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William and Kate show off royal baby boy
William and Kate show off royal baby boy (AFP) / 24 July 2013 Britain’s Prince William, his wife Kate and their newborn baby son were spending their first day at home as a family Wednesday, a day after the royal couple showed off the future monarch to the world. A smiling Kate told the massed ranks of international media on Tuesday that motherhood was “very emotional”, while William said they were still choosing a name and revealed that he had already changed the baby’s nappy. Britain’s Prince William and his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge appear with their baby son, outside the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital, in central London.- Reuters The new third-in-line to the throne raised a tiny hand above his white blankets but remained peaceful, despite deafening cheers from well-wishers and the shouts of photographers outside St Mary’s Hospital in London. “It’s a special time,” said the 31-year-old Duchess of Cambridge, who was wearing a cornflower-blue dress with her brunette hair loose. “I think any new parent would know what this feeling feels like.” The duke, also 31, told reporters that “he’s got her looks, thankfully” as Kate playfully demurred, then added: “He’s got a good pair of lungs on him, that’s for sure”. The royal baby’s birth at 4:24pm (1524 GMT) on Monday sparked a global media frenzy, fuelled by the fascination that has surrounded the couple ever since they married in April 2011. The first photographs of Britain’s new prince dominated newspaper front pages on Wednesday, with the sapphire ring formerly belonging to William’s late mother Diana conspicuous on the hand of new mother Kate. Many of the papers, including the Daily Mirror, the Daily Mail and the Times, carried a picture of the day-old baby apparently waving to the throng of photographers and well-wishers on Tuesday. “Baby’s first royal wave” said the Daily Mail’s “magical picture souvenir” edition, while the Daily Mirror ran a similar headline: “Royal wave? I’ve cracked it mum”. The Daily Telegraph argued that the birth had secured the monarchy “for another century at least”. Congratulations have poured in from around the globe for the baby, a great-grandchild of Queen Elizabeth II, who is set to one day reign over Britain and the Commonwealth realms around the world. The Duchess initially held the baby as the royal couple emerged from the front door of the hospital’s exclusive Lindo Wing, before passing him to her husband, who was dressed in a blue shirt and jeans. The scene was reminiscent of when William was introduced to the world by his parents Prince Charles and Princess Diana outside the same hospital wing in 1982. Balding William joked that, despite the baby boy’s own thin wisps of hair, “he’s got way more than me, thank God”. Asked about changing the nappies of his son, who weighed in at a healthy eight pounds six ounces (3.8 kilograms) when he was born, the prince said: “We’ve done that already”. “He’s done his first nappy already,” added Kate. The traditional names George and James have been favoured by bookmakers as fit for a king, but the royal couple gave nothing away. “We are still working on a name so we will have that as soon as we can,” William said. After speaking briefly to the press, the royal couple re-emerged from the hospital with their son in a car seat, which William secured in their vehicle before driving his new family back to their home at Kensington Palace. Kate’s sister Pippa was reportedly waiting for them there. Hordes of journalists had camped outside the hospital for three weeks waiting for the baby, testament to the enduring appeal of the British monarchy and particularly the glamorous William and Kate. Cannon fire salutes rang out on Tuesday at the Tower of London and Green Park in celebration of the royal birth, while the bells at the 11 th century Westminster Abbey pealed across the capital for three hours. The couple had earlier received their first visitors when Kate’s parents Michael and Carole Middleton, self-made millionaires who run a party supplies business, arrived at the hospital in a humble black London taxi. “He’s absolutely beautiful. They’re both doing very well and we’re so thrilled,” a beaming grandmother Carole said afterwards. Charles arrived around two hours later with his second wife Camilla in a chauffeur-driven limousine. “Marvellous, thank you very much, absolutely wonderful,” said Charles. At Buckingham Palace, crowds straining for a glimpse of the official birth announcement on a gold easel in the forecourt were treated to a special edition of the Changing the Guard ceremony featuring the Cliff Richard song “Congratulations”. The baby will be titled His Royal Highness, Prince (name) of Cambridge — the blank to be filled in when his name is announced. William’s name was not announced for a week, while the world had to wait a whole month when Charles was born in 1948. It is the first time since 1894 that three direct heirs to the throne have been alive at the same time. The 87-year-old Queen said she was “delighted” at the birth of her third great-grandchild, reportedly telling a guest at a palace function that “the first-born is very special”. William and Kate are hugely popular and have been widely credited with revitalising the British royals following decades of scandal and the death of William’s mother Diana in a car crash in 1997. US President Barack Obama led the international messages of congratulations, which also poured in from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, Israel, Japan and Singapore. Continue reading
Confidence Growing in the UK Housing Market?
17th July 2013 Investor Today suggests that more confidence has returned to the housing market with the Halifax Housing Market Confidence tracker revealing that the headline House Price Outlook balance (i.e. the difference between the proportion of people across Britain that expect the average house price to rise rather than fall) stood at +40 in June. This was an increase of 7 percentage points compared with last quarter (+33) and was the highest score on this measure since the tracker began in April 2011. Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, said: “Sentiment regarding the outlook for house prices has improved markedly over the past quarter, continuing the trend seen since late 2012. This increase in optimism is partly due to house prices being stronger than expected in the first half of the year. We continue to see a clear north / south divide with significantly higher proportions of people expecting prices to rise in the south than elsewhere in the UK. Nonetheless, the market still faces substantial headwinds with, for example, house prices remaining above the historical average in relation to earnings. Such factors are likely to prevent a sharp acceleration in house prices.” Meanwhile Stephanie Butcher, European Equities Fund Manager at Invesco Perpetual tells investors not to write off Europe as an option to put their money into stating “At current levels valuations are so cheap on a cyclically adjusted basis that I believe the environment simply needs to be ‘less bad’ for Europe to be an attractive case. We could point out that Europe is chock-full of world class companies, which have international exposure, and are (thankfully) run by first-class managers not politicians, but that has been the case for a while and it hasn’t persuaded investors thus far. As investors we have one role – that is, to find under-valued assets, whatever those assets might be. Most appear to be persuaded that bonds are intrinsically over-valued. Equally, many seem persuaded that equities are, at this point, a cheap asset class. What fewer seem to accept is the fact that Europe today is the global value play, and within Europe itself, there are areas of the market which sit at generationally low valuation levels.” Finally Knight Frank’s Prime Global Rental Index states that Prime rents in key cities worldwide rose by just 0.2% in the first quarter of 2013 – The Index’s lowest rate of quarterly growth since 2009. Knight Frank’s Kate Everett-Allen said: “Prime rents are rising strongly in many emerging markets, but this growth is being overshadowed by weakening rents in some of the world’s more established financial centres such as Hong Kong, New York and London. Luxury property for rent in Dubai, Nairobi and Beijing rose by 18.3%, 13.9% and 12.3% respectively in the year to March. By comparison, Hong Kong, New York and London saw prime rents fall by 2.3%, 2.6% and 3.1% over the same period. In this second group of cities, the rental markets have suffered as relocation budgets for executives have been trimmed during a period of weaker financial sector performance.” Continue reading
Cushman Says Asia Is Best Destination for Property Investments
By Kathleen Chu – Jul 18, 2013 Cushman & Wakefield Inc., the largest closely held commercial broker, said Asia is the place to be for investment opportunities amid growing interest in the region’s property market. “Interest in real estate is absolutely as high as we have ever seen,” Executive Chairman Carlo Sant’Albano, 49, said in an interview in Tokyo. “When you look at the growth profile of the world in the next several years, Asia remains absolutely critical path for growth.” Carlo Barel Di Sant’Albano, executive chairman and chief executive officer of Cushman & Wakefield Inc. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg Asia accounted for 47 percent of global real estate transactions last year, according to data compiled by the New York-based broker. Global property investment volume will probably exceed $1 trillion this year, the highest level since 2007, according to the data. China, Japan and Hong Kong were the top investment targets in 2012 from Asia, according to Cushman. The company, run by Italy’s Agnelli family that also controls Fiat SpA (F) , expanded its operations into Taiwan and the Philippines this year to capture the opportunities in the region. “If you want growth, Asia is the place you want to come,” said Sant’Albano. “If you want a very solid core investment, maybe more yield related rather than capital gain, you would look at Japan, London and Australia, and some of the major cities around the world.” To contact the reporter on this story: Kathleen Chu in Tokyo at kchu2@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andreea Papuc at apapuc1@bloomberg.net Continue reading
