At the top of today’s news, US alternative investment giant Blackstone is battling an array of local and international bidders to get its hands on a landmark twin tower office complex in downtown Seoul. Futher south, Singapore’s CapitaLand is boostings its Vietnam bets, creating a new commercial fund and scooping up a prime site in Hanoi. And, speaking of cross-border investment, Chinese players bought up one-third of Australian residential sites last year, according to a report, and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund is doing more deals in India. Read on to learn more.
Blackstone Battling to Win Bidding for $1B Seoul Office Complex
Twin office towers under construction in Seoul, worth an estimated 1.1 trillion won ($1 billion), have attracted Blackstone Group, Korea Post and five to six other bidders by the Feb. 27 deadline, which looks set to be the country’s largest property sale in the first half of this year.
A lack of new prime office space in the central business district of Seoul and a planned redevelopment of the surrounding areas as historic and cultural quarters fanned interest in the 26-story Centropolis Towers, despite a pick-up in the vacancy ratio of large office buildings across Seoul. Read more>>
CapitaLand Buys Site for $285M Hanoi Project
CapitaLand Limited has bought a prime site in Hanoi for its integrated development and set up its second commercial fund in the country, the CapitaLand Vietnam Commercial Value-Added Fund (CVCVF).
CapitaLand will build a 25-storey integrated development worth about $285 million on its site in Tay Ho district. It will comprise of 380-unit residence including Small Office, Home Office (SoHo) apartments, around 230,000 square feet of office space, and over 208,000 square feet of retail space. Read more>>
Chinese Bought One-Third of Aussie Housing Sites in 2017
One-third of Australian residential development site in 2017 were purchased by Chinese investors and developers, equating to A$2.02 billion of site sales, according to Knight Frank’s latest report, Chinese Developers in Australia – Market Insight 2018.
The report found that residential development sites purchased by Chinese developers and investors in 2017 had an average site area of 21,785 square metres. Of all Australian development sites purchased by Chinese developers and investors, 29 per cent were suited to low density (single dwellings or landed properties) – up from two per cent in 2013. Read more>>
GIC Buys 40% Stake in India’s Exora Business Park for $400M
Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC has agreed to invest around Rs 2,600 crore (neatly $400 million) in real estate firm Prestige Estates subsidiary Exora Business Park for a consideration of up to 40 per cent stake. The Bengaluru-based developer entered into a preliminary term sheet with GICs subsidiary Reco Jade Ind (Reco) to sell a minority stake in its subsidiary, it said in a statement today.
Exora Business Park owns, directly or indirectly, many operating and under-construction office properties of the developer. It has a portfolio of five projects with over 8.5 million sqft of development, of which 5.5 million sqft is completed and under-construction.
While four projects are located in Bengaluru, one is in Chennai. Read more>>
GIC Eyes $300M India Warehouse JV with K Raheja Corp
Singapore sovereign wealth manager GIC is set to join the foreign investor rush into India’s industrial logistics and warehousing industry. GIC is floating a joint venture with the Mumbai-headquartered developer K Raheja Corp to build and acquire warehousing parks in Asia’s third-largest economy, people directly aware of the matter said.
GIC and Raheja have signed preliminary agreements to build and acquire warehousing facilities. “They are looking at a combination of land parcels for greenfield developments and existing facilities (which can be upgraded) through acquisitions,” said a person advising on the matter. The joint venture could invest about $300 million in the initial phase of platform creation. Read more>>
PE Investors To Pour $14B into China Real Estate Over 3 Years
China will probably receive $14 billion of capital within the next three years, being the top recipient of real estate private equity capital in Asia Pacific, research from international real estate service provider CBRE showed.
With an improved fundraising environment and investors being lured back to real estate in Asia Pacific, an estimated $53 billion of real estate private equity capital will be deployed into this asset class by 2020, according to CBRE. Read more>>
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