Kaisa chairman Kwok Ying-shing was pushed from the top spot in January by China’s surge of Sydney deals
Through nearly 12 months of 2015 China’s real estate market has weathered the defaults of a major developer, witnessed the end of a year-long slide in home prices and seen a series of government efforts to rekindle investment in the sector.
With the approaching western holiday season holding at least the promise of calm coming over the market, Mingtiandi would like to take this opportunity to guide you back through 12 months and 355 stories worth of 2015 in our review of the biggest stories of the year, according to how many of you visited each story each month.
January: Defaulting Developers and a Rush to Australia
“Chinese Pour $1.23B into Sydney Real Estate in Last 2 Months – More on the Way” was the headline of our story on January 4th, which attracted more readers than any other in January. The feature, which recounted a series of deals by Dalian Wanda, Poly Real Estate and other Chinese developers in Sydney even edged out “HK-Listed Kaisa Said to Go Bankrupt — Halt Payments to Creditors,” a post covering the default of Kaisa Holdings on a $51.6 million loan.
February: China’s Cross-Border Hotel Binge Continues
Mainland institutional investors stayed in the news during February with “Chinese Insurer Pays Record $2M Per Room for NY Hotel” attracting the most pageviews of the month. The account of Sunshine Insurance’s $230 million acquisition of New York’s Baccarat Hotel gave hopes for more hospitality deals during the same month that Anbang Insurance received government approval for its $1.95 billion purchase of the Waldorf Astoria.
March: New Policies Pave the Way for More Cross-Border Deals
Corporate Avenue was only the #2 story in June, despite its record RMB 6.6 bill price tag
Legal stories aren’t usually the most compelling read for real estate investors, but our post, “New Rules Could Let Wealthy Chinese Invest Up to $2M Overseas,” held the promise of big money for investors and service providers hoping to cash in on China’s outbound boom. The story on China lifting the $50,000 per person per year limit on cross-border cash transfers even edged out Shui On Land putting the first phase of its Corporate Avenue complex on the market for RMB 7.5 billion.
April: Fosun Goes on Global Shopping Spree
Outbound fever continued to dominate the headlines in April as “4 Fosun Real Estate Deals Revealed in 1 Week on 2 Continents” became Mingtiandi’s top read of the month. The account of the investment conglomerate’s nearly $1.5 billion in deals in Milan and Sydney, pushed aside our coverage of JLL’s China60 report to take the top spot in the fourth month.
May: China Tunes in as DTZ Acquires Cushman & Wakefield
While not strictly a China story, DTZ’s $2 billion acquisition of Cushman & Wakefield became the biggest story of May on Mingtiandi, as readers tuned in for the details of the mega-merger. Coming in just behind the story of DTZ chief Brett White’s pet deal was our account of an unnamed Chinese tycoon picking up a building leased to Apple in Silicon Valley for $60 million.
June: CIC Heads to Europe for the Summer and the FTZ Gets Interesting
CIC remains China’s biggest cross-border real estate investor and the sovereign wealth fund caught more reader attention than any other story in June when it was reported to outbid a field of competitors for a French and Belgian retail portfolio. CIC finally signed an agreement on the $1.44 billion acquisition in July, but just the promise of a deal was enough fight off our account of China loosening controls on cross border capital flows in Shanghai’s FTZ and other locations.
July: a Chinese Developer Becomes Goldman’s London Landlord
Li Ka-shing made it in the news again in August by offering to sell another mainland asset
Big names sell and Mingtiandi’s top story in July featured Hui Wing Mau, chairman of Hong Kong-listed Shimao Property, buying a central London office building that is home to the world’s best known investment bank, Goldman Sachs. The London story had to overcome stiff competition from Gaw Capital’s $938 million acquisition of the Intercontinental Hotel in Hong Kong.
August: Li Ka-shing Sells More Buildings and the Yuan Slides
Another well-known moniker attracted readers in August when it was reported that Li Ka-shing was putting a Shanghai commercial complex on the market for RMB 20 billion ($3.1 billion). The story of the Hong Kong superinvestor selling yet another mainland real estate asset rose atop the ranks above our account of how China’s yuan devaluation would drive still greater interest in overseas acquisitions.
September: Glorious Struggles and HNA Buys Its Own London Tower
Scandal and chaos grabbed the top spot in September, as our story “Glorious Property Misses Payments on $1.02B in Debt” attracted more readers than any other. Although Glorious eventually arranged to pay off its creditors, the spectre of another potential default drove enough readers to the post to beat out our story of Hainan airlines’ parent company picking up the Reuters headquarters in London.
October: Tuhao on the Rampage in Melbourne and ABP Stumbles in London
The destruction of a Melbourne villa became a top story in October
Australians were introduced to a new Mandarin word, “tuhao,” in September when searching for a term that would adequately describe a Chinese millionaire buying, and then demolishing, a historic villa in Melbourne. Whatever they called it, the spectacle was enough to make “Chinese Tycoon Buys Historic Melbourne Villa for $13.4M – Knocks It Down” the big story of the month, slipping past the account of a little-known Beijing business park developer losing its financial backer for a $1.5 billion London dream project.
November: CBRE Restructures and China Life Makes $755M Kowloon Buy
The real estate agencies popped up to the top of the readership charts again in November when our story on CBRE’s mainland restructuring and the abrupt departure of the company’s then China president Ivan Poon seized industry attention. “CBRE Restructures China Operations – Parts Ways with Poon” held a healthy lead even over our account of the biggest office building acquisition in Kowloon ever, China Life’s $755 million purchase of a tower in Wheelock’s One Harbourgate complex.
December: Fosun’s Guo Guangchang Taken Away for Questioning
This month is not even half over, but already the story of Guo Guangchang being taken away by party authorities has attracted major traffic. In just a few days, “Fosun Chairman Guo Guangchang Said to Be Detained Amid Graft Sweep” has attracted more readers than most posts garner in a full month.
Mingtiandi will continue to do our best to keep you updated on any more breaking news this year, and look forward to bringing you even more exciting news in 2016.
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