China Home Price Growth Stays on the Slide in December and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

China’s continuously cooling housing market leads Asia’s real estate headlines today with the latest set of government statistics showing that home price growth on the mainland’s largest cities fell to its lowest rate in 17 months. Hong Kong’s current market correction also gets some online ink, with a major cosmetics retail shutting down a quarter of its stores in the city, and a new report showing that commercial property investment fell by more than half last year. All these stories and more are in store just a bit down the page.

China Home Price Growth Fell to 6.6% in December

Average new home prices in China’s 70 major cities rose 6.6% in December, slowing from a 7.1% gain in the previous month, Reuters calculation based on National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data on Thursday.

It was the slowest pace since July 2018, and significantly weaker than the 9.7% gain seen in December 2018. Many analysts are forecasting a further slowdown in the market. Read more>>

HK Cosmetics Retailer Sa Sa to Close 25% of Local Outlets

Sa Sa International, Hong Kong’s biggest cosmetics retailer, plans to shutter up to a quarter of its stores in the city over the next 18 months, blaming the “unabated difficult” business environment for its latest struggle. It is considering asking employees to take no-pay leave to lighten its operating costs.

The skin care and cosmetics chain operator has earmarked about 20 to 25 per cent of its outlets in Hong Kong for closures, according to a stock exchange filing. Most of them are located in the tourist areas “most severely affected” by the downturn as the industry slumped amid seven months of anti-government protests. Read more>>

HK Commercial Property Investment Said to Falll 52% in 2019

Investment in Hong Kong office and retail properties plunged by 52 per cent last year to HK$$68.9 billion (US$8.9 billion), the largest decline in a single year since 2011, property consultancy CBRE said on Wednesday.

The ongoing anti-government protests and economic uncertainty had weakened demand across all sections of the city’s real estate sector. “A lot of uncertainty continues to exist in Hong Kong’s economy in 2020, due to the ongoing social unrest, trade talks and China’s economic slowdown. This will continue to have an impact on investor sentiment,” said Reeves Yan, CBRE Hong Kong’s executive director of capital markets. Read more>>

SG Private Home Sales Rose 15% in 2019

Private home sales in 2019 rose 15 per cent to 10,104 units – signalling a resilient housing market as unemployment remained low, despite an expectedly slow month in December.

Housing demand was robust across the board, with six of the top 10 selling projects located in the outside central region (OCR) as HDB upgraders continued to snap up private homes, noted Lee Sze Teck, Huttons Asia director research. Read more>>

Shophouse Portfolio Goes on the Market for S$141M in SG

A portfolio of conservation shophouses in Chinatown has been launched for sale via an expression of interest exercise, with a guide price of S$141 million.

One of the properties consists of adjoining shophouses located at 42, 43, 44, 45 Mosque Street, while the other is at 54, 56 Pagoda Street, exclusive marketing agent Savills Singapore said on Wednesday. Read more>>

Mapletree Completes $557M American Data Centre Buy

A joint venture (JV) between Mapletree Investments and Mapletree Industrial Trust (MIT) has completed the acquisition of 10 powered shell data centres in North America for some US$557.3 million.

The deal with data centre provider Digital Realty was completed on Tuesday, MIT’s manager said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday morning. Read more>>

CapitaLand Wins Tender to Manage Bugis Village, Bugis Junction in SG

REAL estate behemoth CapitaLand has won the tender to manage Bugis Village and Bugis Street for up to a decade, it said in a bourse filing on Thursday.

It will take over the integrated management of the area on April 1, 2020 with an initial three-year tenancy, which may be renewed for two further terms of three years each and a final tenancy term not extending beyond March 30, 2030. Read more>>

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