Real Estate: Global Market Perspective

US Real Estate Market looking up 
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B&B property )write to: real_estate@eclipso.eu 

LL's Global Market Perspective has chronicled the journey of the world’s dominant real estate markets since the depths of the Great Recession in 2008, a journey that has been led throughout by strengthening investment markets as a huge weight of money targets real estate assets.

But, as we move into 2016, the dynamics have started to shift, with the occupational markets now registering greater momentum.

Market fundamentals are improving across all major global regions and property sectors, and recent leasing activity has surprised on the upside. Geopolitical and economic headwinds will weigh on business activity over the coming months, but for now, corporate occupiers remain in growth mode which, combined with tightening supply, will support rental value growth during 2016 in most major markets.​​

Improved consumer confidence and healthy retail sales are fuelling optimism in the U.S., Europe and selectively in Asia Pacific. Several

U.S. markets, primarily gateway cities, are now witnessing conditions typical of a peaking market as rents see assertive growth and vacancy continues to compress. Meanwhile, UK regional markets and Berlin
experienced the strongest rental growth over the year’s final quarter in Europe, while increases were also recorded in the recovery markets of Italy and Spain.

In Asia Pacific the demand picture remains varied, with the acceleration in retail spending in Australia contributing to  leasing demand, although rental growth has been limited in most regional markets over the quarter.

For the complete report click here:  Global Market Perspective | JLL

Global Shipping: Shipping rates hit new lows on excess supply - by Luke Graham

Port Of Rotterdam, the Netherlands

The global shipping industry continues to fall victim to weakening demand and excess supply with freight rates on some routes hitting all-time lows, latest figures show.

Average spot freight rates fell to a record low of $701 per 40-foot shipping container last week, according to the World Container Index (WCI) which tracks 11 global shipping routes. This was the lowest reading since the index started tracking rates in 2011.

The WCI index is 60 percent below the five-year average and has fallen 62 percent in the past year, according to the WCI's director, Richard Heath, in a press release.

One of the worst hit lines is the Asia to Europe route. The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index showed shipping costs on the route have fallen 82 percent over the past 10 weeks to $211 per 20-foot container.

Along with weakening demand from markets such as China, the glut of container ships plying the world's seas has been a major factor hitting freight rates, Philip Damas, director at Drewry, told CNBC in a phone interview. The current rates are not sustainable, he added.

Maersk echoed these reasons in their recent full-year financial reports.

"The continued lack of demand and over-capacity resulted in sharply declining rates from the second quarter and onwards," said Søren Skou, CEO of Maersk Line, in the company's annual report.

Red more: Shipping rates hit new lows on excess supply

Political Mismanagement : 10 Economic, Political and Social Global Forecasts Indicate Troubled Times Ahead In 2016 - by RM

The legacy of a totally failed Middle East Policy

As a wise man once said "Without Freedom Of Speech There Are Only Official Lies"

Below links to 10 reports which indicate that the overall state of our globe in 2016 does not look very rosy.  Click on the headline to get the report.

 

European economies face harsh headwinds from China

Is the EU imploding?The Europe Question In 2016

Toward Global Disaster: Chaos and Intervention in the Middle East

Global Economy: Soros: It's the 2008 crisis all over again

Middle East: Where Will this War Frenzy Lead?

EU Presidency: ′Turbulent times′ as Netherlands takes over EU presidency

USA: To understand Donald Trump, look to Europe

Global Economy Catching China's Cold

China: Don't blame the economy for China's latest market meltdown

US Economy: Could the American economy tank in 2016?

Change however lies in the hands of the people, and if politicians have made life worse rather than better for you - get rid of them. Don't sit on the sidelines staring at your navel or pointing your finger at others.   

After all : "The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by its private citizens" - Alexis de Tocqueville

EU-Digest

The World's Most Competitive Countries

The United States is holding its own in first place. For the past 26 years, IMD, an international business school in Lausanne, Switzerland, has issued a list of the countries it says are the world’s most competitive.

\The U.S. had been in the No. 1 slot for more than a dozen years until the great recession knocked it from the top rung, in 2010. Though it regained the No. 1 slot in 2011, the hangover from the recession nudged it out of the top spot again in 2012. Once American financial markets recovered and business efficiency and profitability revived, it regained its dominant position last year. It’s in the No. 1 slot again this year.

IMD ranks 60 countries across the world, measuring a staggering 338 criteria in four broad categories—economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure. For one third of the ranking, IMD uses a survey of more than 4,300 international executives.

For the rest, it relies on hard statistical data from institutions like the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which keep track of measures like direct investment, budget surpluses, revenues from tourism, and unemployment.

IMD also takes advantage of 55 “partner institutes” around the world, like Ireland’s development agency IDA Ireland, the Federation of German Industries, and the Mitsubishi Research Institute in Japan, who help gather statistics from national sources and distribute the executive surveys, which ran from January through March of this year.  (For more on IMD’s methodology, click here.)

Read more: The World's Most Competitive Countries