REAL ESTATE

Rent.com.au is consolidating its position as Australia's #1 rental property website, indicating in a December press release they have achieved 300% growth in the number of agency listings on their website since February 2011.

South Korean house prices bounced back in 2011, after a slow second half of 2010. Housing starts and transaction volumes were strongly up. House prices rose by 6.86% (2.60% in real terms) during 2011, according to the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS). The Seoul house price index was up by 0.29% (-3.72% in real terms) during 2011, less than the national house price index.

What can Americans not live without? A car? A smartphone? Credit cards? Lake Research Partners found out via a survey, and the answer may be a little surprise for some.

After several years of strong activity, the property market in Lebanon is declining sharply, mainly due to domestic political bickering and regional unrest.

1300 Home Loan has ramped up its rhetoric, jumping into discourse on upcoming RBA rate moves following its consumer marketing launch.

Lenders have promised to continue to help dispel broker fear about non-conforming mortgage products.

Five days out from the RBA's next cash rate decision, Australian banks are again flagging that they may stay put on rates.

We've all known that 2011 wasn't a good year for housing or house prices, and this week we have had that confirmed in spades.

Property research firm www.globalpropertyguide.com investigated on the property development in Japan almost a year after the devastating earthquake.The Tohoku Earthquake of March 2011 had a not entirely surprising effect - the Japanese are now more nervous of condos, and their prices have fallen sharply.

Property research firm, www.globalpropertyguide.com has featured the possibilities of investing in the thriving property market of Seychelles. Blessed by nature, the Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands with superb beaches, an unspoiled landscape, virgin forest, amazing marine life, lots of orchids, bougainvilleas, hibiscuses, gardenias and frangipani, and a profusion of bird species found nowhere else. It is 1,600 km off the coast of East Africa, with a population of only 81,000.

Most brokers would assume new clients who walk through the door are coming to them purely to service their finance needs - but not so Nicole Seagren of Vision Finance, based in Melbourne.

Sydney has been unseated as the second costliest city in the world in a new survey of housing affordability.

Consolidation of mortgage aggregators is expected to continue apace in 2012, forcing the industry to assess the future viability of aggregation models.

Brokers are being warned they may lose business amid the growing number of online white label products - so how can mortgage advisers keep pace with changing consumer trends?

A significant increase in first homebuyers may have been inflated by a last-minute rush to beat stamp duty changes.

Think Tank Property Finance expects 2012 to yield more positive conditions for commercial property.

Aggregator Vow Financial has kicked off the year by launching a series of webinars that will be open to all brokers via their Facebook pages - not only its member brokers.

The HIA has claimed the gloom hanging over home building looks set to continue, and has called for a "three pronged attack" to address the sector's woes.

Any class action from disgruntled mortgage borrowers under the NCCP has been deemed unlikely to succeed.

Property confidence is down in Australia’s biggest states as investors look to resource-rich areas in 2012.

The RBA's decision to cut rates on Melbourne Cup day resulted in an immediate impact on house prices with properties in Australia's capital cities recording their first price rise of the year in November.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has boosted Pepper’s overall ranking in recognition of the company’s strong performance in the sub-prime residential mortgage space.

More than a quarter of a million mortgages were sold after last year's July 1 deadline for abolishing exit fees but the ban's impact on competition remains uncertain.

Westpac Bank (ASX: WBC), in a filing with the Australian Stock Exchange, said that it reclassified the allocation of loan purpose between owner-occupied and investment housing to better reflect the purpose of the loan.

Bank of Melbourne has reduced fixed rates, only a week after offering to price match any other major.

Spending less is more this Christmas festive season - especially if you are a woman, or Gen Y.

Domain.com.au's recent blog entry highlighted a trend amongst an industry and governments that have run out of ideas on how to make housing more affordable.

According to a recent report from a risk adviser to Banco Santander SA (SAN) and five other lenders, Spanish banks are currently holding 30 billion Euros worth of property that they can’t sell.

How much further will the slide in Chinese house prices go? National house prices had their third monthly decline in November, a fall of 0.3%, according to the China Real Estate Index System (CREIS).