Ong Beng Seng Said Back in Singapore and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

In today’s roundup of regional news headlines, Singapore property tycoon Ong Beng Seng is reportedly back in the country after a post-arrest jaunt in Bali and Dalian Wanda spooks markets as it wrestles with an offshore bond nearing maturity. Also making the list is China’s deepening real estate slump and Hong Kong braces for still higher interest rates.

Tycoon Ong in Graft Case Is Back in Singapore: Straits Times

Singapore property tycoon Ong Beng Seng, who’s ensnared in a corruption probe involving the city-state’s transport minister, is back in the country.

Ong landed on a private jet at Seletar airport on Monday evening, according to the Straits Times, after he left on Friday. The flight was from the Indonesian island of Bali, where Ong has business interests including the Four Seasons Resort and Hard Rock Hotel. Read more>>

Wanda Warns of $200M Shortfall on Bond, Surprising Market

One of China’s most closely watched property firms warned of a funding shortfall just days before a key dollar-bond payment, fuelling fresh investor concerns about credit risk in the world’s second-largest economy as growth sputters.

A key unit of Dalian Wanda Group — among the few Chinese real estate conglomerates to stay afloat even as peers succumbed to an industrywide debt crisis in recent years — told some creditors Monday that it’s still raising funds for a $400 million note that matures on 23 July, according to people involved in the private conversations who asked not to be identified. Read more>>

China Property Investment Drop Deepens as Beijing Vows Help

China’s property investment contracted at a steeper pace in the first half of the year, underlining the sector’s deepening downturn as policymakers pledge more support.

Investment in property development fell 7.9 percent in the first six months of 2023, compared with a 7.2 percent decline during January-May, data published Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics showed. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had forecast a drop of 7.5 percent. Read more>>

More Mortgage Pain Likely as Hong Kong Lenders Seen Lifting Prime Rates

Hong Kong’s biggest commercial banks are expected to raise borrowing costs next week to ease their funding pressure, analysts said, with the Federal Reserve odds-on to resume its policy tightening path after a pause in June.

That would deliver a blow to consumers servicing HK$1.83 trillion ($232 billion) in outstanding home mortgages, as well as delay a recovery in the city’s real estate market and economy. The upside is that it could help stem capital flight to higher-yielding US dollar assets. Read more>>

Pinetree Hill Sells 29% of Units at Launch at Average S$2,460 Per Sq Ft

Nearly 29 percent of the 520 units at Pinetree Hill in western Singapore were sold during its launch weekend at an average selling price of S$2,460 ($1,861) per square foot, developers UOL Group and Singapore Land Group said Sunday.

A total of 150 units out of the 400 launched the day before were sold before 6pm on Sunday, 61 percent of which were one- and two-bedroom units with a study, said Anson Lim, general manager for residential marketing at UOL. Read more>>

Star Fund Manager Qiu Dongrong Trims Holdings in Chinese Developers

One of China’s star fund managers increased his investments in China Hongqiao Group, one of the world’s biggest aluminium smelters, and short-video platform Kuaishou Technology in the second quarter, while trimming holdings of property developers, offering some clues as to how the best money managers are navigating the tough market environment.

Qiu Dongrong at Zhonggeng Fund Management in Shanghai was the first of the top-ranked money managers to disclose their second-quarter portfolio reports. Read more>>

Vietnam Central Bank Going Slow on Rate-Cut Calls Amid Risks

A month or so ago, Vietnam’s central bankers were rushing to ease monetary policy, sometimes within hours of the political leadership asking for an interest rate cut. Not anymore.

After reducing rates four times this year, the State Bank of Vietnam is going slow on such actions even as Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has repeatedly pushed for further loosening of policies. Even a specific warning from the government that Vietnam may miss its 6.5 percent growth target this year hasn’t convinced the SBV to act yet. Read more>>

KKR Co-CEO Joe Bae Met NPS, KIC Execs in South Korea

KKR co-CEO Joseph Bae made a visit to South Korea last week to meet with senior managers of the country’s top limited partners such as the National Pension Service and Korea Investment Corp, according to people familiar with the matter on Sunday.

His trip to South Korea is viewed as in line with the firm’s aim to strengthen its relationships with institutional investors and boost investments in the country as it is reportedly working on a new several-billion-dollar flagship fund launch later this year. 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.