Planet Property

Australian Financial Review23 February 2009Australian property developers are demanding that the so-called “RuddBank” be used to ensure that financing is available for residential projects as well as commercial ones. Currently, the Australian Business Investment Partnership – a federal government initiative aimed at ensuring that property developers can refinance property loans from overseas banks – only extends to commercial property.South China Morning Post23 February 2009Ping An Trust, the property investment arm of China’s second-largest insurer, will look for property investment opportunities despite the weakened real estate industry, the company’s chairman, Tung Hoi, said this week. The company, hived off from the insurance group in 2002, is looking for investments ranging from hotels to office buildings and other commercial properties.Riverfront Times (St Louis, Missouri) 24 February 2009Curt Sleeper, an American man who has been living in a cave in a sand-mine south of St Louis in Jefferson County, is auctioning his home on eBay. Sleeper and his wife Deborah bought the cave outside St Louis in May 2004 for $160,000. But they are unable to refinance it so are auctioning the 17,000 sq ft, subterranean home.The Irish Times 24 February 2009Recently filed financial documents reveal that Irish property tycoon Sean Quinn last year provided company shares to nationalised bank Anglo Irish as surety on deals. A charge on the shares of one of Quinn’s Jersey-based companies in favour of Anglo Irish Bank was registered in January last year. Charges were also taken out by Anglo on 9 July on shares in the Quinn Group holding company. These included a charge on preference shares that would, on default, have given the bank control of the Quinn Group. These shares were redeemed by Quinn on 28 July.Sydney Morning Herald24 February 2009The Supreme Court has ruled that two property speculators can walk away from a contract to buy a A$1.07m off-plan terrace home. In a judgment that could set a precedent, the court said that two Chinese immigrants could rescind their contract and get back their A$107,000 deposit from Sydney Advance Realty because the agent’s advertising had misled them.