Domestic and foreign companies seen driving demand for offices to new heights in Shanghai
Despite evidence of an economic downturn in China, demand for Shanghai office space continues to climb this year. Meanwhile down in Hong Kong, home prices continue to slide while the city’s developers find themselves increasingly unable to compete on the mainland. Read on for all this and more.
Record Demand Driving Office Boom in Shanghai
Shanghai’s office leasing net absorption hit a record high last year as demand from both domestic and foreign companies rose.
The strong demand resulted in rental growth in both the Pudong and Puxi central business districts.
But as a lot of supply will be coming online rentals are not expected to see significant growth in the city this year, according to property consultants. Read more>>
HK’s 2nd-Hand Home Market Drops for 4th Straight Month
Plagued by weakening market sentiment, rising interest rates and a slowing economy, flat owners in Hong Kong are feeling compelled to slash prices to attract buyers, pushing secondary home prices down for four straight months.
Home prices at 50 housing estates monitored by property agent Ricacorp Properties fell 1.8 per cent in December. Read more>>
Hong Kong Developers Struggle to Compete on the Mainland
The sale of mainland assets by a number of Hong Kong developers in the past few months may be probably just a coincidence, but the moves are a sign that their competitive advantages have been slipping away as the mainland market develops and Chinese developers grow at a rapid pace.
The devaluation of the yuan, economic slowdown, high inventories and surging land costs have also added to the reasons forcing Hong Kong developers, who invested heavily on the mainland during the 1990s, to adopt a new investment strategy in the mainland property market. Read more>>
Evergrande Execs Sell Stock as Company Buys Back
China’s Evergrande Real Estate is the world’s second-largest home builder by sales. Lately, though, it has been looking more like a hedge fund—playing in its own shares. Raising further questions for investors, directors of the company have been making astute trades of their own.
Evergrande has racked up tons of debt as it has purchased land and projects, but over the past three years it has also pocketed handsome gains buying and selling its stock—twice issuing new shares when its price was peaking, and buying back when it dipped. Read more>>
Vanke Seeks Extension of Mainland Share Halt
Property developer China Vanke Co. said Friday it has applied for an extension of the trading halt of its Shenzhen-listed shares because it needs more time to work on its asset-restructuring plan, as it seeks to thwart a possible unsolicited takeover bid from a rival.
Vanke, the world’s largest home builder by sales, said the restructuring plan is “extremely complicated,” involving the acquisition of a number of domestic and overseas assets and discussions for strategy integration of different parties involved in the transaction, according to a filing to the stock exchange. Read more>>
Tune in again tomorrow for more news, and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter for headlines as they happen.
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