government

Housing prices are forecast to rise by at least 4% starting in April after the government announced the end to a package of tax incentives for homebuyers.

The Malaysian government's keenness to attract foreign property buyers is helping to make the country an attractive investment prospect for many, it has been reported.

Posting a record-breaking year-over-year sales increase for December, bigger down payments and shorter amortization periods are among the measures being considered to cool off a rapidly heating Canadian real estate market that has seen seasonally adjusted sales rise for 11 straight months. But where some see a bubble others predict that prices will begin to come down as inventory returns to the market. See the following article from Property Wire for more on this.

With the threat of a bubble hanging over its real estate market, the Chinese government is weighing plans to implement a new property tax to bring prices back down to earth. In the residential market, tax incentives have been suspended and credit cut back to discourage speculation and reel in prices, while developers have been hit with anti-hoarding measures and stiffer down-payment and pay-back requirements for government land purchases. See the following article from Property Wire for more on this.

To the average U.S. taxpayer, the math may not sound right: After pumping in about $150 billion of federal money, American International Group (AIG) posts a quarterly loss of almost $62 billion—the largest in American corporate history. And now it will have access to $30 billion in new cash from Washington.