New York: Warren Buffett, whose commercial mortgage joint-venture is financing multi-family real estate deals, said the market is showing signs of strength.

"Prices have been pretty strong if you start looking at particularly apartment buildings, but even shopping malls," Buffett said in an interview in Omaha, Nebraska, where his Berkshire Hathaway Inc is based.

"There's been certainly less of a crack in prices than I would have expected."

Berkshire became a 50 per cent owner in late 2009 of Berkadia Commercial Mortgage LLC, formerly part of Capmark Financial Group Inc.

The Horsham, Pennsylvania-based servicer and lender started a programme to originate loans for inclusion in commercial mortgage-backed securities and in March announced an initiative to provide floating-rate bridge loans.

Berkadia, jointly owned with Leucadia National Corp, has extended financing for apartment ventures in states including Wisconsin, Massachusetts and New York.

Berkadia hired Luther Peacock, formerly of Morgan Stanley, as chief risk officer, according to an April 8 statement.

Transactions in commercial real estate are still on the "low side" and capitalisation rates have come down, said Buffett, who is Berkshire's chairman and chief executive officer. Cap rates are a property's net income divided by the purchase price.

Multi-family housing is among the best performing segments in the commercial-property market, Susan Wachter, professor of real estate and finance at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School in Philadelphia, said in an interview before Buffett's remarks. Offices are "on the cusp" of recovery and industrial demand is "gaining strength," she said.

Commercial property prices fell about 45 per cent from their 2007 peak through the end of February, according to Moody's Investors Service, as a US unemployment rate of more than eight per cent limited demand for office space and pressured sales in shopping plazas.

Berkshire also has businesses related to home construction, which have struggled. Carpetmaker Shaw Industries, Johns Manville, MiTek Inc, and Acme Brick, earned $362 million pre-tax in 2010, down about 72 per cent from 2006.

Hong Kong: Home sales dive in April

Hong Kong home sales fell to the lowest volume in more than two years in April as government curbs and rising mortgage rates sapped demand after a price surge since 2009.

The number of units that changed hands last month declined 37.6 per cent from a year earlier to 7,635, according to a statement on the Land Registry website.

That's the lowest since March 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The value of transactions slid 26.8 per cent from a year earlier to HK$39 billion (Dh8.4 billion), the biggest yearly drop since June 2010.

Housing prices in the city, ranked the world's most expensive place to buy a home by Savills Plc, have gained more than 55 per cent in the past two years on record-low mortgage rates and an influx of buyers from China.