Property Tax in the Long Term Study Bin – and more of Today’s China Real Estate Links | January 17, 2013

Here is a list of the day’s latest China real estate news collected from around the web:

• Wen Jiabao Places Property Tax in the Long Term Study Bin

  Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Tuesday said the government should study implementing property-tax reform “in the medium to long term,” in the latest indication of a delay in imposing nationwide taxes on apartment ownership.

  Reforms to resource taxes and value-added taxes, which are partially under way, will be implemented in the near term, Mr. Wen said on a visit to the Ministry of Finance, in comments posted on the government’s website.

  The comments are consistent with the views of many analysts who say property tax reform will be politically difficult, as many officials and businesspeople have their wealth in property.

• Cheung Kong Offers Debt in Busiest Month for China Developers

  Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd. (1) and KWG Property Holding Ltd. (1813) are marketing dollar-denominated bonds with no maturity date in the busiest month for U.S. currency offerings from Hong Kong and Chinese developers on record.
  Cheung Kong, the conglomerate controlled by Asia’s richest manLi Ka-shing, plans to sell perpetual notes at 5.375 percent to 5.5 percent, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the terms aren’t set. KWG Property is marketing notes, which can be brought back by the company after 5 1/2 years, to yield 10.25 percent, another person said yesterday.

• Land prices to swell in 2013

  China’s land prices will rise faster in 2013 than in 2012, but still at a moderate pace, as the country’s urbanization measures will fuel growth while property control policies prevent a rapid increase, the Ministry of Land and Resources (MLR) predicted Tuesday.

  The country’s average land prices rose slightly to 3,129 yuan ($503) per square meter by the end of 2012 from 3,049 yuan per square meter a year earlier, Zhao Song, director of the China Land Surveying and Planning Institute with the MLR, said at a press conference in Beijing.

• Mainland commercial real estate investors seen favouring Hong Kong

  Mainland investment in commercial real estate around the world will continue to grow this year as Chinese companies are encouraged to invest abroad.

  Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia are the preferred destinations for mainland property investors, which include big private corporations as well as state-owned enterprises, according to Alastair Hughes, chief executive of Jones Lang LaSalle Asia Pacific.

• Income-to-Housing Price Gap Narrows in China

  Kay Sun, a 32 year-old administrative assistant put down a deposit last month on a 2.85 million yuan ($460,000) one-bedroom apartment in Shanghai.

  It was a financial stretch for the single Ms. Sun, who works at an information-technology firm in a position that typically pays about 15,000 yuan a month. She needed money from her parents to fund the down payment.

  Her move may seem bold, but she isn’t atypical. Around China, signs are growing that a government campaign to bring housing prices closer in line with incomes is starting to bear fruit.

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