Blackstone launching Asian real estate fund – and more of Today’s China Real Estate Links | December 7, 2012

Here is a list of the day’s latest China real estate news collected from around the web:

• Blackstone launching Asian real estate fund

  Blackstone Group LP is starting a new real estate fund focused on Asia as it seizes on a “golden moment” to buy and sell in the property market, its president said.

  Blackstone, founded by Stephen Schwarzman and Peter Peterson in 1985, is still best-known for its private equity business, yet is now the world’s largest private real estate firm with US$53.5 billion of property assets under management.

• China Developers Chase Rich Buyers Abroad Amid Curbs at Home

  Chinese developers are starting to venture overseas, chasing wealthy locals who are buying apartments from New York to Sydney as the government restrains the property market at home.

  Xinyuan Real Estate Co. (XIN) in September took control of a lot slated for more than 200 units of housing near New York’s Brooklyn waterfront for $54.2 million, a deal the Beijing-based company said is the first of its kind by a Chinese firm in the U.S. Country Garden Holdings Co. (2007), the developer controlled by China’s richest woman, said this week it will buy waterfront land in Malaysia. China Vanke Co. (000002), the country’s biggest builder, set up international units to expand overseas after it acquired a Hong Kong developer in May.

• China property developers’ sales rise in November

  Several big Chinese property developers have reported stronger sales for November, in a fresh sign that the sector is on the mend even as Beijing vows to keep a firm grip on the market.

  Analysts said that demand remains fairly strong and many developers are scrapping or cutting back on special discounts rolled out when the housing market was struggling late last year.

  China’s housing prices have remained largely unchanged since the beginning of the year, though the sales have been creeping up since June, aided by government policies that favor first-time home buyers and improve access to funding for developers.

This list is updated daily, so tune in again tomorrow for more up to date information, or subscribe to our daily email news digest to get this delivered to your mailbox.