London's biggest and most expensive office building, HSBC's global headquarters, is up for sale at what would be a record price for the British market, in a sign that the capital's -commercial property market is booming again, reported The Financial Times. The 44-storey, 102 thousand square meters building in Canary Wharf, east London, is being -marketed by the estate agents JLL and GM Real Estate for offers above US$ 1.85 billion, say sources with knowledge of the property. The HSBC tower became the most expensive building in London when it sold for US$ 1.83 billion at the height of the UK property boom in 2007. HSBC has a 13-year lease on the building and is 0committed to annual upward-only inflation-linked rent reviews, according to sources familiar with the tenancy arrangements. This would make it an attractive proposition for investors seeking a hedge against inflation. Last year, HSBC ruled out the possibility of relocating its headquarters to Hong Kong, opting to stay in the UK despite stricter European restrictions on bankers' bonuses. The building was designed by Foster + Partners and built in 2002, and HSBC raised almost US$ 1.85 billion by selling it to the Spanish property company Metrovacesa, only to take ownership back in-house in late 2008 when Metrovacesa hit financial difficulties. The South Korean national pension fund NPS then bought the building - whose address is 8 Canada Square - from HSBC the following year for nearly US$ 1.34 billion. NPS, which is being advised by JPMorgan, is seeking to sell in order to free up funds to take advantage of other opportunities across Europe. The London market has seen just two deals at higher prices than NPS's US$ 1.85 billion target; but both involved multiple-building estates rather than single assets. Late last year Blackstone sold its 50 percent stake in the City's Broadgate office -complex to Singapore -sovereign wealth fund GIC, and Armenian billionaire Dikran Izmirlian sold the More London estate to the Kuwait state property company St Martins. Both deals were reportedly priced at about US$ 2.85 billion.

Trident International Holdings, a Dubai-based developer, will be restarting work on 516-meter The Pentominium, billed as the world's tallest residential tower, by third quarter. In conjunction with the Dubai Land Department, Trident is actively working on several advanced options towards restarting the construction of this project. The tower, located in Dubai Marina, was scheduled for completion in 2013, but work was suspended in August 2011 following the global financial crisis and customer default. When completed, the residential tower will have 122 floors above ground and house 172 luxury penthouses designed by Italian fashion designer Salvatore Ferragamo. In 2009, Arabian Construction Company was awarded a US$ 400 million contract for construction of the tower. Construction commenced on July 26, 2009, and, before construction stopped, at least 30 floors had been completed. When completed, Pentominium will become the second tallest building in Dubai after 828-metre Burj Khalifa, the tallest tower in the world. Dubai already is home to four of the tallest residential towers with the 414-metre Princess Tower in Dubai Marina holding the world record according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.. The 395-meter 23 Marina is in second place, followed by 381-meter Elite Residence and 337-meter The Torch, Council data reveals. Emporis' latest data shows Dubai has 1,882 tall buildings of which 869 exist, 625 are planned, 341 under construction, 46 un-built and one demolished.

Saudi Arabia laid the foundation stone for the King Abdullah International Gardens (KAIG) in Riyadh, with plans for the facility set to include the world's largest botanical gardens. KAIG, one of the largest environment projects in the world, will be spread over a total area of 2.5 million square meters along Riyadh-Jeddah Road. Construction work of KAIG has started after the completion of the first phase of the project, which included leveling the site and fencing works. There will be six main sections at KAIG, including covered and open facilities. They are the Plants Gardens, the Valley Gardens, the Scientific Gardens, the Water Gardens, the International Gardens, and the Nature Gardens. The covered facility, which will be the largest of its kind in the world, would have two giant botanical gardens spread over a total area of 100 thousand square meters. The crescent-shaped facility will be five times bigger than the world's largest geodesic domes at the Eden Project, Cornwall, in Britain (). Its structure and fabric are capable of adaptation to the various environments. The project will focus on local plant life in the Arabian Peninsula and is designed to appeal to families and tourists. KAIG's open facility will have plants growing in the local environment, in addition to an open museum for plants, seeds bank, and rocky garden. There will also be research institutes, office accommodation, shops, restaurants, visitor facilities and a theater. The gardens will use recycled water and alternative energy supplies, exploiting solar and wind power as well as rainfall through collection tanks.

Paper and cardbo's toolbox for drawings and models of buildings, but for Japanese architect Shigeru Ban they are good enough to make the real thing. The 56-year-old, who has built a reputation over the past 30 years for crafting improbable structures around the world - from housing to art galleries and cathedrals - many from humble cardboard tubes, has been named as the winner of the 2014 Pritzker prize, the highest accolade in the industry. "When you finish a roll of tracing paper or fax paper, there are always paper tubes left over," he said. "They were so strong and so nice, so I kept them. Then I went to the factory where they made them, and I saw they could make any length and any diameter." Beginning with temporary exhibition designs, his experiments with cardboard engineering soon expanded in scope, from undulating grid-shell pavilions to the geodesic frame of his temporary office in Paris. Strapped limpet-like to the roof of the Pompidou Centre, this cardboard-framed tunnel was his base for designing the gallery's outpost in Metz, completed in 2010, itself conceived as a rippling rattan hat of bamboo and oiled paper. But it is for his humanitarian work, as much as for his houses and museums, that Ban caught the Pritzker jury's eye. "He is a force of nature," said the jury chairman, Lord Palumbo, "which is entirely appropriate in the light of his voluntary work for the homeless and dispossessed in areas devastated by natural disasters." In 1994, prompted by the displacement of millions by the Rwandan civil war, Ban proposed paper-tube shelters to the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, followed a year later by paper log cabins after the Kobe earthquake, with foundations made of sand-filled beer crates and walls of vertical cardboard tubes. After founding the Voluntary Architects' Network in 1995, he has tackled disaster relief in Turkey, India, China and Haiti, most recently erecting a magnificent cardboard cathedral after the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand , rising in an elegant A-frame next to the ruins of George Gilbert Scott's stone building. Outside Ban's humanitarian work, his projects include the Centre Pompidou-Metz, a modern art museum in France featuring a curved roof made of timber which is inspired by a Chinese hat. He also designed Swiss media firm Tamedia's seven-store headquarters, built with an interlocking wooden frame that has no metal joints. Ban is the seventh Japanese architect to receive the prize since it was established in 1979, following Kenzo Tange in 1987, Fumihiko Maki in 1993, Tadao Ando in 1995, the team of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa in 2010, and Toyo Ito last year.

According to Bloomberg, for last 14 months The Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund completed almost US$ 6.88 billion of deals including US$ 2.5 billion of real estate deals. Now Greece is preparing a property portfolio valued at as much as US$ 688 million to offer to investors by the end of this year. The properties will include leased city buildings, homes and development land. The Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund was created in 2011. Greece is selling everything from land to ports and airports as part of a US$ 331 billion bailout from Europe and the IMF. The asset fund has a mandate to raise US$ 15.2 billion by 2016. The original target after the first bailout in 2010 was for US$ 69 billion by 2015. Greece holds an extensive privatization program to increase revenue and reduce the budget deficit. In March 2013 Greece's cash-strapped government detailed its plans to sell 28 state-owned buildings on long-term lease, including tax offices, ministry buildings, and the main police headquarte's Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund announced, that one of the best real estate properties - the Athens former airport in the coastal area of Athens Ellinikon will be sold. Earlier Greece HRADF has identified 40 uninhabited islands and islets that could be leased for as long as 50 years to reduce debt as pressure grows on the country to revive an asset-sales plan key to receiving international aid. At the beginning of 2012 Archaeological treasures including the temple of Delphi, the most popular site after the Acropolis, were available as backdrops for filming and photographic shoots.