Chinese cities’ moves to ease residency curbs fuel property demand

CHENGDU/BEIJING — China’s provincial capitals have discovered a way to keep apartment sales booming by making it much easier for graduates to get coveted...

Taguig City: a rising office kingdom

By Bjorn Biel M. Beltran Special Features Writer TAGUIG CITY is no stranger to change. From a farming and fishing settlement between the ancient kingdoms of...

Network of roads and bridges mapped to connect Davao’s eight hot spots

DAVAO CITY -- An initial urban master plan for Davao will involve the establishment of eight circumferential transport and development corridors, complete with key...

US embassy’s new ‘off location’ digs

LONDON -- The new US embassy in London is located in a former post-industrial wasteland on the south side of the River Thames --...

Hong Kong home prices reach double 1997 level and stocks rally

HONG KONG — Here’s a scary statistic: Hong Kong home prices are more than double their 1997 levels, when the city’s biggest housing bubble...

Using ‘digital Lego’, communities redesign India’s crowded slums

MUMBAI — When urban designer Trupti Vaitla asked residents of a Mumbai slum what new features they’d like to see in their dilapidated public...

‘Thirtyfold’ virtual office industry growth seen

WORKSPACE PROVIDER Regus Philippines said it expects the virtual office industry growth this year to be driven by millennials’ penchant for flexible work arrangements. Regus...

Homelessness to digital IDs: five property rights hot spots this year

MUMBAI -- The global fight over land and resources is getting increasingly bloody and the race for control of valuable assets is expanding from...

Home prices in 20 US cities increase by most since 2014

WASHINGTON -- Housing prices in 20 US cities accelerated more than forecast in October, rising by the most since mid-2014 as lean inventories continued...

NY removes nuke fallout shelter signs

NEW YORK -- New York City has quietly begun removing some of the corroding yellow nuclear fallout shelter signs that were appended to thousands...

Bethlehem hotels teem with tourists, defying tensions over Jerusalem

JERUSALEM — In the West Bank town revered as Jesus’s birthplace, hotels were at full capacity for Christmas despite simmering Israeli-Palestinian tensions over President...

Russians, Chinese seek out Greek properties for bargains, visas

ATHENS — George Kachmazov, a Russian realtor, is buying up property in Athens. The Moscow-based chief executive officer of real-estate platform Tranio.com has bought a...