Head of East Asia Andrew Burych has completed Brookfield’s inaugural Lion City property buy
Singapore stories lead today’s review of real estate news from around the region, as Brookfield completes its first property investments in the Lion City and one of the city-state’s best known tycoons escapes jail time. China also makes the news as property investment continues to slide.
Brookfield Closes on $413M Buy of Mapletree REIT Singapore Assets
The manager of Mapletree Industrial Trust on Friday announced that it has closed on its sale of three Singapore properties to Brookfield Asset Management, concluding a deal first announced in May.
The S$535.3 million (then $413 million) acquisition gives Brookfield two business parks and an industrial complex in Singapore as its first properties in the city-state. Read more>>
Former Hotel Properties Boss Ong Beng Seng Avoids Jail, Fined $23,400
Singapore billionaire Ong Beng Seng has been fined S$30,000 ($23,400) after he had earlier pleaded guilty to a charge connected to a gift scandal that shocked the country last year.
The former head of developer Hotel Properties Ltd had admitted to abetting the obstruction of justice by helping ex-transport minister Subramaniam Iswaran cover up evidence while the latter was being investigated for corruption. Ong gave expensive gifts, including an all-expenses paid trip with a private jet ride, to Iswaran while they were engaged in official business. Read more>>
China Property Investment Fell 12% in Jan-July Period
Property investment in China declined 12 percent in the first seven months of the year from the same period last year, after dropping 11.2 percent in the first half, official data showed Friday. Property sales by floor area fell 4 percent year-on-year, compared with a 3.5 percent drop in the first six months of the year.
New construction starts measured by floor area slumped 19.4 percent, after contracting 20 percent in the January-to-June period. Funds raised by China’s developers in the first seven months of the year were down 7.5 percent, versus a 6.2 percent drop in the first half. Read more>>
Apple Leases Eight Floors in Bengaluru Tech Park
Apple India Pvt Ltd has leased 270,002 square feet (25,084 square metres) of office space in developer Embassy Group’s Embassy Zenith project in Bengaluru for a 10-year term, with a total rental outlay of over INR 10 billion ($114 million), setting a benchmark with lease rates touching almost INR 235 per square foot per month, documents accessed by Propstack showed.
The tech giant will pay a total of INR 10.1 billion over 10 years, inclusive of rent, parking and common-area maintenance charges, the documents showed. The iPhones and iPads maker has leased nine floors, from the fifth to the 13th, and will pay INR 60 million per month, translating to INR 235 per square foot. Read more>>
GuocoLand Singapore Condo JV Achieved Near Sellout on Opening Weekend
GuocoLand and Hong Leong Holdings’ Upper Thomson area project, Springleaf Residence, racked up a 92 percent take-up rate over its launch weekend, selling 870 out of 941 units at an average of S$2,175 ($1,696) per square foot.
With prices starting from S$878,000 for one-bedroom units and most units falling below the S$2.5 million mark, the project was “priced sensitively” at levels accessible to many buyers in today’s market, said PropNex CEO Kelvin Fong. Read more>>
Hong Kong Developers Raising Prices as Rate Cut Expectations Grow
Hong Kong developers rushed to put more than 200 residential units on the market for sale on Friday, as they took advantage of the market’s anticipation of the first interest rate cut of 2025, which may take place as soon as mid-September.
Most of the flats were offered at two locations on the Kowloon peninsula. A consortium led by Sino Land put up 109 units of Villa Garda II in Tseung Kwan O at HK$14,245 to HK$17,940 ($1,821 to $2,294) per square foot after discounts. Read more>>
US Fund Manager Bridgewater Dumps China Holdings
Bridgewater Associates, one of the world’s largest hedge fund managers, divested all of its holdings in US-listed Chinese companies in the second quarter, marking a significant withdrawal amid geopolitical tensions.
The Ray Dalio-founded American firm sold $1.4 billion worth of direct stakes in 16 US-listed Chinese companies, according to its latest Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This left Bridgewater with no known direct exposure to US-listed China stocks for the first time in years. Read more>>
Singapore’s Temasek Dumps China’s JD, NetEase, Buys PDD, Yum
Two of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds have adjusted their stakes in Chinese equities, trimming their exposure to technology stocks while going long on consumer companies as they mirrored Bridgewater Associates in reacting to volatile markets and rising US-China tensions.
Singapore’s Temasek cut its stake in Alibaba Group by two-thirds to 1.85 million shares in the quarter that ended in June, according to its 13F disclosure on Thursday. It slashed its JD.com holdings by 87 percent to 589,256 shares, cut NetEase by 38 percent to 1.45 million shares and pared H World Group by 8 percent to 6.24 million shares. Read more>>
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