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.

RNS Number:0106N
Minerva PLC
31 January 2008







31 January 2008



Minerva plc



NOTIFICATION OF PRELIMINARY RESULTS



Minerva plc will be announcing its Preliminary Results for the half year ended
31 December 2007 on Monday 25 February 2008.

Downtrend looks close to being broken?

ive been sitting on the sidelines and finally took the plunge at 126 for a small 10,000 holding. Set at stop loss at 120 in case it goes pear shaped but looks like most of the bad news is factored in so fingers crossed for monday

Oil money fires up European market
Paul Yandall 20/02/2008 14:15




Middle East investors flush with petro-dollars could help turn around the current property downturn, according to DTZ's latest European Quarterly.
With Britain taking 52% of the 3bn (2.26bn) spent by Middle East investors on European property in 2007, London stands a good chance of benefiting from the cash-rich buyers.

"Obviously they've got a lot of wealth at the moment with the petro-dollar coming in with oil at record prices," said DTZ's managing director of international investment, John Slade.


"They've always been very interested in property and we feel they are looking harder, not just at property directly but also indirectly through corporates and through funds."

DTZ said the value of European investment volumes was projected to reach 36-38bn (27-28bn) for the Q1 2008, down from 40bn (30.1bn) in Q4 2007, with a recovery predicted in the second half of 2008.

LeFrak stake in Minerva revealed
22/02/2008 09:00




LeFrak has built a 2.3% stake in Minerva, it has emerged.



The New York developer is believed to have sought advise on making an offer.



The City believes any more is unlikely before Minervas interims on Monday. Minerva closed up 5p at 131.25p.



22/02/08 Financial Times 42 Daily Telegraph B7



Daily Telegraph | Financial Times

Results out on Monday - is this pointing to the end finally of the downtrend?

Well done stroreysj ...... for having the oomph for doing it before the results.

Where now? .......... all views welcome

Cheers
Amar

the results were no all inspiring but NAV is double the share price so not surprising it went up today. I will continue to hold but adjust a rolling stop to jump ship if there is another down turn

Can't fault your strategy.

All the best
Amar

Still considerable discount to NAV. Lancasters update was encouraging!

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.