DBS is giving up two and a half floors in Tower 3 of the Marina Bay Financial Centre
In Mingtiandi’s latest roundup of regional news headlines, Singapore-based banking giant DBS makes plans to trim its office space in the city, consultancy JLL mulls the sale of its China property management business, and the Kwok family’s designs on Hong Kong attract some media attention.
DBS to Cut Office Space in Marina Bay Financial Centre
DBS Group Holdings is poised to trim office space in Singapore, the latest bank to pare its footprint in the city-state during the coronavirus pandemic.
Southeast Asia’s largest bank plans to surrender about two and a half floors, or 75,000 square feet (6,968 square metres), in Tower 3 of the Marina Bay Financial Centre, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The lender occupies more than a dozen floors in the building, located in the central business district near the iconic Marina Bay Sands hotel and casino. Read more>>
JLL Weighing Sale of China Property Management Business
JLL is weighing a plan to sell its property management business in China for at least $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Chicago-based real estate services provider is working with an advisor on a potential sale that has drawn interest from other property management firms and financial investors, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. The firm’s real estate brokerage and valuation business in China are not part of the possible sale, they said. Read more>>
Kaisa’s Kwok Family Quietly Takes Over Hong Kong
A mainland Chinese property family is quietly building a presence in Hong Kong by snapping up land plots and even a prominent local newspaper.
Shenzhen-based Kaisa Group Holdings’ Kwok Ying Shing has become one of the most active Chinese tycoons in Hong Kong with a flurry of new purchases. His moves underscore Chinese elites’ growing influence in the former British colony as its status as a global financial hub shows signs of waning. Read more>>
HK Office Market Seen Bottoming Out in Second Half of 2021
Colliers has become the first property consultancy to sign-post a recovery in Hong Kong’s office market.
The Toronto-based company said the market could bottom out by the middle of this year, with prices rebounding by about 25 percent between next year and 2025 to pre-COVID levels despite the rising trend of work from home, decline in co-working operators’ footprints and corporate downsizing amid the pandemic, and a record recession in Hong Kong’s economy. Read more>>
Asia Pacific Asset Yields Expected to Compress Further in 2021
Asset yields across Asia Pacific face further compression in 2021, with tightening expected across various real estate asset classes and pricing adjustments in major metropolitan areas. Interest rates in Asia Pacific have fallen sharply over the last four years, between 30 and 250 basis points.
According to JLL, this backdrop provides a conducive environment for real estate investments and support for capital values, but while asset yields have compressed to some extent, current low rates have not been fully priced in. Read more>>
New World to Grow Health, Insurance Businesses
New World Development, one of Hong Kong’s biggest real estate companies, is accelerating its expansion into areas such as health care and insurance as it targets more business in mainland China.
Chief executive Adrian Cheng wants non-property services to generate as much as 30 percent of income in five to seven years, he said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. While he didn’t elaborate, revenues from insurance and other non-property strategic investments made up about 21 percent of the group’s income for the six months ended December. Read more>>
Japan’s Climate Pledge Prompts Companies to Sell Ageing Property
Japan’s ambitious targets on carbon emissions are prompting some firms to offload ageing office blocks, resulting in rare investment opportunities for potential buyers, according to the head of the nation’s biggest trust bank.
“Companies are now reviewing their facilities and assets and will either make them fit the carbon neutral policy or sell,” said Toru Takakura, president of Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings, which has about $2 trillion in assets under custody. Read more>>
Five Chinese Cities Told to Rein In Speculation as Property Prices Soar
China’s housing regulator told five cities, including the major southern city of Guangzhou, to curb housing speculation as prices soar, Xinhua state news agency reported on Thursday.
New home prices in China rose at their fastest pace in five months in February, official data showed, as red-hot demand for property in the world’s second-largest economy largely eclipsed government efforts to cool the market. Read more>>
Taronga Ventures Expands Programme for Singapore Startups
Taronga Ventures, an investment management firm, announced an expansion of its RealTechX innovation programme to Singapore.
Companies participating in RealTechX will receive access to global real estate corporate customers, potential investment and expert advice on global and domestic growth strategies. Read more>>
Tune in again soon for more real estate news and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter, or bookmark Mingtiandi’s LinkedIn page for headlines as they happen.
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