The purchase of 45 Barker Road would break a two-year-old record for price per square foot
In today’s roundup of regional news headlines, a mainland buyer circles a Hong Kong mansion for a potential record-breaking deal, and Evergrande’s restructuring plan receives lukewarm reviews.
Barker Road Mansion Set to Sell for Record Price Per Square Foot
A buyer from mainland China is offering HK$1.2 billion ($153 million) for a mansion in Hong Kong’s Peak area, a sign of the city’s rebounding property market after it reopened to the world.
If completed, the deal would mark a new Asia record for price per square foot, at HK$255,000, beating the HK$140,800 paid in 2021 for an apartment at the Mount Nicholson project. Read more>>
Evergrande Dollar Debt Revamp Plan Fails to Cheer Investors
China Evergrande’s offshore debt restructuring proposal, a test of investor sentiment towards the cash-squeezed property sector, failed to impress because of its long repayment period and lack of enough sweeteners, creditors and analysts said.
Evergrande is the world’s most indebted developer, with around $300 billion in liabilities. Its offshore debt restructuring, the country’s biggest such exercise, is aimed at saving it from a disorderly collapse. Read more>>
Discounts Fail to Drag Vietnam Apartment Market Out of Slump
Demand for apartments in Vietnam has declined sharply this year, though sellers are offering discounts of 30 to 50 percent.
In Ho Chi Minh City, liquidity was low in January and February and weakened further in March. Read more>>
Reopening of China-Owned Waldorf Astoria New York Pushed Back to 2025
Manhattan’s iconic Waldorf Astoria Hotel, which has been “temporarily” closed since February 2017, will not reopen until at least 2025, sources told the New York Post.
The ongoing delays are a continued black eye for the Hilton brand, which is launching “Waldorf Astoria”-named properties around the world while the flagship remains a construction zone, sources said. China’s Anbang Insurance bought the Waldorf Astoria for $1.95 billion in 2014, and Dajia Insurance Group took over the asset after Anbang’s 2020 bankruptcy. Read more>>
CDL, MCL to Preview Tembusu Grand at Prices From S$2,296 Per Square Foot
City Developments Ltd and MCL Land will open previews for their residential project, Tembusu Grand, on Friday.
Located along Tanjong Katong Road in District 15, Tembusu Grand will house 638 units in four 20- or 21-storey blocks on the Jalan Tembusu site acquired through a government land tender in 2022. More than 80 percent of the residential units available will be one- to three-bedroom units. Read more>>
Swiss Gallery Leases 10,000 Square Feet at 8 Queen’s Road Central
Hauser & Wirth, a major Swiss contemporary and modern art gallery, is relocating to new premises in Hong Kong’s Central business district to give art patrons and customers better access to its galleries, according to one of its top executives.
Zurich-headquartered Hauser will occupy 10,000 square feet (929 square metres) of space on the ground and first level of 8 Queen’s Road Central, located at the intersection of Queen’s Road Central, Ice House Street and Duddell Street, before the end of the year. Hauser currently occupies the 15th and 16th floors at H Queen’s, also in Central. Read more>>
HSBC, Standard Chartered Keep Rates Steady After Hong Kong’s Hike
Hong Kong’s largest banks chose to keep their prime rate unchanged after a quarter-point increase by the city’s monetary authority in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve, which voted unanimously to put anti-inflation at the forefront of its monetary policy.
HSBC was the first lender to announce at noon that it would keep its best lending rate unchanged at 5.625 percent, according to a statement by the largest of Hong Kong’s three currency-issuing banks. Its subsidiary Hang Seng Bank also said it would keep its prime rate at 5.625 percent. Read more>>
‘Zombie’ Developers Increase in South Korea as Property Market Wobbles
The share of South Korean developers struggling to pay interest expenses on their loans rose by a quarter last year as the central bank aggressively tightened policy and the local housing market began to wobble.
Some 36.1 percent of listed developers were unable to fully cover interest expenses with operating profit as at the third quarter of last year, according to a Bank of Korea report released on Thursday. That figure is up from 28.9 percent in 2021. Read more>>
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