Latest news with #rents
Bloomberg
16 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Rising Rents Boost Valuations For London West End Landlord
By Updated on Save Rising rents across London's tourist heartlands pushed up the value of Shaftesbury Capital Plc 's portfolio. The landlord, which owns swathes of Covent Garden, Soho, China Town and Carnaby Street, reported values that rose 3.1% to £5.2 billion ($6.9 billion) in the six months through June, according to a statement Tuesday. That was driven by a 2.9% increase in its estimated rental values, it said. Earnings rose by 16% to 2.2 pence a share.
Entrepreneur
16 hours ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Demand Outstrips Supply in Dubai's Industrial and Logistics Market
You're reading Entrepreneur Middle East, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. ndustrial and logistics occupiers are increasingly targeting smaller units and looking beyond traditional Dubai and Abu Dhabi hotspots as intense competition for limited new supply continues to drive up rents, according to the H1 2025 Dubai and Abu Dhabi Industrial Markets Review report by global property consultancy Knight Frank. The report reveals how industrial rents have risen across the emirates in H1 following a record-breaking 2024, during which industrial and logistics space requirements in Dubai rose by 225% to reach 40.6 million sqft. Faisal Durrani, Partner – Head of Research, MENA, said, "Overall, upward rental pressure remains high, especially in well-established submarkets. These increases reflect strong occupier appetite for well-located industrial stock, while availability remains limited. Occupiers are also becoming more strategic, with a growing preference for mid-sized units. The 25,000-50,000 sqft band, for instance, has now become the most sought-after, reflecting a shift from the larger spaces favoured in 2024 and also the lack of larger units." Al Quoz remains the highest-priced location, with grade-A rents of AED 85 psf in Q2 2025, marking a 31% year-on-year increase. Grade-B stock in the same area commands AED 58 psf, up 21% year-on-year. Dubai Investments Park saw one of the steepest annual uplifts, with average rents up 33% over the year to AED 60 per sqft, underscoring its position as a key logistics and distribution hub. In Abu Dhabi, KEZAD Musaffah (ICAD) and Musaffah were standout performers, recording year-on-year rent increases of 57% and 52%, respectively. Al Markaz saw a 14% year-on-year increase, with rents holding at AED 375 psm in Q2 2025, up from AED 330 psm at the same point last year. As supply tightens in Dubai, occupiers are actively exploring alternative emirates, such as Umm Al Quwain. This has caused industrial and logistics rents in the Northern Emirates to rise rapidly – up by 40% year-on-year, from around AED 25 psf to AED 40 psf.
RNZ News
4 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
More being priced out of Dunedin rental homes, says charity head
First published on By Laine Priestley , Otago Daily Times Salvation Army Dunedin community ministries manager Captain Logan Bathurst. Photo: Otago Daily Times / Tracie Barret Climbing rents have brought housing insecurity in Dunedin close to a "tipping point", a charity leader says. Salvation Army Dunedin community ministries manager Captain Logan Bathurst made the statement after statistics released by Cotality showed rents had climbed by almost 9 percent in the year to May. Bathurst said the numbers tracked with the struggles he was seeing. He said more people in Dunedin had been priced out of rentals over the past 12 months. "I'd say it is getting worse. I think we're close to tipping point ... I don't think much is being done about it, to be honest. "It's lots of talk, but no real action at the moment." He believed people elsewhere in New Zealand were still struggling, despite the numbers showing rental prices were going down. Housing prices were still taking up a large portion of people's income, he said. "The amount ... is still huge - yes, around the country it has come down, but it is still a significant portion. "Energy costs and power costs have gone up as well over the last 12 months, so even if there is a saving in terms of accommodation, there's still higher costs of just cost of life and living." Cotality's report came from an update from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, which showed national median rents in the three months to May were down 0.3 percent from the year before. However, Dunedin was an outlier with an 8.7 percent rise. Cotality chief economist Kelvin Davidson said there was a sharp rise in rents post-Covid as borders reopened and net migration spiked. At the same time, rental supply was tighter, and investor activity dipped due to rising mortgage rates and tax rule changes. "This affordability ceiling is now acting as a natural brake on further rent increases." This story was first published by the Otago Daily Times .
ABC News
6 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
Renters finding the market ever more expensive
Rents in Australia may not be going up as fast as they were, but the rental market remains at record highs. Mike Lorigan reports.
ABC News
6 days ago
- Business
- ABC News
International students have not driven rents and inflation higher, RBA says
The rapid growth in international student numbers post-pandemic has not been a major driver of higher rents and inflation, the Reserve Bank says. The RBA's latest quarterly Bulletin was published on Thursday, with a special section on International Students and the Australian Economy. It looks at the big shifts in foreign student numbers in recent years. The analysis covers the period when the students left Australia en masse during 2020 and 2021, and then returned after borders reopened in late 2021. "Rapid growth in the international student stock post-pandemic likely contributed to some of the upward pressure on inflation from 2022 to early 2023, especially as arriving students front-loaded their spending as they set up in Australia and took time to join the labour market," the RBA article says. "The rise in international student numbers is likely to have accounted for only a small share of the rise in rents since the onset of the pandemic, with much of the rise in advertised rents occurring before borders were reopened." The RBA's analysis considers how foreign student numbers have affected consumption, inflation, the labour market, and the housing market in recent years, only from a short-run perspective. "Longer run effects are outside the scope of the work," the article notes. The RBA says education exports are now Australia's fourth largest category of export, worth approximately $50 billion in 2023-24. It says in recent years, international students have been an "important driver" of net overseas migration and gross domestic product (GDP) growth. But it says international students impact Australia's economy in numerous ways, and the dynamics have been unusual in the post-pandemic period. Firstly, it says global demand for education in Australia had grown solidly in the decade prior to the pandemic. It says that reflected a range of factors, including rising household disposable income in Asia, the active promotion of Australia as an education destination, and changes to migration policies that enabled higher education students to work in Australia after their studies. Other factors included global population growth, and the depreciation of the Australian dollar after the mining boom. But it says with the introduction of border restrictions in March 2020 to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus, new students were unable to enter Australia. And as a result, the number of international students fell sharply. Then, after Australia's international borders reopened in late 2021, the number of international students onshore rose rapidly. You can see that in the graph above. But while student arrivals quickly returned to around pre-pandemic levels after borders reopened, the number of students departing Australia were lower than normal because there were fewer students living in Australia to begin with (thanks to the huge number of students that departed Australia during the COVID lockdowns). The RBA says that unusual dynamic contributed to the total stock of international students living in Australia rising sharply from just under 300,000 in 2022 to 560,000 by the end of 2023. "Accordingly, international students were an important driver of net overseas migration during that period, accounting for around half of Australia's total net overseas migration," the RBA says. The RBA says an important area in which international students contribute to demand is in the housing market. It says foreign students are more likely to rent than Australian residents. It says about 50 per cent of over 70,000 international students surveyed in the 2023 Student Experience Survey reported that they rent in the private rental market (either in a private rented house, flat or room), whereas about one-third of the rest of Australia's population are renters. It says in the Student Experience Survey, about 24 per cent of international students reported living with family or friends, 15 per cent in student accommodation, 3 per cent in a homestay, and 2 per cent in "other" accommodation. It finds housing demand from international students also tends to be geographically concentrated around areas where educational institutions are based, notably inner-city locations. The RBA says that in theory, when it comes to property prices and rents, in the face of a relatively fixed supply of housing in the short term, we would expect an increase in international students to put upward pressure on rental demand and rents (all else equal), in the same way that any kind of increase in the renting population would impact demand. But it doesn't think they had a huge impact on rents in Australia in recent years. "As a back-of-the-envelope exercise, if we assume that 50 per cent of international students rent, an additional 100,000 students would increase private rental demand by 50,000 individuals," it says. "Models of the housing market used by the RBA suggest that a 50,000 increase in population would raise private rents by around 0.5 per cent compared with a baseline projection. "The marginal effect of an additional renter may be greater in periods where the rental market is tight and vacancy rates are low, such as occurred post-pandemic. "Nonetheless, the rise in international student numbers is likely to have accounted for only a small share of the rise in rents since the onset of the pandemic, with much of the rise in advertised rents occurring before borders were reopened," it argues. The RBA says that with time, higher demand for housing due to a greater number of international students in Australia could spur more dwelling investment, in the way it would for an expansion of the population more broadly. "One area where higher international student numbers have generated a supply response has been in purpose-built student accommodation, with rapid growth in building approvals for such projects in recent years. "Industry projections are for continued rapid growth in this area in the years ahead," it says. The RBA says international students also make an important contribution to the labour market. "While they only made up around 2 to 3 per cent of the labour force prior to the pandemic, they constitute the second largest group of temporary visa holders with work rights in Australia after New Zealand citizens, making them a large source of potential labour supply for the Australian economy," it says. It says in the post-pandemic years, the contribution of international students to labour supply has risen, reflecting both a rise in their participation rates and a lift in the limit on how many hours they can work (from 40 hours to 48 hours per fortnight). But it says that dynamic may drop again, given recent government changes. "Looking forward, while rules around the number of hours that international students can work are higher than pre-pandemic, average participation may decline from the levels seen in 2024," the RBA says. "This is because the recent tightening in visa policy has targeted groups of students who were more likely to be seeking to work; that is, those international students who do receive visas going forward are less likely to be focused on employment opportunities in Australia on average." The RBA says another unique feature of international students relates to the savings they bring with them to set up and finance their life in Australia. It says currently, international students have to provide proof of nearly $30,000 of savings to receive a student visa, up from about $25,000 in 2023, which is higher than the cash savings most Australian residents have in their bank accounts. "This could mean there is a temporal dimension in international student consumption, whereby consumption is strong upon arrival in Australia as individuals use these savings to set up their lives (i.e. purchasing furniture and other goods) but then slows afterwards," the RBA says. "In periods of strong inflows of students, such as just after borders reopened after the pandemic, this likely had an important effect on aggregate demand in the economy," it says. But it says a large proportion of student spending is on tuition fees, which account for 40 per cent of international student spending. "Our estimates of the average weekly spend of international students using Balance of Payments data suggest that international students spend twice as much as residents," the RBA says. [But] excluding fees, international students spend roughly the same as residents on average. "There are, however, some slight sectoral differences. Accommodation and food, transport, and housing make up a slightly higher share of the gross value added associated with education export spending, while business services, and retail and wholesale trade, make up a lower share," it says. And overall, the RBA says the rapid growth in the number of international students post-pandemic likely contributed to some of the upward pressure on inflation from 2022 to early 2023, but it wasn't a major driver. "The increase in international students was just one of many other forces at play in this time that drove demand above supply in the economy, and hence higher inflation," the RBA concluded.
