KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian residential property is presently at its most affordable, said Minister of Finance II Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah.

Affordability has never been better as banks continue to support the market with very attractive mortgage rates to as low as BLR -2.4% in some cases.

KUALA LUMPUR: Giant, a hypermarket retailer under GCH Retail (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, is set to open a store in Sibu, by the middle of next year.

The ground breaking for the RM12 million hypermarket project will be held Saturday Jan 23 and is expected to be ready in June next year. It will be the first Giant hypermarket in Sarawak.

KUALA LUMPUR: Ho Hup Construction Co.

XIAN (China): Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd has signed on Golden Harvest Cinema as its first anchor tenant for VivoCity Xian, its first retail mall in China.

Mapletree’s chief executive officer Hiew Yoon Khong said Golden Harvest Cinema would be taking up a total of 2,317 sq metres of space, which will constitute close to 6 % of the total lettable space.

KUALA LUMPUR: Global average occupancy costs per workstation saw a 4% decline in 2009, and the overall global average costs are projected to show moderate annual growth of 1.7% till 2013, said a DTZ Research report entitled Global Occupancy Costs – Offices 2010.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian government's electronic procurement system, ePerolehan's module on eBidding, has bagged the eINDIA 2009 Award for Government-to-business (G2B) Initiative.

The eBidding module has helped reduce government expenditure by between 20 and 40 per cent of the allocated budget, said system developer, Commerce Dot Com Sdn Bhd in a statement on Friday Jan 22.

BAGHDAD: The city of Baghdad asked foreign companies on Thursday Jan 21 to sign up for a project to design and build 75,000 apartments, the first phase of a US$10 billion plan to rebuild the Iraqi capital's sprawling Sadr City slum.

KUALA LUMPUR: Hotel investment volume in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) could increase by almost 40% from the 2009 volume, reaching €4.1 billion in 2010, according to consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels.

The projection is based on improving economic conditions, strengthening investor confidence and an increase in stock.

KUALA LUMPUR: Six directors of Golden Plus Holdings Bhd (G Plus) has obtained the green light from the High Court on Friday Jan 22 to challenge Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd for its public reprimand over a delay in submitting the company's annual audited accounts and annual report.

KUALA LUMPUR: Kenanga Investment Research has upgraded SP Setia to BUY, from Trading BUY, with higher fair value of RM4.90.It said on Friday, Jan 22 its fair value implied FY10E price-to-earnings ratio (PER) of 24 times, which are peak valuations experienced over FY07; but FY11-12E valuations become compelling at 19 times to 17 times PERs.