sector, all of which want safe and reliable AVs.
“These are the applications that matter,” Jackson said. “The proceeds (of this funding round) will really accelerate deployment for our commercial customers.”
Reporting by Nick Carey
Editing by David Goodman
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WASHINGTON/LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) – Boeing (BA.N) Commercial Airplanes is tapping the sales chief who helped lead the U.S. planemaker through two major crises in recent years to oversee fractured global supply chains as the aerospace industry battles to meet resurgent jet demand.
Ihssane Mounir has been named senior vice president of global supply chain, Boeing Commercial Airplanes Chief Executive Stan Deal said in an email to employees. Mounir was previously senior vice president of commercial sales and marketing.
Deal told the company’s 1,200 direct suppliers in a separate memo that Mounir would lead internal and external supply chains and integrate strategy and requirements across all programs.
The decision to unite in-house fabrication and the external supply chain restores a structure used in the past and comes as the industry fights post-COVID disruption on a broad front.
“As an industry, while we are seeing strong indications of global market resilience and recovery, we are still working to drive stability and predictability in our factories,” Deal said in the memo to suppliers, which was seen by Reuters.
During an unusually long six-year stint as sales chief, Mounir helped steer Boeing through the twin crises of fatal crashes that led to the grounding of the 737 MAX and the COVID-19 pandemic – a period during which rival Airbus SE (AIR.PA) emerged as largest planemaker by number of deliveries.
He made headlines in 2019 with a tentative sale of 200 MAX to British Airways owner IAG (ICAG.L)
, stealing the Paris Airshow from Airbus in a deal seen as a rescue package for the floundering jetliner just as Boeing was sliding into a two-year crisis.
The number of planes involved fell to 50 when the deal was finalized after the pandemic, but the original coup was credited with easing doubts over the future of Boeing’s biggest cash cow.
Boeing went on to sell 1,300 MAX jets under Mounir since the lifting of the safety ban, offsetting a slew of cancellations, although Airbus still leads the coveted top of the segment.
Industry sources have said Boeing is also poised to sell 190 MAX and 30 larger 787s as part of a fleet shake-up involving a total close to 500 jets at Air India, roughly split with Airbus.
Among other moves, Deal said Brad McMullen, vice president of commercial sales North America, would succeed Mounir in his sales position while Kim Smith was named to the new role of vice president of Boeing Global Services (BGS) Total Quality.
McMullen has for several years driven strategically important accounts in Boeing’s home market, where United Airlines (UAL.O) last week ordered 100 MAX and 100 787s, again upstaging Airbus whose own United order for 45 A350s now looks uncertain.
Former aerodynamicist Mounir must now deal with separate turmoil in supply chains that have been disrupted by the factory bottlenecks and labor shortages seen worldwide post-COVID.
Deal told reporters last week that Boeing faces a number of supply-chain issues.
“One thing that we’re going to be very mindful of is to make sure we run a disciplined (production) ramp-up,” he said.
Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington and Tim Hepher in London; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Leslie Adler
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TAIPEI, Dec 19 (Reuters) – Foxconn (2317.TW), the world’s largest contract electronics maker, is likely to be fined soon by Taiwan’s government for an unauthorised investment in a Chinese chip maker, a person with direct knowledge of the situation said on Monday.
Taiwan, which Beijing views as sovereign Chinese territory, has turned a wary eye on China’s ambition to boost its semiconductor industry and is tightening legislation to prevent what it says is China stealing its chip technology.
Foxconn, a major Apple Inc (AAPL.O) supplier and iPhone maker, disclosed in July it was a shareholder of embattled Chinese chip conglomerate Tsinghua Unigroup, but said late on Friday it would be selling the stake. Taiwan said on Saturday it would fine Foxconn over the investment.
Taiwan’s government, which needs to approve all outbound investments, had not approved the deal. Taipei also prohibits companies from building their most advanced chip foundries in China to ensure they do not site their best technology offshore.
The person familiar with the situation told Reuters that the Economy Ministry would contact Foxconn on Monday to confirm the equity sale.
“Even though the investment was later pulled the fact has already been established that they invested first, and they will be fined,” said the source, who was not authorised to speak to the media.
“It should not take too long for Hon Hai to be punished,” the source added, referring to the company’s formal name, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd.
Reuters has previously reported that the company could be fined up to T$25 million ($813,749). read more
Foxconn declined to comment.
Tsinghua Unigroup has not responded to a request for comment on the investment being pulled.
Taiwanese law states the government can prohibit investment in China “based on the consideration of national security and industry development”. Violators of the law can be fined repeatedly until corrections are made.
Foxconn has been seeking to acquire chip plants globally as a worldwide chip shortage rattles producers of goods from cars to electronics. It is keen to make auto chips in particular as it expands into the electric vehicle market.
($1 = 30.7220 Taiwan dollars)
Reporting by Jeanny Kao and Yimou Lee; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell
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