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China’s Carbon Market Unlikely To Go Global For Decades
May 16, 2013 China, the world’s largest greenhouse-gas emitter, probably won’t import carbon credits for two decades as global diplomats craft a new emissions market that will increase supply, the nation’s climate negotiator said. Using offsets from outside China in that period is an “unlikely scenario,” Su Wei said in an interview in Bonn earlier this month. “Rather, internally we will have a lot of offsetting credits.” United Nations envoys are seeking to put together a new carbon market as the world negotiates a climate-protection agreement to take effect around 2020. The need for greenhouse- gas action may surge by then, when global emissions will probably exceed by at least 18 per cent the limits scientists have said will keep temperatures from rising 2 degrees Celsius, the UN estimated in November. “We are not very hopeful that we’ll see a global agreement over the next few years” that will increase demand, said Albrecht von Ruffer, Hamburg-based managing partner of Nserve Environmental Services GmbH. While China, South Korea and California are building or have installed carbon markets, “we don’t expect them to allow meaningful volumes of imports,” he said in a May 13 phone interview. The European Union is due to publish data today showing which emission credits were used by factories, power stations and airlines last year. Excess supply Certified Emission Reduction, or CER, offsets are created from carbon-reducing projects in developing countries under the Clean Development Mechanism, the biggest UN market by supply. Emission Reduction Units are from developed nation projects under the UN’s Joint Implementation mechanism. Supplies from both programs were at 2.1 billion tons as of May 14, according to data from the website of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. That’s more than the 1.7 billion tons allowed for compliance in the EU carbon market in the 13 years through 2020, according to that market’s rules. CERs for December have jumped 48 per cent so far this month, amid buying by EU emitters for compliance in the world’s largest carbon market. They rose 1 cent, or 2.6 per cent, to settle at 40 cents a ton on ICE yesterday in London. Waning demand for UN credits drove prices 90 per cent lower in the past year, according to ICE Futures Europe in London. New market A new market might encourage installation of the latest emissions-cutting technology in developing-nation industries, said Artur Runge-Metzger, the EU’s lead negotiator. The plan, still being put together, would stimulate nations to enact policies requiring industries to cut emissions, Runge- Metzger said May 2 in an interview in Bonn. For instance, a facility in the waste-management industry may get credits for implementing technology that’s even more advanced than set out in a government policy. “That may be the part that is going to be credited,” Runge-Metzger said. “You don’t have to go project by project, or waste-management site by waste-management site.” Crediting would result from a monitoring system that’s industrywide rather than project-specific, he said. Under the Clean Development Mechanism, each project must win registration from UN-overseen regulators and monitor its own emission reductions. ‘Not attractive’ A new offsetting market is “not attractive” to China, Su said in a May 2 interview in Bonn. Nations need tighter greenhouse-gas limits to spur consumption of credits, he said. “If there are no ambitious targets, there will be no demand,” he said. “So what’s the purpose of starting a new market mechanism?” Carbon markets are needed to encourage clean technology and protect the climate, according to Norway, a country that is buying offsets. “We believe the carbon markets will be very important in the years going forward,” Kjetil Lund, an Oslo-based deputy minister in the nation’s finance ministry, said in a May 7 phone interview. “We’re not happy with the very low prices.” Nserve, founded in 2003 before the EU’s market began, also is buying selected offsets, favoring those that may be alternatively marketed to companies and people who wish to voluntarily cut their emissions, von Ruffer said. That’s because there’s still not enough certainty about the future of international regulated markets, he said. “I wouldn’t build a business on this hope at the moment.” Read more: http://www.smh.com.a…l#ixzz2TSOXbVhd Continue reading
House Prices Rise £383 Per Day In Prime Central London
House prices rise £383 per day in prime Central London Friday 10th May 2013 Home owners in prime Central London are currently benefiting from price growth of £383 per day, the equivalent of a return air fare to New York City or Dubai, reports property consultant Cluttons in its latest Residential Investment Monitor Q1 2013. Following a slowdown in both the sales and lettings markets during Q4 2012, the prime Central London residential market has turned a corner, with positive growth recorded across all London regions. Values rose by 2.3% during the first quarter, taking the annualised increase to 6.8%, just ahead of the long run average of 6.7% per annum. Consequently, the average price of a flat in prime Central London breached the £1million mark for the first time, while the average price for prime residential property as a whole reached a new historic high of £1.53million in Q1, leaving prices 6.1% above the previous market peak of Q3 2007. This translates to an average increase of £383 per day. The best performing London region was Central North West, incorporating St John’s Wood, Hampstead, Maida Vale, Regent’s Park and Highbury & Islington, which showed price growth of 4.5%, pushing values above the £1.5million mark for the first time. Central West on the other hand, incorporating Hyde Park, Notting Hill, Kensington, Holland Park, Mayfair, Paddington and Marylebone saw the smallest increase of 1% over the quarter, which pushed average prices to £2.36million. Sue Foxley, Head of Research at Cluttons, said: “Prime Central London is once again experiencing robust price growth, driven primarily by the supply drought and strong domestic demand, aided by a greater take up of the historically low mortgage rates. To access property while also securing long-term capital value growth, buyers are looking to the edge of core locations with good transport links such as Clapham, Highbury and Canary Wharf, which in turn are benefiting from upward pressure on prices. “The prime London market appears to have successfully withstood the worst of the economic turbulence and continues to outperform the rest of the UK, albeit with relatively subdued levels of growth when compared to the years leading up to the recession.” Continue reading
Miami Price
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/556a2266-b334-11e2-b5a5-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2TQjHFljI By David Kaufman The city’s prime property market is thriving – but is the bubble about to burst? Back in 1991, Columbia University sociologist Saskia Sassen coined the term “global city” to describe an urban area crucial to the world’s overall economic, cultural and political development. Although Sassen initially wrote of cities such as London, Tokyo and New York, 20 years later she declared Miami to be one of the era’s most “exceptional” example of global city growth. Nothing better confirms Sassen’s observations than Miami’s rapidly ascendant real estate market. Hard-hit by oversupply and underfinancing after the 2008 crash, Miami has not merely survived, but is now thriving at record levels. Last summer, a 10-bedroom/30,000 sq ft compound on Miami’s Indian Creek Island sold for a record $47m; while in March, US “infomercial” entrepreneur Ajit Khubani reportedly paid $34m for a 16,000 sq ft penthouse at developer Ian Schrager’s 26-unit Miami Beach Edition project – a record for a Florida condominium. An 18,253 sq ft penthouse is now on sale for $50m at nearby Faena House, where 45 condominiums are being designed by Foster + Partners, and a 17,000 sq ft penthouse on top of South Beach’s 10-year-old south tower of Continuum is now listed for $39m. “Unlike before the recession, luxury Miami developers are building far fewer ‘mass-market’ projects with hundreds or even thousands of units,” says Peter Zalewski, of local property consultancy Condo Vultures. “They’re focusing on maximum pricing rather than maximum capacity.” Such figures represent the top end of the Miami market but prime property values have grown at all levels, from Atlantic-front South Beach across to Downtown and the Miami Design District, northward to Mid-Beach and up to Sunny Isles Beach. Indeed, agent Knight Frank says high-end Miami real estate prices rose by 19.5 per cent last year – the highest in North America and the fourth highest in the world, after Dubai, Bali and Jakarta. Prime Miami real estate (defined by Knight Frank as the top five per cent of the market) now averages between $1,300 and $1,440 per sq ft, with average sector condominiums now $1.57m and single-family homes $2.02m, according to a mid-April report by Douglas Elliman Real Estate. The firm says Miami’s high-end market begins at $730,000 for condominiums, and $850,000 for single-family homes. Already costlier than metropolises such as Tokyo or Mumbai, Miami prices are predicted by Knight Frank to grow by five to 10 per cent this year as more buyers enter an increasingly shrinking premium property pool. Although domestic buyers, particularly New Yorkers, have shown interest in the highest-end projects such as Faena House and Edition, foreign buyers – notably Brazilians, Argentines and Venezuelans – remain the strongest players in Miami. Last year, foreigners comprised some 60 per cent of the city’s total market, according to the Miami Association of Realtors. “Certain key prime markets have bounced back stronger than ever and Miami is one of them,” says James Price, Knight Frank’s head of international residential development. “Aided by international buyers, the level of [over]supply that had brought the market down has completely reversed itself.” A recent report by realtor Douglas Elliman found that Miami’s property inventory shrunk 12.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2013 compared with 2012 – and a full 30 per cent from 2011. The number of distressed properties – the short-sales and foreclosures that dominated recession-era sales – fell nearly 25 per cent from last year and almost 50 per cent since late 2010. Today, says Ron Shuffield, head of Christie’s affiliate EWM Realty International, Miami’s property inventory hovers between four and six months, well below the nine to 12 month threshold required to maintain market health. “Building in Miami came to a near-halt for almost five years,” he says. “We have a substantial number of projects being built but they’re still two to three years from completion.” According to CVR Realty, across South Florida nearly 125 towers with 17,700 units are either under construction or in the development stages – nearly half in Miami itself. As in New York, Miami developers are associating many of their highest-end projects with top architects: Foster’s Faena House, John Pawson at Edition, Denmark’s Bjarke Ingels at the Grove at Grand Bay, Mexican Enrique Norten at South Beach’s One Ocean and 321 Ocean, Zaha Hadid’s One Thousand Museum and Herzog & de Meuron at Jade Signature. Developers are also thinking bigger: units at Hadid’s building will reportedly start at roughly 4,500 sq ft, while apartments at Norten’s One Ocean average roughly 3,000 sq ft. “Buyers want larger spaces; simpler spaces that are functional from moment one,” says Edgardo Defortuna, founder of Fortune International, which is building Jade Signature. “Adding a name like Herzog & de Meuron takes it to the next level” – and adds roughly 20 per cent to the price. With dozens of new projects now in development and apartments at Edition and Faena now topping $3,000 per sq ft, Miami’s undersupply could shift into overabundance – or at least overpricing. “The ingredients and conditions are certainly there for another bubble,” says Condo Vulture’s Zalewski. “Two-thirds of all Miami sales are still under $300,000, so it’s hard to see the highest prices continuing to appreciate at such rapid rates.” Yet with prices still 37 per cent below their pre-recession peak, local agents say Miami may even be undervalued – at least compared with premium markets in London, Hong Kong or New York. Meanwhile, bank financing has now become far scarcer across the US, helping Miami’s market to develop what Shuffield calls “its own set of checks and balances” to ensure new projects remain solvent. “The bulk of new condo buyers are purchasing in cash – with deposits of 50 to 70 per cent. These new terms are giving the market far greater stability.” ——————————————- Buying guide ● Florida has no restrictions on foreign ownership – but the US Internal Revenue Service levies a 10 per cent withholding tax on foreign-owned property ● Florida accounts for 26 per cent of all sales to foreigners in the US, says the National Association of Realtors ● Florida is one of nine US states with no personal income tax ● Of the 22,000 pre-recession condos built in downtown Miami only 600 remain unsold What you can buy for: $500,000 A two-bedroom/two-bathroom 1,129 sq ft apartment in a five-year-old building in Miami’s Downtown ($515,000) $1m A two-bedroom/ two-bathroom apartment at the Palau at Sunset Harbour, which opens in 2014 ($1.059m) $5m A two-bedroom/ two-bathroom, 2,338 sq ft condo at Faena House with 1,190 sq ft of outdoor space ($5.15m) Continue reading
