Paris has become the most popular place in Europe for property investment according to a list released by leading estate agent CBRE. The French capital overtook London during the second half of 2011 thanks to deals worth €7.9 billion as opposed to €7.8 billion in the UK capital.  A busy second half of the year saw Paris snapping up 14.2% of international deals as investors rushed to complete transactions before the end of the year and ahead of the closing of some property tax breaks.

In addition to being the most popular place for property investment, Paris is now the most expensive capital in which to rent accommodation after rental prices increased by 4.7% during the year.

The 20 arrondissements of Paris escaped the bombing of the Second World War, which means that new-build developments are rare and property supply is limited forcing up rental prices. The City of London, which has far more new-build properties, has seen rents fall to a 25-year low, although the West End market is still buoyant. New York also saw a healthy rise in rental costs as prices increased by 6.5% during the first half of 2011 and 6.2% during the second half.

However it was not all good news as rental growth slowed in many new world cities such as Hong Kong, Shanghai and Moscow during the second half of 2011.

Foreign investors in 2011 were made up mostly of US and Canadian buyers who provided 28% of cross-border transactions, with the US accounting for €9 billion worth of deals. Germany was the next most active buyer taking a 12% market share, while UK buyers came in third place making 9% of property transactions.

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The sale of existing homes in the US rose slightly in July, as did house prices, showing that the worst of the housing crisis may be coming to an end in the world’s largest economy.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) said that existing home sales rose by 2.3% from June to July, meaning that 4.47 million units were sold over the last year. The average house price nationwide was $187,300 in July, up 9.4% on prices from the same month last year.

Job creation, low borrowing costs and a small supply of properties for sale have been providing the foundations for price gains within the market. Regionally, existing home sales rose in the Northeast by 7.4%, in the Midwest by 2% and in the South by 2.3%, while sales in the West remained unchanged during July.

The length of time houses are on the market is also decreasing as NAR president Moe Veissi explained. “Correctly priced homes, regardless of price range, are selling quickly these days. A third of homes purchased in July were on the market for less than a month, and only 21% were on the market for six months or longer.” According to the NAR, house sales in 2013 are likely to reach five million.

Meanwhile rents increased nationally in July also, with 70% of the metropolitan areas surveyed experiencing rental increases from June to July. Chicago, Providence in Rhode Island and Baltimore experienced the highest increases posting double digit rises of around 12%. This is mainly as a result of continuing high foreclosure levels in these areas, which has boosted rental demand.

Nationally the number of foreclosures continued to decline, however, with 5.7 out of every 10,000 homes in the country being foreclosed. That was down from 6.5 out of every 10,000 homes in June.

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