XYNO PROPERTIES

Press Release

16 May 2012

Xyno Properties announced today an investment into the Corporate Headquarter Building of the BMW Group in Switzerland. The building is Located within the BMW Corporate Campus in Dielsdorf, Canton of Zurich, Switzerland w7ithin a 15 minute drive to both the Zurich International Airport & downtown Zurich and is classified as Class “A” Commercial Office Space. The Property houses the Financial Services Group and senior management of BMW Group Switzerland.  

The physical characteristics of The Property are a total of 6,072 square meters / 65,334 square feet of office space within a 3 story building, constructed of contemporary design with innovative use of stone, steel and glass. The office space is flexible and adaptive to a wide range of alternative uses. The land is comprised of Parcel Number 1822 containing a total of 5,160 square meters / 55,542 square feet / 1.27 acres zoned commercial/industrial. Typically, Swiss commercial properties provide little parking. The BMW Property however, provides 76 parking spaces beneath the building and 20 above ground spaces.

The municipality of Dielsdorf is located in the northwestern sector of the Swiss canton of Zurich and is the capital of the district of Dielsdorf. Dielsdorf is the Swiss corporate headquarters for a number of other large international companies such as Chromos, Fuji Film and Honeywell. Although the municipality is comprised of only 5,506 residents, Dielsdorf provides a workplace for over 2,000 employees. Dielsdorf is well connected to the extensive Swiss public transportation system by rail and is accessible to four major bus lines. The major highway going north out of Zurich (Route 17) passes through Dielsdorf. Freeway access to Autobahn N1, the main

Swiss artery is 5 miles south, and access to Autobahn N51 is 4 miles northeast. Zurich is 13 miles south and the Zurich International Airport (Kloten) is 11 miles to the east.

The company believes that the investment will create value in it's portfolio and will enhance the current income and growth potential.

Interested parties can contact Xyno Properties at: Onyx Worldwide AG onyxagnewsletter@onyx.co.im

More information about Xyno Properties at: http://xyno-properties.com

Another Blow for Property Lending

Yet another blow for lending for Commercial Property in the UK..

National Australia Bank is to abandon commercial property lending in the UK and cut 1,400 jobs, 

See full article here..

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9.8% total return for Commercial Real Estate in 2011

Commercial Property has delivered a return of 9.8% globally in 2011, Please read article below for the full story...

Global commercial property delivered a 9.8% total return in 2011; Irish returns in Q1 2012 were at 0.6%

Switzerland - Property Rules

Switzerland

Swiss real estate is some of the most coveted in the world, but the country also has some of the strictest rules when it comes to foreign ownership.

• The government assigns annual quotas to the country's cantons limiting the number of houses or flats that can be sold to foreigners who do not reside in Switzerland. Each sale must still be authorized by the canton in which the property is located, and the cantons can set their own additional restrictions. Many limit foreign property sales to tourist regions, for example, or allow foreigners to purchase only property that is already foreign-owned.
• Foreigners can buy only one property to be used as a holiday home or a secondary residence. They cannot purchase a property for the sole purpose of renting it out, although holiday homes can be rented out periodically on a short-term basis.

The Swiss alpine resort town of Andermatt is one of the few places in Switzerland where foreign ownership of real estate is unrestricted. Luxury studio apartments marketed as vacation properties can sell for several million dollars. (Arnd Wiegmann /Reuters)

• Property owners need special authorization if the surface area of their real estate exceeds 1,000 square metres.
• In some cantons, foreigners are barred from selling their property for a certain number of years after purchasing it — generally between five and 10 years.
• If foreigners buy vacant land, they must build on it within a year.
• Foreigners who live in Switzerland do not need to get prior authorization to purchase real estate that will serve as their main residence and can rent out the property or use it as a holiday home if they move to another part of the country.
• One area that is exempt from restrictions on foreign ownership of property is the alpine ski resort town Andermatt, where luxury condominiums marketed to wealthy foreigners as vacation properties can sell for several million dollars.
• Foreign nationals from EU members states and some other European countries who want to buy property do not require the same type of prior authorization as other foreigners.

Home Sales in U.S. Probably Climbed in January to Highest Level Since 2010

Home sales in the U.S. probably climbed in January to the highest level since May 2010, adding to evidence the housing market is regaining its footing, economists said reports this week will show.

Combined purchases of new and existing houses rose to a 4.97 million annual rate from 4.92 million in December, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey. Claims for jobless benefits held near the lowest level since 2008, bolstering consumer confidence, other reports may show.

A strengthening job market, combined with record affordability driven by the drop in home prices and mortgage rates, will probably keep underpinning demand. Nonetheless, the Federal Reserve and Obama administration are striving to find ways to lend the industry additional assistance amid concern that mounting foreclosures will continue to hinder the recovery.

“Home sales have bottomed, and from here on, we should see a moderate pickup,” said Yelena Shulyatyeva, an economist at BNP Paribas in New York. “Hiring is improving slowly, so that’s helping.” More policy efforts are needed as “we still can’t rely on housing to recover on its own,” she said.

The National Association of Realtors will release data on existing house sales on Feb. 22. Purchases increased 0.9 percent to a 4.65 million annual rate, following a 4.61 million pace in December, according to the Bloomberg survey median.

Sales of new homes climbed to a 315,000 annual rate from 307,000 the prior month, the survey median showed. The report is due from the Commerce Department on Feb. 24. Last year marked a record low for the industry in data going back to 1963, as builders sold 302,000 homes, down 6.2 percent from 2010.

More Homebuilding

Reports last week indicated housing is on the mend. Builders broke ground on more homes than forecast in January, helped by warmer weather, and construction permits also advanced. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index of builder confidence climbed in February to the highest level since May 2007.

Beazer Homes USA Inc. (BZH) reported that orders jumped 36 percent in the final three months of 2011 from a year earlier, and closings on new houses surged more than 60 percent. The Atlanta-based builder said it expects to sell more properties this year than last.

“While our visibility into the economic conditions for the remainder of the year is limited, I believe that we will benefit from a gradually improving housing market,” Allan Merrill, chief executive officer, said on an earnings call on Feb. 2.

Build Shares

Investors also are upbeat about prospects. The Standard & Poor’s Supercomposite Homebuilding Index (S15HOME) has advanced 21 percent since the end of last year, outpacing an 8.2 percent gain in the broader S&P 500.

Policy makers are working to help distressed homeowners. The top five mortgage lenders this month reached a $25 billion settlement with 49 states and the U.S. government over the use of faulty paperwork in foreclosures.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank’s efforts to spur growth are being blunted by impediments to mortgage lending, and called for more steps to heal the housing industry.

“The economic recovery has been disappointing in part because U.S. housing markets remain out of balance,” Bernanke told homebuilders on Feb. 10 in Orlando, Florida. “We need to continue to develop and implement policies that will help the housing sector get back on its feet.”

One asset has been the improvement in employment. The jobless rate fell in January to a three-year low of 8.3 percent, and payrolls rose by 243,000 workers.

Fewer Firings

Firings are also waning, Labor Department figures may show on Feb. 23. Initial jobless claims rose last week to 355,000 after reaching a four-year low the prior week, according to the median forecast in the Bloomberg survey.

Greater affordability is also supporting home demand. The National Association of Realtors’ measure of whether households earning the median income can afford a median-priced house at current interest rates reached a record in the last three months of 2011.

Among other reports this week, the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment rose to 72.8 in February from a preliminary reading of 72.5, economists in the Bloomberg survey predicted. The data will be released Feb. 24.

Commercial Property Confidence (CPCI): Let's see how the market feels 18 months on

It is now almost 18 months ago since we ran our last commercial property confidence survey. At that stage we were seeing an increasing emphasis being given to underlying property fundamentals. It is important, if not critical, to gauge the direction in which the market believes some of these key issues are moving and to this end the commercial property confidence survey aims to give consideration to these aspects: Eighteen months ago, the eProp CPCI index appeared to be struggling to find direction having effectively deteriorated, reaching a level of 42 as at August/September 2010 compared with a reading of 47 at February/March 2010. With 50 being neutral, the reading was largely negative, but nevertheless a little better than the levels of 36 and 37 registered in the same periods in 2009. The CPCI cycle trend suggests that the peak was reached in early 2006. The bi-annual eProp Commercial Property Confidence Index (CPCI) Survey is based on a mix of ten equally weighted variables comprising both `hard' and `soft' business conditions; the index reflects a six month forward projection for the commercial property sector. From a sector perspective and on a net balance basis (ranging from +100 to -100 with 0 being neutral), both the office and industrial sectors worsened marginally. The Office sector's net balance reading in August/September 2010 was at -9, down from zero 6 months prior; the industrial sector showed a reading of -22 from -1 six months prior to this. Although retail remained negative at -17 this was the only sector to have shown a small improvement on the period six months prior, where the reading was at -23. This was the sixth consecutive negative outlook for retail commencing in Feb/March 2008 albeit up from its lowest level of -42 reached in 2009. In terms of the ten issues constituting the index, seven issues remained negative, two held a positive outlook on aggregate with one aspect exactly neutral. On the positive front it was the number of leases and sales - albeit only just positive - with 5 and 8 percent of respondents respectively anticipating any improvement. Sale prices were expected to remain static, not withstanding that a net balance of 23 percent of respondents expected capitalization rates to rise. At the time, monetary policy supported this outlook given that the prime interest rate reached its lowest levels in recent history; however this too can still rise in 2012 although the any clear prognosis therefore remains murky at best. In line with the softening yields score representing the second most negative response, 23 percent of respondents anticipated that staff levels would reduce 18 months back. True to form, the factor considered most negative remained the outlook for the management of the public environment in which assets are located in. There has been a fair amount of focus on municipal management of late and it will be interesting to see if this arena is still spiraling for investors and property managers. The outlook for vacancies remained negative at -13 percent, although it has to be said that this was up from the -67 percent recorded a year back. Net operating income was anticipated to come down as evidenced by a net balance of 18 percent of respondents. Retrospectively we see that the eProp CPCI is a very useful barometer for commercial property and business conditions and has been very accurate in terms of market movement.

Rising Investment In French Commercial Property

During the final three months of 2011, France recorded its highest commercial property transaction volume since the third quarter of 2007.

Figures released by CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) revealed that investment in French commercial real estate climbed by 65 per cent between the third and fourth quarters of last year.

In total, €6.5 billion (£5.4 billion) was transacted between October and December 2011, making it the second most popular market in Europe after the UK.

The CBRE report stated: "Investment activity in France was heavily biased towards the Paris office sector and included large portfolio and single-asset deals."

According to the Savills European Office Markets bulletin released in autumn last year, yields for Parisian offices stood at just over five per cent in the third quarter of 2011.

The organisation noted that both demand and rents were on an upward trend at this time, while the supply of such real estate assets in the French capital was falling.

Head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa capital markets at CBRE Jonathan Hull stated that data from the final quarter indicates France, along with the UK, Germany and the Nordic nations, "are key to core strategies" among investors.

New Xyno Properties Website

Please have a look at our new website http://www.xyno-properties.com where you will find details on our company and our portfolio..

Foreigners Snap Up Swiss Property - WSJ.com

By GORAN MIJUK

ZURICH—With average house prices nearing 800,000 francs, the Swiss residential real-estate market continues to boom. Market participants say there is no end in sight as cash-rich Europeans and Russians keen to protect their assets fuel demand.

"I'm getting calls from Greek investors almost every day who want to buy a house here," says Robert Ferfecki, managing director for Sotheby's International Realty Inc. in Zurich, who is selling luxury homes in the German-speaking areas of Switzerland, including Zurich and Lucerne.

"Had Switzerland no restrictive property laws that limit what foreigners can buy, I would probably be able to sell my portfolio within a week," Mr. Ferfecki says, noting that Germans and Britons are the top buyers.

Unlike property markets in the U.S. and many European countries, which are still smarting from the 2008 housing collapse, prices for all categories of Swiss real estate have risen steadily over the past three years, according to consultancy Wuest & Partner AG.

Prices for family homes, for example, have risen some 20% since 2008 to an average of 780,000 francs, or $830,000, the consultancy says. Also boosting the market are record-low mortgage interest rates, which hover at 2.7%, after the Swiss National Bank cut its key interest rates close to zero last summer.

Fanning the boom is a steady influx of foreigners attracted by the strong economy, Wuest & Partner says. Over the past four years, Switzerland has seen a net influx of about 330,000 foreigners, according to the national homeowners' association, HEV Schweiz.

Most are highly skilled workers from Germany, the U.K. and France, who are drawn by Switzerland's strong job market. Unemployment was 3.3% in December.

Mr. Ferfecki of Sotheby's says the financial crisis has also triggered interest from cash-rich Europeans and Russians, who want to park some of their assets in Switzerland to shield themselves from a potential breakup of the euro zone and benefit from the country's stability, as well as its low taxes, which can be less than 10% of a person's income.

In recent years, billionaires from the former Soviet Union, including Coalco Metals Ltd. owner Vasily Anisimov and Viktor Vekselberg, chairman of commodities company Renova Group, have moved to Switzerland. Dinara Kulibayeva, the daughter of Kazakh President Nursultan Nasarbeyev, reportedly paid 74.4 million francs for a villa at Lake Geneva in 2009.

"What really makes these people come to Switzerland isn't just the low taxes, but the quality of life and the stable rule of law," Mr. Ferfecki says. "They don't need huge security and can go shopping without being recognized."

But because Switzerland's property laws are restrictive for non-resident foreigners—only about 2,000 homes can be sold to non-residents every year—foreign investors who are unwilling to live in Switzerland but want to benefit from the market's strength have started to build up investments in Swiss real-estate funds and property companies.

Shares in Swiss funds such as PSP Swiss Property AG, Swiss Prime Site AG and Mobimo Holding AG, which own residential and commercial real estate in Switzerland, have sharply outperformed the Swiss stock market. Stocks overall have lost more than 7% over the past 12 months, while property stocks have gained between 1% and 4%.

"What our international investors like about us is the fact that we are a pure Swiss play," says Luciano Gabriel, chief executive officer of PSP Swiss Property. "Since we have no operations outside Switzerland, our business depends on the Swiss economy and investors have an almost pure Swiss franc investment that isn't linked to other risks." Because of the international interest, Mr. Gabriel says, PSP holds annual investor events in the Netherlands, the U.S. and the U.K.

This investor demand, coupled with Switzerland's still sound economic outlook—the government expects the economy to grow by 1.9% in 2013 after moderate growth this year—prompted Mobimo to seek 200 million francs in fresh capital last month to finance new projects. UBS AG and fund manager Swisscanto Holding AG both recently raised money for their respective Swiss real-estate-fund businesses, financing new projects in the country and spurring a building boom.

According to the Swiss government, real-estate projects worth 63.7 billion francs were launched last year, the bulk financed by private investors. This is up 3% from 2010, when 61.92 billion francs' worth of projects were planned.

"We are certainly in a boom phase," says Thomas Vonaesch, head of real-estate fund management at Credit Suisse Group, which controls around 14.4 billion francs of real-estate assets. "And demand is expected to remain sound as the financial environment with low interest rates is expected to drive demand."

UBS's Swiss Real Estate Bubble Index, which tries to measure signs of the market overheating, rose in the third quarter but showed no sign of a bubble, according to the bank. Bank Vontobel real-estate analyst Stefan Schuermann says prices will continue to rise "as investors have nowhere else to go."

He argues that Switzerland's housing market won't go the way of that of the U.S., as mortgages are usually backed by a 30% deposit. "This makes this market safe and price development stable," he says.

Write to Goran Mijuk at goran.mijuk@dowjones.com

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