A US real estate firm is signing up to a new property search tool which allows property investors to hunt for opportunities on handheld Apple devices.

Metro Brokers Real Estate has announced it will be first large brand real estate brokerage in the country to use the iPhone home search application created by technology firm Terabitz.

The application allows iPhone users to to access US property listings, photos, local neighbourhood information, recent sales and driving directions. Well over 80,000 homes in Colorado are featured on the application, accessible by simply typing an address into the iPhone’s browser.

Mike Bradley, technology chair for Metro Brokers Real Estate, said:

“The ability to search MLS property listings and neighbourhood information is a powerful tool for creating leads for Metro Broker agents and a better service for online home buyers that use an iPhone.”

According to Terabitz, “generation X and Y are storming the real estate market”, while Apple is on track to sell more than 10 million iPhones by the end of this year.

A lifestyle homes firm based in Qatar says property investors who bought units in its first development are seeing massive returns. Sabban Property Investments says it can offer 40 to 45 per cent through the Sabban Towers development at The Pearl, Qatar.

It said property investors who bought property in the development between 2007 and early 2008 have reported the vast returns thanks to limited supply in Qatar.

Spurred on by the results, Sabban’s real estate marketing partner is showcasing “low-risk” projects following government legislation allowing foreigners the right to 100 per cent land ownership and to build residential units in 18 locations.

LifeStyle Homes said it hopes to offer up many of the 16,000 apartments and 1,100-plus villas set for completion in Qatar by 2010 to international property investors.

LifeStyle Homes sales and marketing director Arron Browne said:

“Allowing foreigners to own and build residential properties, in addition to the huge number of housing units currently being built in the country, is taking the growth of the country’s residential property market to a staggering speed.”

He said the firm hoped to become a ‘one stop shop’ for external buyers during the boom. Porto Arabia, the main marina of The Pearl, Qatar, was the country’s first international freehold real estate venture, with Sabban among the first developers to build on it.

The fallout from a Bank of England decision to hold UK interest rates has continued, with agents and property developers calling for a cut next time around. Property consultants Cluttons called the Bank’s approach a “laissez-faire” attitude and said the downturn in the property market and wider economy were more serious concerns than rising inflation.

On Thursday the Bank’s monetary policy committee opted to hold rates at five percent, ignoring calls for a cut to boost consumer confidence. Richard Cotton, senior partner at Cluttons, said:

“The property industry needs to hear a positive message from the Bank, that it understands the difficulties in the industry and is doing something about it.

“Maintaining rates at five per cent will not give consumers any confidence in the Bank’s ability to manage this crisis, which will result in a worsening of current conditions in the property market and wider economy.”

Agents Kinleigh Folkard and Hayward said the Bank had done the property market “no favours” with the decision.

John Phillips, financial services director at the firm, said:

“Maintaining interest rates at five per cent was to be expected with the committee keeping a close eye on inflation. But this decision will have a knock-on effect across the whole economy.”