Month: November 2020

The tax break allows foreign visitors to reclaim a sales tax of 20 percent on items bought in the country for more than £30 (Getty; Unsplash) A popular tax break is expiring in the United Kingdom in January, threatening the country’s status as a shopping destination and potentially dealing another blow to struggling retailers. The…

Istanye Park in Istanbul (Photo via Wikipedia Commons) Turkish investment giant Dogus Holdings AS has agreed to sell a 30 percent stake in a high-end Istanbul shopping mall to a wing of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. The deal is said to value the Istanye Park property at $1 billion, Bloomberg News reported. The buyer is…

John Wayne and the Riverside County ranch (Getty; Land and Farm) A sprawling Riverside County ranch once owned by actor John Wayne is back on the market for $8 million. The 2,000-acre property dubbed Rancho Pavoreal in the town of Sage was last on the market in 2018, according to the Los Angeles Times. It…

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez (Wikipedia Commons, iStock) Landlords and restaurateurs say Los Angeles County’s decision to suspend outdoor dining for three weeks because of spiking Covid cases will have dire economic consequences. “Restaurant operators that thought they could pay 30 to 35 percent of rent are now saying they can only pay 15…

When Deutsche Finance Group looked to crack the U.S. real estate market, it set its sights on a prime Manhattan corridor. In August 2018, the German investment firm’s new U.S. subsidiary picked up the top floors of the Gucci building with New York-based developer Michael Shvo and Turkish real estate mogul Serdar Bilgili for $135…

Brookfield CEO Brian Kingston and the Northridge Fashion Center at 9301 Tampa Avenue (Brookfield, Google Maps) Another mall owned by Brookfield Property Partners has fallen behind on loan payments — this time in Northridge. A $209.4 million commercial mortgage-backed securities loan on the Northridge Fashion Center has become 30 days delinquent for the first time,…

Compass CEO Robert Reffkin (Getty; iStock) Compass has tapped underwriters for a potential public offering that would be among the most buzzed-about IPOs in the residential world. The SoftBank-backed firm, which jolted traditional brokerages when it launched eight years ago, has hired Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as underwriters, Bloomberg reported. It is looking at…

Jeffrey Allen and Canyon Drive Manor apartments (Google Maps, iStock) Raintree Partners has picked up a 551-unit apartment portfolio, whose properties stretch across Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The firm paid $142 million and plans to renovate the units at a cost of $5,000 to $30,000 a unit, according to Commercial Observer. Four of the…

Avril Lavigne and 6453 Guernsey Avenue (Getty, Realtor) Avril Lavigne has purchased a Malibu home that luxury spec developer Scott Gillen renovated. The singer paid $7.8 million for the home, which was built in 1960, according to Variety. Gillen essentially rebuilt the entire property a few years ago. It sits at the end of a…

The total supply of single-family homes declined 40 percent to 3.3 months in October (iStock) Sales of new, single-family homes ebbed last month, but are still far ahead of where they were a year ago. October sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 999,000, a 0.3 percent drop from September’s revised estimate of…