China Vanke chairman Yu Liang
One of the few top Chinese builders to have avoid a default, China Vanke saw its shares and bonds slide on Monday on rumours of a cash shortage, with that story leading today’s roundup of Asia real estate headlines. Also in the news, CapitaLand takes on more Vietnamese residential projects and Hong Kong’s office market is suffering the retreat of the lawyers.
China Vanke Shares and Bonds Sink on Liquidity Concerns
Shares and bonds of China Vanke, the country’s second-biggest property developer by sales, headed toward record lows Monday on renewed concerns that the company may need more breathing room to repay creditors.
Vanke shares fell as much as 7.8 percent in Hong Kong and as much as 5.2 percent in Shenzhen, the biggest drop since December 2022. Some of Vanke’s yuan bonds have hit their lowest levels, according to Bloomberg-compiled prices, while its 3.975 percent dollar bond due in 2027 fell by more than 5 cents on the dollar to 48 cents. Read more>>
CapitaLand Breaks Ground on Pair of Vietnam Projects
CapitaLand Development, the development arm of CapitaLand Group, last week broke ground on a pair of Vietnam residential projects, with the company’s leadership vowing to build a portfolio of 27,000 homes in the country by 2028.
The private unit of CapitaLand Group broke ground on its Sycamore project in Binh Duong province near Ho Chi Minh City on 28 February and followed up on 1 March with the start of construction on Lumi Hanoi in the north. CapitaLand Development’s five-year target represents around a 70 percent increase from the company’s current portfolio of about 16,000 units. The Sycamore and Lumi Hanoi projects together constitute 7,500 homes. Read more>>
Hong Kong Law Firms Seen Cutting Office Space
Hong Kong’s biggest law firms are rushing to reduce office space in prime locations, as they struggle with a dearth of mergers and acquisitions and initial public offerings amid an economic downturn.
Deacons, the city’s oldest law firm, is cutting one floor in Alexandra House, a premium office building in Hong Kong’s business district of Central, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The floor will be released to the market near the end of the year, one of the people said. Read more>>
Hong Kong Home Sales Surge on Weekend After Curbs Lifted
Hong Kong’s property market saw the best weekend in a year after the government lifted decade-long curbs on homebuying.
The financial hub’s 10 biggest estates recorded the most sales in 61 weeks with 27 transactions, 3.5 times higher than the previous weekend, according to Midland Realty, which tracks the data as a gauge of second-hand market sentiment. Read more>>
New China Asset Management Denies Unspecified Rumour About Vanke
New China Asset Management has rebutted a recent rumour about its business with developer China Vanke.
The rumour about New China Asset and Vanke is false, the Beijing-based firm said Sunday without specifying details. A rumour circulated on Chinese social media that Yu Liang, chairman of Shenzhen-based Vanke, visited Beijing with managers of related departments to talk with New China Asset to extend the RMB 10 billion ($1.4 billion) debts it owed but got rejected. Read more>>
Blackstone’s $60B Property Trust Hits Key Milestone as Investor Nerves Calm
A major Blackstone property trust flashed the strongest signal yet that investor pressure for cash is abating.
The firm’s $60 billion real estate trust for rich individuals is finally letting customers draw money without any constraints for the month. Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust said Friday that redemption demands fell below a key threshold, meaning the trust could return as much as investors wanted to pull out. Read more>>
Singapore Luxury Project Relaunched at 20% Discount
Singapore developer SC Global and its joint venture partners, Hong Kong-listed New World Development and Far East Consortium, have slashed asking prices at their Cuscaden Reserve project by as much as 20 percent.
According to a WhatsApp message from property agents, units at Cuscaden Reserve will be priced at S$2,900 ($2,157) per square foot. A two-week preview began on Saturday, with expressions of interest by cheque submissions. Booking of units is said to begin on 16 March. PropNex, ERA, Huttons Asia, OrangeTee & Tie and SRI are appointed marketing agents. Read more>>
Former Chairman of State-Owned Bank of Beijing Under Investigation
The former chairman of the state-owned Bank of Beijing is under investigation for corruption, the latest in a series of graft investigations focused on the country’s financial sector.
Yan Bingzhu, who led the bank from its establishment in 1996 until his retirement in 2017, is among several top officials being probed for “seriously violating discipline and the law”, according to a notice published Friday on the city of Beijing’s official website. Read more>>
Tune in again soon for more real estate news and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on X, or bookmark Mingtiandi’s LinkedIn page for headlines as they happen.
Leave a Reply