US property market recovery in site

17 December 2008

An improvement in the US property market, key to a revival in the global economy, should start by next spring, according to property mogul Sam Zell.

Mr Zell said that demand for housing would increase on the back of a growing US population, while supply has slowed, with under 600,000 building starts in 2008, a million fewer than in each of the past 10 years.

Addressing an Israeli business conference this week, Zell, said: “I believe that in a country that continues to grow and where the population continues to grow, we will see the first signs of equilibrium in the housing market in the spring of 2009 and I will expect by spring 2010 the housing market in the US will look a lot better.”

He added that the US housing market upturn over the next 12 months should help stimulate growth in other global property markets, and believes the greatest capital growth will be achieved in a range of diverse countries such as Brazil, China, the Middle East, and parts of Eastern Europe. “They have growth, they have political stability, they have natural resources... and a relatively low cost of entry today,” he concluded.