Downtown Singapore Site Tagged for Redevelopment and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

A Singapore site previously set aside for street food vendors is earmarked for residential development, with that story leading today’s headline roundup. Also in the news, Australia’s Novus seeks to raise $640 million for build-to-rent projects and ASX-listed National Storage REIT makes a tactical investment in rival Abacus.

Singapore Tags Cross Street Site for Residential Project

A site along Cross Street in Singapore’s central business district has been earmarked for redevelopment for residential use, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

The land parcel is being proposed for residential with commercial at first storey use, with a gross plot ratio of 6.3. The empty field located at Telok Ayer MRT station previously housed the Market Street Interim Hawker Centre. Read more>>

Aussie BTR Player Novus Raising $640M for Sydney, Melbourne Projects

Build-to-rent player Novus has hit the pavement to raise more than A$1 billion ($640 million) for three projects across Sydney and Melbourne, tapping into inbound interest from Asian and North American institutional investors.

The group, a partnership of developer Aliro Group and two ex-Mirvac employees, Adam Hirst and Jason Goldsworthy, has hired investment bank Jarden and Chicago-based Cushman & Wakefield to market the deal and oversee an international capital-raising process. Read more>>

Aussie Self-Storage Leader National Storage REIT Disrupts Takeover of Rival

Australian self-storage operator National Storage REIT has bought a stake in listed rival Abacus Storage King, in a move that could potentially thwart a A$1.9 billion ($1.2 billion) takeover proposal for it by a South African billionaire.

Known by its ticker NSR, the operator has taken a 4.78 percent stake in its Abacus-run rival, which this month received a conditional takeover proposal from a consortium formed between Nathan Kirsh’s family office, Ki Corporation, and New York-listed giant Public Storage. Read more>>

Fund Manager Permira Closing Hong Kong, Shanghai Offices to Focus on India

Permira Holdings is overhauling its Asia strategy, closing offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai and shuffling senior leadership to India, where it sees stronger momentum and a more robust pipeline for deals, people familiar with the matter said.

The investment firm will wind down the offices over the next 18 months, the people said. The moves will affect fewer than 10 professional staff, most of whom are likely to relocate to other offices, one of the people said. Siddarth Narayan, managing director and head of India, will become head of Asia later this year, the people said. Read more>>

Sekisui House REIT Buying Tokyo Apartments for $8M

The manager of Sekisui House REIT said Monday that it has decided to purchase an apartment block in Tokyo’s northern suburbs for JPY 1.15 billion ($8.1 million).

Without naming the seller, the J-REIT’s manager said it will be purchasing Esty Maison Otsuka for just below the property’s JPY 1.2 billion valuation, with Sekisui House REIT managing a range of Esty Maison locations in the country’s largest cities. Read more>>

Sunac China Wins Extra Time to Resolve Hong Kong Wind-Up Case

A wind-up hearing for Sunac China Holdings was adjourned by a Hong Kong court until 25 August, giving the Chinese developer more time to hammer out terms of its restructuring plan with creditors.

China Cinda HK Asset Management, which filed the winding-up petition against Sunac earlier this year, sought a delay only until June. But a judge at the Hong Kong High Court gave the parties four more months, saying they need more time to make progress on a “gigantic” case. Read more>>

Frasers Centrepoint Trust Boosts Distributions by 0.5%

Frasers Centrepoint Trust on Tuesday posted a 0.5 percent year-on-year increase in first-half distribution per unit to S$0.06054.

On 25 March, the manager announced the proposed acquisition of a 100 percent interest in Northpoint City South Wing valued at close to S$1.2 billion ($880 million). Additionally, through a private placement and preferential offering that was 24.8 percent oversubscribed, FCT raised S$421.3 million. Read more>>

South Korea Commercial Real Estate Investment Jumped 66% in Q1

Commercial real estate investment in South Korea reached KRW 7 trillion ($4.9 billion) in the first quarter of 2025. This marks a 66 percent increase year-over-year and a 34 percent rise from the previous quarter, according to a recent CBRE report. The robust performance was led by the forward purchase of large-scale office assets in the Magok area and an uptick in foreign investor activity in the logistics sector.

Office transactions totalled KRW 5.2 trillion, representing 74 percent of total investment volume and reflecting stable market momentum. Notably, forward purchase deals in Magok — One Grove and Le West City Tower A & B — accounted for KRW 2.9 trillion, or 55 percent of total office investment. Additional major transactions in the CBD, such as Namsan Square, Crystal Square and the Jeongan Building, as well as Gangnam Finance Plaza in the Gangnam area, contributed KRW 1.2 trillion, or 23 percent of the office total. Read more>>

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