UK: the number of home loans rises. Sweden: the cost of apartments goes up. China: there are property bubbles in some regions of the country.

The number of mortgages taken out by people buying a home in the UK jumped 23 percent in June month-on-month. It's the fifth consecutive monthly increase. A total of
116,700 mortgages for house purchase were advanced during the second quarter of the year, 50 per cent more than during the previous three months.
The number of mortgage loans taken out by homebuyers in Ireland rose in the second quarter of the year by 15.4 per cent to the previous quarter. Some 12,686 new home loans worth €2.2 billion were drawn down in the second quarter, compared with just less than €2 billion in the previous three months. First-time buyers drew down 25 per cent of new loans during the quarter.
Apartment prices increased by 4 percent in central Stockholm in July to 51,251 kronor per square metre. In central Gothenburg prices climbed 3 percent. Over the past quarter prices have climbed in all major Swedish cities and in Stockholm prices are back at where they were in July 2008.
Prices of real estate in 70 major cities of China jumped by one percent year-on-year. In the first seven months of the year, sales of all property were up 60.4 percent from the same period a year ago. "The real estate market has entered into a quite sensitive period now and bubbles have risen in some regions," Qin Rui, an analyst with house agency 5j5j in Beijing, said.
US home sales grew in the second quarter in 39 states. Total quarterly sales rose 3.8 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.76 million. Foreclosures and distressed sales made up more than a third of all sales in the second quarter. The price of one in four homes on the market in July was cut at least once during its stay on the market.
The number of property deals completed in the first half of 2009 across Bulgaria has shrunk by over a third year on year. The Bansko and Blagoevgrad regions bucked the general trend with a rise in the number of deals of 28% and 17% respectively.
Greek construction activity, measured by the number of new building permits, dropped
23.2 percent year-on-year in May. 4,721 new permits were issued nationwide in May, corresponding to 0.964 million square meters.
Housing starts in July in Canada were 132,100. That's down from June's 137,800 figure, says Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
British people are living in the smallest rooms in the EU. In Greece the average size of the room is 39.5 sq. m, in the UK - 15,8 sq. m. Mainly it's connected with the decline in the average number of people in a family. A hundred years ago, an average of eight family members lived under one roof. Last year this figure amounted to 2,4 family members.

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If the average Britons feel gloomy about their rooms' size, they could follow in the footsteps of the Connors family. These people live in the house with five bedrooms and three bathrooms that costs €1.1 million.
They are benefiting from the Local Housing Allowance, which was introduced last year to encourage private landlords to take in the homeless because of a shortage of council housing. The council is under obligation to find them a large enough house, hence the family being placed in one of the most expensive areas. The owners of the house used to rent it to professionals for £4,000 a month.
But with the market deteriorating they agreed to let it out to the Connors for £2,400 a month through housing benefit, after being assured that they were "good tenants".
After the Connors moved in, the house was damaged for tens of thousands of Euros. The family denies all allegations threatening legal action over "racism against the poor".
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