Overall rental prices in Australian capital cities were unchanged in May but rates fell everywhere apart from Melbourne and Hobart, the latest index shows. Weekly rents were unchanged but year on year they were down 0.3% taking the average rate to $489 a week for houses and $469 a week for units, according to the data from the CoreLogic Rent Review report. The firm’s research analyst Cameron Kusher expects that the weakness in the rental market will persist and on an annual basis rents will fall further over the coming months. The data also shows that over the 12 months to May several capital cities saw a rise in rents. In Sydney they increased by 0.9%, in Melbourne by 2.3%, in Hobart by 3.7% and in Canberra by 0.1%. But falling rents pulled the combined capital average lower with a drop in Perth of 8.8%, a fall of 16.9% in Darwin, and down 0.9% in Brisbane and Adelaide 0.9% year on year. ‘Since we started tracking annual rent changes back in 1996, the May 2016 results represent the lowest annual change on record. The rental market slowdown has been rapid over the past year with rents increasing by 1.5%,’ said Kusher. ‘A number of factors such as the softest wages growth on record have contributed to this slow down. At the same time, we also saw unit construction hit record high levels and a lack of population growth which has contributed to a lesser demand for rentals,’ he explained. He pointed out that with rental rates easing over the year and home values continuing to rise rental yields continue to sit at record lows of 3.3% for houses and 4.2% for units. However, gross rental yields for houses are now at record lows in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra while unit yields are at historic lows in Sydney. BOOKMARK THIS PAGE (What is this?)      Source link

©Reuters Williams Companies is facing a shareholder revolt after it emerged that the US oil and gas pipeline group had rejected a takeover approach from larger rival Enterprise Products Partners that would have created an $80bn company. Corvex Management, which owns more than 4 per cent of Williams shares, wants the company’s senior management to engage with Enterprise Products, according to people familiar with the hedge fund. More On this topic IN Oil & Gas Several other investors, who asked not to be named, told the Financial Times that Williams’ decision to rebuff the offer cast fresh doubt over the future of Alan Armstrong, the company’s chief executive. Shareholders in favour of a deal argued that Enterprise Products, the US’s largest gas pipeline group, was “a perfect fit” for Williams, as the Tulsa-based company holds complementary natural gas assets. “This is the dream combination,” said one investor, adding Enterprise Products had the kind of management that could help Williams flourish. The US oil and gas pipeline sector, which traditionally has not been a hotbed of dealmaking, has been under sustained pressure following the collapse in energy prices since 2014. Shares in Houston-based Enterprise Products have dropped about 28 per cent over that period. It had a market value of $58.4bn before details of the deal were made public on Thursday. A deal with Williams would allow Enterprise Products to cut costs and reshape its pipeline portfolio. Investors’ anger emerged after the FT first reported on Thursday that Williams had rebuffed Enterprise Products’ offer. Shares in Williams closed up 7.9 per cent on Thursday following the news, giving it a market value of $21.1bn. They slipped 1.5 per cent on Friday. Enterprise fell 2 per cent Thursday and a further 0.8 per cent on Friday. News of the bid came after the planned $33bn sale of Williams to another rival, Energy Transfer Partners, collapsed in June following a bitter court battle. Since then, Williams has suffered a series of boardroom upheavals, with six of 13 directors resigning following a failed attempt to depose Mr Armstrong. Among the directors that stepped down from the board were two activist investors — Keith Meister of Corvex Management and Eric Mandelblatt of Soroban Capital Partners — as well as Ralph Izzo, chief executive of New Jersey’s Public Service Enterprise Group. In a letter to Williams on July 1, when the six board members resigned, Mr Meister wrote: “I have resigned because I can no longer in good conscience serve on a Board where a majority of that Board was unwilling to make a change that I felt was critical to the future direction of the Company — replacing Alan Armstrong as CEO.” It is unclear whether Williams was approached by Enterprise Products before or after July 1. The structure of the offer made by Enterprise Products is also unknown at this stage. Both companies declined to comment. Williams said on Monday that it plans to appoint three independent board members before its next annual shareholder meeting scheduled for November 23. The previous deal for Williams collapsed after Latham & Watkins, the lawyers for Energy Transfer Partners said they were not in a position to provide an opinion on whether the transaction would be tax-free, which was a mandatory condition to the successful completion of the transaction. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. Source link

London has been named the fifth most sustainable city in the world. Source link

Chris Grayling has been appointed as the new Transport Secretary as a mark of his continued loyalty to new Prime Minister Theresa May. Grayling was the chairman of May’s successful leadership bid and backed the Leave campaign in the European Referendum. He spent two years as Justice Secretary before he was replaced by leadership hopeful Michael Gove a year ago and he has since held the post of leader of the House of Commons. The role of Transport Secretary has taken on extra significance over the next few years with several crucial decisions to be made on projects of national importance, which May must find immediate solutions for. Included in these decisions is the High Speed 2 rail programme which is estimated to cost around £55.7 million, on which £1.4 billion has already been spent as the scheme continues to face strong criticism due to the cost. The Cabinet must also decide on runway expansion, as May outlined earlier in the week and although the new PM is not likely to support the expansion at Heathrow, she has promised to listen to Cabinet views before making a final decision. Grayling has also got previous experience of overseeing the work of transport in government after he spent almost two years as Shadow Transport Secretary from 2005 to 2007. Grayling is MP for the constituency of Epsom and Ewell and although this is not near the Heathrow flightpath, it is just 29km from Gatwick, He has not come out to declare support for either Heathrow or Gatwick, but in 2009 it was reported that Grayling had voiced concerns in private over the party’s opposition to the expansion of Heathrow. Grayling is a supporter of the HS2 project and voted in support of the line throughout the Preparation Bill and Hybrid Bill processes. In March, he was one of the 399 voters to pass HS2 through the House of Commons.