Seoul Office Deals Reached Record $12.1B in 2020 and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

In today’s roundup of regional news headlines, Seoul records another banner year in office transactions, Singapore developer CapitaLand warns of a likely 2020 loss, and China Evergrande enjoys a sizeable fundraising for its electric vehicle arm.

Seoul Office Investments Reached Record $12.1B in 2020

Investments in office properties within the Greater Seoul area hit yet another record in 2020 despite the pandemic, as high demand for offices in prime locations led the bullish market, data showed Friday.

The full-year transaction total of offices last year in Seoul and the neighbouring city of Bundang, Gyeonggi province, came to KRW 13.4 trillion ($12.1 billion), up 9 percent from the previous all-time high in 2019, according to data suggested by real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield. Read more>>

CapitaLand Warns of 2020 Full-Year Loss of Up to $1.24B

CapitaLand announced in its profit guidance last Friday that it expected to report a loss for the full year ended 31 December 2020 as a result of the impact from revaluations and impairments.

Based on indicative values, the company’s share of fair value losses is expected to be in the range of S$1.55-1.65 billion ($1.17-1.24 billion), compared with a gain of S$674.8 million a year earlier. This fair value loss represents about 4.7 percent of the group’s investment properties portfolio value. Read more>>

Evergrande Raises $3.35B for Electric Cars 

China Evergrande is taking a step further in its ambitious plan to conquer the global electric vehicle market by making one of its biggest fundraisings yet from six private investors since switching its focus from the health care business in 2018.

China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group, the developer’s Hong Kong-listed unit, is raising HK$26 billion ($3.35 billion) by selling 952.4 million new shares at HK$27.30 each, according to a Hong Kong Stock Exchange filing on Sunday. The price represents a 9 percent discount to the last traded level on Friday, and the stake amounts to about 9.75 percent of its enlarged capital. Read more>>

Electric Car Makers Boost Presence in Mainland Shopping Malls

Electric car makers are opening so-called experience stores at an unprecedented rate in China’s shopping malls, in a bid to market the benefits of environmentally friendly motoring directly to consumers.

Unlike traditional showrooms, the branded shops offer visitors anything from food and refreshments to libraries. And of course potential buyers can test-drive the cars.

“EV car makers have entered into more than half of 93 shopping malls in Shanghai tracked by us,” said Vivian Zhu, director in JLL’s Shanghai retail team. Read more>>

Hong Kong Homebuyers Snap Up Nan Fung Tseung Kwan O Homes

Hong Kong’s homebuyers piled into the real estate market and ignored a raging coronavirus outbreak in the Kowloon side of the city as they almost cleared out the second new launch of property projects this year.

Nan Fung Group and MTR Corporation sold 176 of the 179 flats at the LP10 project at Lohas Park in Tseung Kwan O, receiving more than 5,100 registrations of interest, or 27 bids for every available flat, according to sales agents. The developers, who reported HK$1.6 billion ($206 million) from the sale, have offered to put a second batch of 128 flats on the market. Read more>>

Shenzhen Announces New Home Purchase Restrictions

Shenzhen’s local government will slap a three-year ban on residents who provide false information on new property purchases to stamp out cheats, after authorities discovered 12 fraud cases at a new housing project.

Authorities in China’s wealthiest city in southern Guangdong province announced the penalty on Saturday after witnessing a buying frenzy in several new developments. A limit on home ownership and price caps to douse speculation have failed to restrain prices, creating opportunities for buyers to flip new homes to profit from higher prices in the secondary market. Read more>>

Shapoorji Pallonji”s Joyville to Invest $54M in Gurugram Housing Project

Business conglomerate Shapoorji Pallonji”s real estate platform Joyville will invest around INR 400 crore ($54 million) to develop the third phase of its housing project in Gurugram as demand for residential properties has recovered from June last year, a senior company official said on Sunday.

In an interview with PTI, Joyville Shapoorji Housing managing director Sriram Mahadevan said housing sales were hit badly during the April-June quarter of this fiscal year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but demand improved significantly thereafter. Read more>>

Mahindra Lifespace Developers Posted $1.5M Loss Last Quarter

Realty firm Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd on Saturday reported a consolidated net loss of INR 11.19 crore ($1.5 million) in the third quarter of this fiscal year on lower income.

The company had posted a net profit of INR 1.81 crore in the year-ago period. Read more>>

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