Property market out of flavour...but 4.25 to 1.25 that is an over reaction surely!

Lancaster Gate - dubbed the Lancasters is one of their projects in London. Are property prices falling in London...

From The Sunday Times
February 17, 2008
Super-rich snap up apartments in world's most expensive residential scheme

RECESSION, what recession? The super-rich are snapping up apartments at the world's most expensive residential scheme at Londons One Hyde Park as if they were going out of fashion.

According to data released exclusively to The Sunday Times, half of the 80 apartments at the luxury scheme designed by Richard Rogers have already been contracted to be sold even though the project will not be completed until 2010. Knight Frank, one of the estate agents handling the Knightsbridge development, said sales already totalled more than 500m and the average apartment price had reached 20m.

Wealthy oil barons, Russian oligarchs and hedge-fund managers are shelling out at prices that break down to almost 6,000 per square foot for the chance to own one of the apartments. That figure is up from 4,000 per square foot in late 2006.

The sales reflect Londons status as a global city, with 39% of the buyers hailing from Russia, 25% from the Middle East, 14% from Britain and 11% from continental Europe. The highest price paid for an apartment at the scheme is rumoured to be more than 100m. The interiors are the work of Candy & Candy, the interior design company run by Nick and Christian Candy, two brothers in their early thirties who have become multi-millionaires by creating fantasy homes for people with limitless budgets.

The site will have an underground passage to the nearby Mandarin Oriental hotel, where staff will be on hand to cater to residents needs.

CPC, the Guernsey-based investment company owned by Christian Candy, has an equity stake of more than a third in One Hyde Park. The scheme is also backed by Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim Jaber al-Thani, foreign minister of the Gulf state of Qatar.

Liam Bailey, head of residential research at Knight Frank, said sales of so-called super-prime homes in London worth 10m or above had more than doubled in the three months to the end of January compared with the same period last year.

He said: It is quite extraordinary the way the super-prime market has continued to surge ahead. Sales of homes worth 1m-5m have slowed, but once you get above 5m, and certainly above 10m, they are still powering ahead.

Minerva H1 pretax loss before revaluations widens to 6.4 mln stg UPDATE - AFX

(Adds details on net financing costs; share price)

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Real estate company Minerva PLC posted a wider first-half underlying pretax loss on higher net financing costs and uncertain market conditions, but said it has a robust balance sheet, funding in place for its key developments and a strong cash position to take the business forward.

The company said its pretax loss before investment property revaluation movements widened to 6.4 mln stg for the six months to Dec 31 from 2.3 mln stg last year. It had an investment property revaluation deficit in the period of 14.4 pct. Net asset value per share at end-December was 266.0 pence against 327.9 pence at June 30, 2007.

During the period, net financing costs increased to 4.2 mln stg from 3.6 mln last year, net of interest capitalisation of 9.2 mln stg against 4.0 mln a year ago on development projects. This partly reflects the higher net debt operated by the group as its development activities increase, but also reflects a charge for the movement in financial instruments of 2.6 mln stg.

The company said its investment property performance has been affected by weakening investment yields and deteriorating sentiment towards the broader UK real estate sector.

'The difficulties facing developers in the financial markets have reduced the potential supply of speculative developments, particularly in The City of London. As a result, our major projects in The City are expected to be delivered into a more supply-constrained environment from 2010 onwards,' chairman Oliver Whitehead said.

At 8.13 am, shares were up 3 pct at 137 pence.

tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomson.com

nice intraday reversal

Chartists - downtrend broken?

Fundamentals - substantial discount to NAV.

Well worth a re-read of the Lancasters!

Its getting to those heady values where the profit is tempting to jump ship as still not convinced by the current rally in the FTSE. Barratts gave a very reassuring assessment of the market today so will hold a little longer

I kept this little snippet from an AFX news round-up on 10 January this year:

"Chatter continued that Songbird Estates, which runs Canary Wharf in London, was preparing to offer 220 pence per share for Minerva whose shares rose 16-3/4 to 157-1/4."

another intraday reversal...c'mon need one of those 10% rises in a day soon to clearly breakout of the downtrend...and back on the path northwards.

Minerva plc

Notification of Transaction by a Director


Pursuant to paragraph 3.1.4R(1)(a) of the Disclosure Rules, Minerva plc (the
'Company') hereby discloses that, on 27 February 2008, the Company received
written notification from Ivan Ezekiel, Finance Director of the Company that on
that day he purchased 10,000 ordinary shares of 25 pence each in the capital of
the Company, at a price of 138.5 pence per share.

FD purchase a +ve.

From the Daily Express...'LeFrak bid hopes sustain Minerva'

Chairman of the Company purchase another +ve.

well i got stopped at 134 so no longer hold. Will look at again when mkts stabilises

stroreysj - you made a profit, can't argue with that, all the best.

yes can't ask for more. But will continue to watch closely as the SP is still half the NAV so once the light at the end of the tunnel becomes brighter im sure they will be attractive to someone so SP likely to shoot

Amazing really that it is half the NAV and still no real interest.

Any more rumours/news about bid(s)?

looks like it is in a tightish trading range at least downtrend looks to be over

C'mon over 50% discount to NAV!

A bargain IMHO.

Hi all ....

Bit of Director buying today ......Dare we dip in as well at these depressed levels?

All comments welcome.

Cheers
Amar

i am in - bid fight ahead for upper end of mnr especially

Minerva prepared for challenging times - MoneyAM

Property group Minerva said it has seen continued good progress across its development portfolio for the three months to March 31st, 2008.

The company said in spite of challenging real estate conditions, it has the resources and is confident of achieving attractive long term returns.

The group added the building at the Walbrook site in the City of London is on track for delivery at the end of 2009. Minerva also said it continues to have active and constructive discussions with interested parties for the realisation of the Park Place retail centre scheme in Croydon.

Regarding the announcement Thursday by Limitless LLC, a unit of sovereign wealth fund Dubai World, Minerva confirmed that it has received no proposal from the company.

Limitless said it is in the very preliminary stages of considering its options regarding Minerva but that no decisions have been made.