Anbang founder Wu Xiaohui was jailed last year
A disgraced Chinese insurer leads the way in our roundup of Asia real estate news today as the company’s administrators field offers of up to $5.8 billion for its set of US luxury hotels.
While that mainland investor winds up its overseas holdings, a South Korean consortium has landed in Europe to make one of Austria’s largest real estate acquisitions ever, while a Singapore developer is teaming up with data centre operator to launch a $219 million server shed in Bangkok.
In other news around the region, tax changes are driving away property investors in South Korea, and Hongkongers are resorting to still more desperate measures to get on the property ladder.
17 Bidders Offer Up to $5.8 Bil for Anbang’s US Hotel Portfolio
Chinese authorities unwinding Anbang Insurance have received offers of up to $5.8 billion for the conglomerate’s US luxury hotels business from potential bidders including Blackstone and Brookfield, according to people familiar with the sales process.
Seventeen potential buyers, which also include South Korea’s Mirae Asset Management, SoftBank-owned Fortress, and GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, have made it to a final round, these people said. Read more>>
South Korean Consortium Buys Vienna’s T-Center for €300M
Quadoro Real Estate GmbH, consultant to the GENO EuropaFonds, Wien fund, has brokered the sale of the T-Center in Vienna’s 3rd district to a South Korean investor consortium led by KTB Investment & Securities and KTB Asset Management. At approximately €300 million ($335 million), the sale is one of the largest real estate transactions in Austria to date.
In the run-up to the sale, Quadoro succeeded in prematurely extending the building’s main leases on a longterm basis and increasing its occupancy rate. This enabled the successful positioning of the T-Center as an investment property. Quadoro will also take over the asset management of the property for the new owners. Read more>>
Oxley to Wrap Up S$1B Sale of Chevron House to AEW by 2020
Oxley Holdings will complete asset enhancement initiative (AEI) works on Chevron House and expects to achieve final completion of the sale of the 32-storey Raffles Place commercial building no later than the first quarter of 2020.
It will also divest the retail and banking units “as soon as practicable, taking into consideration market conditions” but will do so before the final completion, the highly geared developer said on Tuesday in response to Singapore Exchange queries. Read more>>
Frasers JV to Build $219M Data Centre in Bangkok
ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) and Frasers Property (Thailand) Public Company (FPT) is investing seven billion baht ($219 million) to build a data centre development in Bangkok.
The move builds on their joint venture partnership announced in April last year with Thai developer FPT, which was then known as Ticon. STT GDC is owned by ST Telemedia. Read more>>
SG Commercial Property Investment Jumps 72%
Singapore escaped the downtrend that caught every other major national Asia Pacific (APAC) real estate market in the first quarter of this year, with commercial real estate investment jumping 72 per cent year-on-year to $1.9 billion (S$2.6 billion), data released by Real Capital Analytics (RCA) on Tuesday (May 21) show.
“While the last three months of 2018 were dominated by a handful of major deals in the industrial sector, the start of this year was characterised by a more diverse range of transactions in the retail and office, as well as industrial sectors,” said Petra Blazkova, RCA’s senior director of analytics for APAC. Read more>>
Investors Back Flee South Korean Real Estate after Tax Changes
Local and foreign investment in South Korean real estate dropped by nearly a third in the first three months of the year as Seoul announced plans to remove tax perks granted to the most common investment vehicles used by institutional investors.
In the first quarter of the year, total foreign and local investment declined 31 per cent to $4.44 billion from $6.47 billion in the same period last year, data from Real Capital Analytics showed. Read more>>
Squeezed Hongkongers Resort to Expensive Loans with Developers
Squeezed out of owning an old home in the city by tightened mortgage rules, Hongkongers are increasingly buying smaller but more expensive new apartments. Unable to apply for an adequate mortgage from banks, they are turning to developers, who provide loans amounting to as much as 90 percent of a property’s value, no matter what the cost.
Penny Li, 35, a finance professional, ended up buying a smaller and more expensive new apartment as she could not get a mortgage for an old home in a better location that she had her eye on. With an initial deposit of as little as HK$1 million ($127,404), she secured a 530 square foot home that costs HK$9.4 million.Read more>>
Crown Group Unveils $950M Jakarta Waterfront Project
Australian developer Crown Group has unveiled its maiden precinct project in Jakarta, Indonesia. The waterfront project will comprise about 2,000 luxury homes and will feature its own marina, beach club, and dining area.
The entire development will be built on a 4.7ha site and is expected to cost about A$1 billion ($950 million). It will also feature retail shops, restaurants, and its own commercial area. The first phase comprising 800 apartments is expected to be completed by 2024, while another 1,500 apartments are planned for the second phase. Read more>>
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