Beijing maybe easing off on its control of new home prices
More cracks began to show in China’s clampdown on housing prices as authorities in the nation’s capital put up for sale a pair of housing sites without capping the price at which winning bidders are allowed to sell finished homes. Also in the news, a Korean listed trust has sold its 45 percent interest in a Tokyo office project for $162 million and Shanghai home sales dropped 22 percent last week despite the central bank’s recent reduction in the reserve ratio requirement. Read on for all these stories and more.
Beijing to Sell Two Plots Without Home Price Caps
Beijing, where property curbs are most stringent amid the central government’s drive to cool overheating in the sector, has put on sale another two land sites without a cap on selling prices in a policy shift that began late last year to generate demand for flats in the market slump.
The two plots in the capital city’s northeastern part of prime Chaoyang district were offered by the planning authority last week at starting prices of 2.45 billion yuan (US$362 million) and 2.39 billion yuan. A third site, put on offer since last October, has yet to be sold. Read more>>
Korean REIT Sells Stake in Tokyo Office Asset for $162M
JR AMC Co. Ltd., a real estate investment trust manager in South Korea, has recently disposed of its stake in a luxury office building in central Tokyo, for 17.55 billion yen ($162 million), securing 3.4 billion yen ($31 million) in proceeds from its first overseas property investment.
The REIT manager had bought a 45% equity interest in Akasaka Star Gate Plaza, a 16-story building with a floor space of 17,493 square meters, for 14.18 billion yen in July 2014. Read more>>
China RRR Cut Fails to Spark Shanghai Housing Sales
Shanghai’s new housing sales suffered a major setback last week but still stayed above the 100,000-square-meter threshold, the latest market data showed. The area of new residential properties sold, excluding government-subsidized affordable housing, dropped 22.2 percent from a week earlier to 119,000 square meters during the seven days to Sunday, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Co said in a report released on Monday.
“It seemed that the latest move by the People’s Bank of China to cut the requirement reserve ratio for yuan deposits by 1 percentage point failed to leave a positive impact on new home transaction, and this may possibly affect market confidence,” said Lu Wenxi, Centaline’s senior research manager. Read more>>
Greenland HK Hopes to Get into China’s Senior Care Market
Mainland property developer Greenland Hong Kong has set its eyes in major Chinese cities to expand its elderly care services as a way to accelerate the company’s diversification into non-property businesses amid China’s real estate market slump.
Hou Guangjun, chief operating officer of the company, told the South China Morning Post that first-tier cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen were targeted as the Hong Kong-listed developer looked to tap the growing demand among the mainland rich for better health care and senior care offerings. Read more>>
Shopee Leases 240,000 Square Feet as Ecommerce Expands in SG
Shopee, the e-commerce arm of Singapore-based, New York-listed Sea Ltd, is understood to have fully leased a new business park development at 5 Science Park Drive.
The six-storey project, with frontage along Ayer Rajah Expressway, will have about 240,000 sq ft net lettable area. It is expected to receive Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) soon.
Located near Kent Ridge MRT Station, the project is a redevelopment by Ascendas-Singbridge Group of the former Fleming and Faraday buildings. Read more>>
WeWork India Says All Centres Profitable Despite $10.7M Loss
The Indian unit of shared workspace provider WeWork said all its buildings have become profitable in the first six months of operations although it posted a net loss of Rs 76 crore ($10.7 million) at the company level in FY18.
The New York-headquartered collaborative workspace firm’s Indian arm notched revenues of Rs 58.2 crore, as per financials sourced from Registrar of Companies. With 8,800 desks until March last year, a back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that each earned revenues of about Rs 66,000 but the company incurred expenses of Rs 88,000 per desk on an average. Read more>>
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