Real estate

This article first appeared in City & Country, The Edge Malaysia Weekly, on October 18, 2021 - October 24, 2021. - A + A Many are eagerly waiting to see what initiatives and incentives the government has for the nation when Budget 2022 is announced on Oct 29. Real estate-related associations are hoping for some help to alleviate the problems faced by their members as a result of the pandemic. Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia (Rehda) president Datuk Soam Heng Choon says its wish list includes a reduction in the cost of business and the standardisation of guidelines. “Assistance from the government is needed to reduce the cost of doing business so that development costs remain sustainable, such as not imposing any more new conditions or new charges, or an upward revision of contribution charges by utility companies as well as local authorities. Meanwhile, the federal government should also advocate for standardised …

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Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin When Ryan Williams traveled to Georgia during a break from classes in 2008 the Harvard undergrad noticed a troubling trend. Homes that just a few months earlier had been marketed for $350,000 were now being sold at auction for maybe $50,000. Williams, of course, was not the first to notice this problem, it was the heart of the subprime credit crisis after all. But he was perhaps the youngest person to view the situation as an opportunity. By the time he graduated in 2010 Williams had bought up hundreds of distressed homes, which he renovated and rented out. “There was so much dislocation and confusion that no one really knew where truth was. In times of dislocation, in times of asymmetry, that is when the most opportunity presents itself to the people who are willing to lean in, to take chances and to have a prospective ,” says Williams, now 28. “For me it was about maintaining a North Star.” After college Williams …

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The Supreme Court today upheld the Kerala High Court order imposing a fine of Rs 1 crore on real estate major DLF for constructing around 180 luxury flats along the banks of eco-sensitive Chilavannur backwaters near Kochi in Kerala. A bench comprising Justices R F Nariman and S K Kaul, however, set aside the findings of the high court on the leaglity of the structures built by the real estate firm. "In conclusion, we set aside the findings of the impugned order while sustaining the fine of Rs 1 crore with the direction for strict adherence to the norms in future and avoidance of such contradictions by the authorities. "We also feel it appropriate that in view of the professed policy to have more single window clearance, the methodology of such processing of such applications should be endeavoured to be simplified so that there is less uncertainty and better enforcement," the bench said. Initially, a single judge bench of the high court found irregularities and violation of …

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Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Software engineer Kevin Hsieh, 30, joined WeWork six years ago with hopes that the high-flying shared-office startup would change the way people work—and that he would get rich. “We were sold on this idea that it was going to be a rocket ship,” he says. And at first, those dreams appeared to come true as venture capitalists pushed the valuation of the company to $47 billion by January 2019. Then WeWork’s hoped-for initial public offering collapsed last fall, and SoftBank, its largest investor, bailed it out, setting aside $3 billion to buy out existing shareholders. When Hsieh resigned in February, his shares were worth about $500,000 at SoftBank’s $19.19-per-share offer, and he planned to use the proceeds to pay off his partner’s student loans and help out his family. But this month SoftBank abandoned the buyout—known as a tender offer—dashing the hopes of many, including Hsieh. “W e kind of felt betrayed ,” he …

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Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin A group of WeWork board members sued SoftBank to force the Japanese conglomerate to go through with an abandoned $3 billion payment to WeWork’s shareholders. The complaint, filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery on Tuesday by a special committee of the WeWork board on behalf of The We Company, is the first of several legal actions people close to the company expect could be launched against SoftBank. Earlier this month, SoftBank told WeWork it would not complete a tender offer, announced in October as part of a bailout package following WeWork ’s failed IPO, through which SoftBank would have purchased stock from minority shareholders. SoftBank pointed to conditions not met by the company, including a planned roll-up of its China business and ongoing regulatory investigations. Others expected to take legal action include Adam Neumann, WeWork’s cofounder and former CEO , who could have sold almost …

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Nicolas Aguzin - A + A HONG KONG (Oct 27): The chief executive officer (CEO) of the Hong Kong stock exchange has shrugged off worries that regulatory changes in China which roiled markets this year could have a long-term effect on initial public offerings (IPOs) and trading volumes in the Asian financial hub. Crackdowns by mainland authorities on industries from technology to real estate have deterred some investors from stocks traded in, or through, Hong Kong. "In terms of IPOs, the market has been affected by cautious sentiment from investors including concerns around regulatory developments in China," said Nicolas Aguzin, CEO of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd (HKEX). "But at the same time we have seen our pipeline (for main board listings) build to its highest ever level," he said, in comments after the exchange's third-quarter results. "I'm still optimistic about the outlook." The third quarter is typically strong for Hong Kong capital raisings, …

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Filling nearly a full city block in the lower-income Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, a gigantic barrel-vaulted building sits as a vestige of a distant past. The 67,000-square-foot building—about a professional soccer field worth of space—was home to a troop of horse riders for the New York State Cavalry when it was built in the late 1800s. Today, after years of vacancy and a takeover by the city of New York, a large-scale renovation has turned that historic space into a massive community-focused recreation center, with health services, offices for local nonprofits, and mixed-income housing. advertisement advertisement The historic Bedford-Union Armory is now the Major Owens Health and Wellness Community Center . The former horse training shed with its high arched roof is now a bright, massive recreation space with three basketball courts, one soccer field, and a six-lane swimming pool. The former administrative building of the cavalry commander …

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Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin After college, Cristina Casañas-Judd, a fine artist and illustrator, used her creative skills to design TV, film, and theater sets. She met her husband, a lead actor in Blue Man Group , working on its set. Early in his career, he was a set dresser. The two life partners also became business partners, launching an interior design studio in 2012, Me and General Design. In the early days of the company, they bootstrapped the business and experienced steady growth. In year five, to quicken growth, they decided to move from working in the business to working on the business. They needed to hire additional people that would require outside financing. They choose a loan from a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). As a set decorator, Casañas-Judd became a fast-paced problem-solver. She fell in love with complementing the storylines of TV shows, movies, and plays through their environments as depicted in the set. …

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Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin The pandemic was more than a devastating health crisis. The ripple effects changed the way we work and live our lives. While this may seem insensitive, the Covid-19 outbreak led to some positive changes to our culture. For the first time, corporate leadership is paying close attention to the mental health and well-being of their employees. We spent nearly two years working from home, feeling isolated, suffering from anxiety, afraid of catching or spreading the virus and worrying about our job security and livelihoods, while millions of Americans were fired or furloughed. These—and other related mental health issues—were widespread across all types of demographics. There’s no discrimination when it relates to suffering from mental health matters. It impacts gig-economy workers and CEOs alike. I interviewed Yvette Cameron , Oracle Cloud HCM senior vice-president, to learn more about how technology, artificial intelligence …

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It may not be entirely random that 2021 was the year that people started talking seriously about the metaverse. During the pandemic, so many things have gone digital by necessity—from socializing to shopping to work—that it sometimes felt as if we were halfway into a metaverse already. advertisement advertisement Actually we’re not there yet, or even close. Defined loosely, the metaverse is an all-digital layer of reality that floats above, around, and throughout the features of the real world–or, in some definitions, is entirely separate for it. Author Neal Stephenson is most often credited with inventing the concept in his dystopian novel Snow Crash . But the metaverse of Snow Crash was partly satirical, and partly dystopian, and, with any luck, not  where we’re headed. Ernest Kline’s Ready Player One presented a metaverse (“the OASIS”) that was escapist and nostalgic. The metaverse concept clearly means very different things to different …

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