CK Asset Says Hong Kong Home Prices Could Drop 20% and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Hong Kong’s second-largest developer just added an extra shot of uncertainty to the new year by predicting that housing prices could drop by a fifth this year as we make our daily survey of real estate news in the region, but all that anxiety isn’t stopping the manager’s of Washington state’s pensions from setting up their own real estate fund manager in Hong Kong. Also in the headlines, Wanda hits another snag in its efforts to restructure its media holdings and there are still more stories awaiting you further down the page.

CK Asset Says Hong Kong Home Prices Could Drop 20%

Hong Kong home prices could be headed for a multi-year downtrend that knocks valuations by up to 20 per cent, prompting major developers to slash prices for new homes along with the sliding market, according to a senior executive at CK Asset Holdings, the second largest developer in Hong Kong by capitalisation.

CK Asset executive director Justin Chiu Kwok-hung said on Tuesday that home prices could drop 10 per cent this year and by up to 8 to 10 per cent next year, amid simmering trade tensions between China and the US that show little sign of being resolved in the near future. Read more>>

Washington State Investment Board to Set Up HK Investment Manager

Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) is planning to help create a new Hong Kong-based real estate investment manager through its long-running partnership with Evergreen Investment Advisors.

The $128.8bn (€114bn) pension fund has recommended committing $200m to Crane Capital and transferring a $400m portfolio to the start-up company, according to a board meeting report. Read more>>

Wanda Scales Back Restructuring of Media Business After Investor Balks

A state-owned minority shareholder dropped out of Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group’s plans to consolidate its film and entertainment businesses, forcing Wanda to scale back the transaction by almost 10% to $1.55 billion.

Wanda Film Holding Co. Ltd., the conglomerate’s cinema chain, said in a statement Monday that a state-owned shareholder of the film studio Wanda Media would no longer participate in the asset-restructuring plan. The state-owned enterprise is based in the coastal city Qingdao. Read more>>

Singapore Secondary Condo Market Drops for Second Straight Month

Singapore’s condo resale market continued to cool for the second straight month in January, with non-landed private residential resale prices down 0.3 per cent in January from the month before, according to monthly figures from real estate portal SRX Property on Tuesday (Feb 12).

This follows December’s month-on-month drop of 0.6 per cent, revised from the 0.8 per cent fall earlier estimated by SRX. Read more>>

3 Companies Now Control 55% of HK’s Data Centre Market

Land scarcity and some of the highest rents in Asia-Pacific have allowed three operators of data centres to dominate the market – estimated at US$883 million – in Hong Kong.

According to a report released on Wednesday by Toronto-based consultancy Structure Research, which focuses on data centre and internet infrastructure, NTT Communications, a subsidiary of Japan’s largest telecommunications company, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, Sunevision Holdings, the technology arm of Hong Kong property developer Sun Hung Kai Properties and US-based global co-location data centre operator Equinix command 55 per cent of revenue in the sector. Read more>>

Malaysia’s EPF Sells KL Office Asset to SG’s Royal Group for $32M

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) has sold Wisma KFC in Jalan Sultan Ismail, Kuala Lumpur, to Singapore-based property developer and manager Royal Group. Sources say the 22-storey office building, which is believed to have been sold for about RM130 million ($31.98 million), may be turned into a hotel.

Located within the Golden Triangle — the commercial, shopping and entertainment hub of Kuala Lumpur — the office building has a gross floor area of 342,145 sq ft and occupies a 0.5-acre freehold plot. It has 268 parking bays. Read more>>

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