More than 12,000 people turned up to the preview event for a US masterplan community aiming to transform a former military base into a desirable residential project.

The Great Park Neighbourhoods project, from builders Lennar, will develop the former El Toro marine base, California.

People were given a first taste of the project at an on-site events day with organisers declaring themselves delighted with the level of interest.

Carol Wold, vice president of community affairs for Lennar, said:

“With respected educational institutions among its characteristics, this first neighbourhood will be designed to remind people of a college town with a cozy, lively main street.”

Lennar added the Neighbourhoods project will provide the tax revenue to finance and build the new Orange County Great Park alongside it at no cost to current taxpayers.

Construction work is expected to begin in the Autumn with three separate neighbourhoods set to make up the whole site.

The base itself was decommissioned in 1999 before Lennar and a group of other firms snapped up the land for $650 million.

The 3,724-acre site was officially handed over by the US Military to Lennar in a 2005 in a ‘changing of the guard’ ceremony.

Booming Gulf real estate industries are leading to a knock-on surge in demand for landscaping in the area, with the UAE sector experiencing a particular increase. According to the CMPi, organisers of the Gulf Landscaping exhibition, Gulf projects will double in volume to exceed $16 billion by 2010.

The firm said landscaping in the Gulf is a “competitive business” fraught with high competition, shrinking profits and high expense. CMPi event director Chris Fountain said:

“Driven by the construction boom, many households have increasingly turned to landscaping services to design, develop and maintain their investments while landscaping contractors are learning how to grab their share of this high growth market.”

Gulf Landscaping is an exhibition for the booming Middle East outdoor design and landscaping architecture industries. It is set to run from November 17 to 18 at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, UAE.

Organisers said the exhibition will serve as a networking event for the region’s landscape architects, developers, contractors and property investors.

Financial regulators have announced a crackdown on mortgage fraud in the UK market including a plan to make targeted visits to 200 brokers. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is also encouraging intermediaries to report suspicions of problems either within intermediaries or lenders.

Incidents of mortgage fraud are increasing as falling house prices expose loans that were obtained using falsified information. In an open letter to the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI), Philip Robinson, director of the FSA’s financial crime and intelligence division, said both organisations had the opportunity to work together to “remove the stigma caused by the dishonest few”. He said:

“The FSA has been taking steps to deal with mortgage fraud for some time, and is now ensuring there is a co-ordinated response to this threat.”

“By doing so, we aim to address fraudulent behaviour by regulated firms. We will also support other authorities in their work to tackle fraudulent consumer behaviour.”

The AMI reacted to the letter by saying it supported the FSA and would be “sharing its views with members.”

A Sky News investigation recently found some brokers were prepared to exaggerate borrower’s earnings and even forge pay slips in an effort to land mortgages and gain commissions.