Shui On Said to Pick UBS, MS for Xintiandi IPO and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

In today’s roundup of regional news headlines, Hong Kong’s Shui On Land reportedly selects UBS and Morgan Stanley to lead its Xintiandi subsidiary’s IPO, Singapore-listed Cromwell E-REIT picks up a logistics asset in England, and China turns to ration coupons in the latest bid to cool the overheating property market.

Shui On Said to Pick UBS, Morgan Stanley for Xintiandi IPO

Shui On Land has picked Morgan Stanley and UBS Group to lead a proposed initial public offering of its unit China Xintiandi Holding, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The property firm controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Vincent Lo intends to separately list the subsidiary in Hong Kong next year, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The share sale could raise at least $500 million, according to the people. Read more>>

Cromwell E-REIT Acquires Logistics Property in UK for $13.9M

A wholly owned subsidiary of Cromwell European REIT has acquired a logistics property in northwest England for £10 million ($13.9 million), a figure that comes in 3 percent below its independent valuation of £10.3 million.

In a bourse filing on Wednesday morning, the manager announced the acquisition of the 9,764 square metre (105,099 square foot) building, which sits on a 20,438 square metre land parcel in the logistics location of Kingsland Grange Industrial Estate in Warrington.

China Goes Back to Rationing With Wuhan ‘Housing Tickets’ 

China has taken countless measures over the years to cool the red-hot property market. It has introduced ceilings on borrowings, limited the number of properties that an individual can own and even increased interest rates on mortgage loans.

In the latest bid, the government has borrowed a page from its old playbook of ration coupons, a strategy that was used during the country’s planned economy era, to rein in the property market. Read more>>

OUE Posts S$30.1M H1 Net Profit, Reversing Year-Ago Loss

Property developer OUE recorded a net profit of S$30.1 million ($22.3 million now) for the six months ended June, reversing a year-ago loss of S$207.2 million. The improvement has been attributed to the absence of the fair-value loss recognised on the US Bank Tower last year.

The company proposed an interim dividend of 1 Singapore cent per share, to be paid on 23 September. The sweetener comes even as OUE’s revenue fell by 49.5 percent to S$152 million, with lower contributions across most divisions. Read more>>

SG E Coast Shopping Centre Relaunched for Collective Sale at S$120M

Local real estate consultancy OrangeTee Advisory on Wednesday announced its relaunch of Siglap Shopping Centre for collective sale in view of recent trends of aggressive bidding for government land sites.

As with its previous effort in late October last year at putting the freehold site up for sale, its guide price for the 39,635 square foot (3,682 square meter) land parcel remains at S$120 million ($89 million) — translating to S$1,235 per square foot per plot ratio, factoring in a 7 percent bonus residential gross floor area for private outdoor spaces. Read more>>

Hong Kong Home Price Records Driven by New Buyers, Say Analysts

More first-time buyers have been piling into Hong Kong’s property market, driving up the prices of mid-sized flats in out-of-town locations, according to analysts.

Homes measuring between 431 and 752 square feet (40-70 square metres) soared to record-breaking prices in June as couples and young families snapped up second-hand units in areas like the New Territories, where their money goes a lot further than it does in the city. Read more>>

Wheelock Submits New Plan for Kowloon Bay Project

Wheelock Properties has submitted a new redevelopment plan for Kowloon Godown in Kowloon Bay to the Town Planning Board to build 1,782 residential flats but with smaller sizes.

Nearly 1,000 units have been added to the 784 flats that were approved 10 years ago, but the average size of each unit will shrink 56 percent to 465 square feet (43 square metres). Read more>>

Ascendas REIT H1 Distributions Rise 5.4%

Ascendas REIT has bumped up its distribution per unit to 7.66 Singapore cents ($0.06 now) for the first half ended 30 June, up 5.4 percent from 7.27 Singapore cents a year ago.

Distributable income rose 18.2 percent to S$311.0 million, which the manager attributed mainly to contributions from its newly acquired properties. Read more>>

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