Mainland Buyers to Push Up HK Home Prices and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Hong Kong’s home prices have come under pressure from rising US rates, but at least one banker sees mainland demand keeping the city’s housing costs at their usual nosebleed levels. Also in the headlines, Wanda and R&F Properties sign an agreement to build 25 commercial projects in five years. There are all these stories and more awaiting you, if you just read on.

Mainland Buyers to Push Up HK Home Prices Says SCB

Hong Kong’s home prices are unlikely to see significant fall amid solid demand, despite the increasing interest rates and the government’s measures to curb growth, Standard Chartered says.

“I can’t see Hong Kong’s property prices falling too much considering the demand and supply, and mainland investors are still buying overseas assets,” said May Tan, chief executive for Hong Kong at Standard Chartered Bank. Read more>>

Wanda and R&F Sign Deal to Develop 25 Commercial Projects

Dalian Wanda Group and Guangzhou R&F Properties have inked a deal to develop 25 commercial property projects over the next five years with a total investment of 30 billion yuan.

The two developers will develop five Wanda Plazas, Wanda’s flagship shopping mall, each year between 2017 and 2021. The first batch of projects developed next year will be in first and second tier cities. Read more>>

Wanda’s AMC Closes on Carmike Cinema Deal

AMC Theatres said Wednesday that it has completed its acquisition of Carmike Cinemas for approximately $1.1 billion, including the assumption of Carmike debt, making it the largest U.S. movie theater chain.

AMC Theatres, majority-owned by the Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, is now the largest exhibitor in the U.S., Europe and the world, operating 900 venues with more than 10,000 screens globally. That includes 661 theaters with more than 8,200 screens in the U.S. and 244 theaters with 2,200 screens in Europe. Read more>>

Vanke to Build 140 Sq Ft Homes in Guangzhou

China Vanke, the country’s largest real estate developer, is going small. Really small.

Its Cloud City project in Guangzhou’s Tianhe district comprises 5,584 apartment units that are between 204 and 388 sq ft in size, with the net living area as small as 140 sq ft in net living area. That’s smaller than the floor space found inside a standard, 20-foot shipping container. Read more>>

China to Regulate Housing Rents and Attack Real Estate Bubbles

Regulating the housing rental market and curbing property bubbles are two major projects serving Chinese people’s residential needs, President Xi Jinping said yesterday.

The residential feature of housing should be accurately taken into account, Xi said at a meeting of the Central Leading Group on Finance and Economic Affairs. Read more>>

How Baoneng Engineered Vanke Takeover

China’s insurance regulator is clamping down on aggressive takeovers by insurance companies that rely heavily on investment-linked policies and are controlled by a parent that faces few constraints on how it can exploit its insurance subsidiary.

A closer examination of Foresea Life Insurance, one of the companies caught in the spotlight, sheds light on why the regulator is worried about their sales, investment and shareholding structure. Read more>>

Tune in again tomorrow for more news, and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter for headlines as they happen.