The 234 Apartment

The New Zealand apartment and townhouse market shows no sign of abating and is forecast to grow another 9.2 per cent next year, a sign that the Australian market could follow suit, new research from IBISWorld shows . Multi-unit apartment and townhouse construction will be fastest growing industry in New Zealand ahead of in-demand industries such as superannuation funds and aged care residential services . Apartment and townhouse prices will continue to grow 16.2 per cent a year until 2018 and then taper down to 2.3 per cent a year between 2018 and 2023. Driving this is  strong population growth of more than 2 per cent, which is higher than Australia's, IBISWorld senior industry analyst Tommy Wu said. Australia's population is growing at 1.6 per cent at the end of 2016, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. "The New Zealand market has similarities with the Australian market. They both have low interest rates – which drive the demand – but the main reason Ne...

Chesterfield County again led the region for single- family home sales last year, but faces challenges when it comes to housing affordability.  That's according to Laura Lafayette, chief executive officer of the Richmond Association of Realtors, during her presentation to the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors this week. In the county, 5,460 single- family homes sold in 2016, a 13.5 percent increase from 2015 when Chesterfield again led the region. Sales in Chesterfield outpaced Henrico County , the second hottest housing market in the region last year, by 1,805 homes. The average sales price in Chesterfield was $266,484. Lafayette said she expected the number to be the same, if not slightly higher, by the end of 2017. "This is obviously a sellers market. If you want to purchase a house, you’ve got to bring a full-price offer," Lafayette said. While Chesterfield led the region for single- family home sales , Henrico came in first for condo and town home sales ...

Along Florida's Turnpike in South Miami -Dade, where potato farms and fields of row crops stretched all the way to the visible horizon at the time when Hurricane Andrew struck , it’s virtually all rows of close-packed houses and townhomes today. Now the unavoidable noise walls are going up to forever block vistas once among the most beguiling in South Florida. Along South Dixie Highway , where scraggly lots, small farm fields and vegetable- and fruit-packing houses once mixed it up with used-car lots and budget motels, the landscape is a cornucopia of strip malls, Publix and Wal-Mart stores and fast- food chain restaurants . And everywhere there is traffic, backed up one way in the morning, when three-quarters of all employed adults in South Miami - Dade head north to downtown Miami , Coral Gables or even Doral to work, and the other way when they drive back home in the evening. Lightning struck as thunderstorms swept through the ruins of Homestead in the days after Hurricane...