St. Barts seeks to block overdevelopment
Although it covers only eight square miles, the ritzy Caribbean island of St. Barts faces population and infrastructure problems from overdevelopment.
Island officials say the tropical playground of the rich and famous can’t support much more than its high-season population of 14,000 people, and the addition of about 1,000 houses over the last two decades has added to the strains besetting the jewel of the French Antilles. Many newcomers are Americans who have bought or built second homes on the island, according to the International Herald Tribune. The mayor of the French territory, Bruno Magras, is fighting to limit development and may soon have more ammunition for his battle. The island is newly independent from the administrative division of French Guadeloupe, and zoning laws will likely be rewritten. Limiting the location and size of developments will keep demand high, say many brokers. Villas on St. Barts rent for $5,000 to $50,000 a week during high season. Pricey purchases on the island include the recent $21.5 million sale of a Rothschild family estate.
Rising office rents in Hong Kong are likely to stall this year
Office rents in Hong Kong have tripled since the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, epidemic depressed the market in 2003, but this year is likely to end weaker than it began. Hong Kong had the largest average increase in asking rents in 2006 out of the top 10 markets in the world, according to CB Richard Ellis, with space in the central district going for an average $101 a square foot. Rents for prime space increased 30 percent, beating gains of more than 20 percent in Madrid, Tokyo and London, and single-digit gains in North American markets. Many companies use Hong Kong, an international finance center, as a base for business with mainland China, but some can not afford the city’s rents. New office space inventory outside the central business district could drive down average rents across the territory. Approximately 4.8 million square feet of space will come onto the market this year. Knight Frank forecasts that average office rents will decline 3 percent during 2007 across Hong Kong.
Retail in India shifting from pushcarts to modern malls
Shopping malls are replacing pushcart vendors in India. By 2012, India may have 14 times as much space allocated to modern-style retail than it did in 2002, according to the International Herald Tribune. Currently convenience stores, shopping malls and supermarkets account for 2 percent of the $300 billion retail industry in India. Mom-and-pop stores, pushcart vendors and bazaar stalls have the largest share of the retail market. Recently, the government allowed global retailers some access to the country’s protected market. Homegrown retailers are also leading the charge. Reliance, India’s biggest private company, opened its first store, a grocery, at the beginning of November. By the end of February, it had 49 stores. According to Wal-Mart Stores, modern retail in India will increase to 35 percent of all retail by 2015. The transformation will be faster than in Brazil, which grew to 38 percent from 5 percent in 15 years. Analysts predict approximately 100 shopping malls will open during the next few years in India’s big cities, including the 3.2-million-square-foot Mall of India near New Delhi.
Paris is top bet among European cities for investment
Paris may be associated with fine food and romance, but the French capital is the top bet for investment in European cities over the next two years, according to a report by the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Although Parisian residential prices have risen 11 percent a year since 2001, prime locations in the city are still affordable, according to a story in the Telegraph, a British national newspaper. Prospects for future price increases are also good because there is little new residential development, owing to a lack of available land and tight planning restrictions. London finished second in the survey because, unlike Paris, it faces the burden of high construction costs on new airport terminals and Olympic venues, which serve to dampen investment prospects, the report said. Rounding out the top 10 major cities in the report were Stockholm, Munich, Lyon, Helsinki, Madrid, Barcelona, Hamburg and Copenhagen.