Blackstone Aims for Third Asia Real Estate Fund and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

In today’s roundup of regional news headlines, private equity titan Blackstone announces plans for a third Asia real estate fund, China Evergrande’s once-highflying founder sees his net worth crumble, and Singapore sovereign fund GIC posts its highest 20-year return since 2015.

Blackstone Aims for Third Asia Real Estate Fund

Blackstone Group Inc has raised over $5 billion for its second Asia fund and plans to launch a third Asia real estate fund, a senior executive said.

“In Asia, we’ve raised over $5 billion so far for our second private equity vintage and fully expect to hit the $6.4 billion cap, which is nearly three times the previous fund,” Jon Gray, Blackstone’s chief operating officer and president, said in the firm’s earnings call on Thursday. Read more>>

Evergrande Boss Faces Escalating Debt Crisis

Chinese real estate tycoon Hui Ka Yan is rapidly slipping down the wealth rankings. His net worth dropped another $3.35 billion this week, as shares of his Evergrande tumbled 26 percent.

The company’s Hong Kong-listed shares have plunged 68 percent over the past year, and analysts say that the once-resourceful tycoon appears to be running out of options to avert a mounting debt crisis. It’s a dramatic turn of events for Hui, who had been crowned Asia’s richest person just four years ago, when his net worth peaked at $45.3 billion. Today his fortune sits at $17.2 billion and there’s no telling how much further it may drop. Read more>>

WeWork Dumps WeLive, Exits Residential Business

WeWork has parted company with its coliving brand WeLive and handed over management of its two locations. The two WeLive locations are based in Northern Virginia’s Crystal City neighborhood and on Wall Street in Manhattan.

The Crystal City location in Arlington has been taken over by coliving operator Common, while the Manhattan location at 110 Wall St. is currently being managed by the building owner, Rudin. WeWork is still operating the coworking location in the building. Read more>>

GIC Posts Highest 20-Year Annualised Real Return Since 2015

Even as economic conditions improve, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC continues to hold a cautious macro stance amid lofty asset prices and new COVID variants, as it reported a 4.3 percent annualised rolling 20-year real rate of return — the highest since 2015 — on Friday.

The real return for the 20-year period ended 31 March 2021 is up from 2.7 percent a year ago. Annualised nominal return for the latest period came in at 6.8 percent, the highest since 2012. GIC manages well over $100 billion in assets. Read more>>

Nan Fung First to Join Hong Kong’s Land-Share Plan

Nan Fung Development is the first developer to apply for the Hong Kong government’s land-sharing pilot scheme to convert 3.2 hectares (7.9 acres) in Tai Po into 1,642 flats.

The Development Bureau said yesterday that the first application under the scheme involves two private lots adjoining government land at Lo Fai Road and Ting Kok Road in Tai Po. Read more>>

Corporate Occupiers Plan to Expand APAC Offices in Long Term

A growing number of corporate occupiers plan to extend their Asia Pacific office footprint in the long term while adopting strategies featuring greater flexibility and new hybrid working models, according to the findings of CBRE’s 2021 Asia Pacific Future of Office Survey.

The survey of occupiers across industries and geographies in Asia Pacific saw about 50 percent of respondents signal their intention to increase the size of their real estate portfolios over the next three years, a substantial increase from just 23 percent in October 2020. Read more>>

Chinese Vice Premier Urges Development of Subsidised Housing

Vice Premier Han Zheng has called for efforts to accelerate the development of government-subsidised rental housing and resolutely implement the long-term housing mechanism.

Han, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks on Thursday at a teleconference on developing rental housing and facilitating regulation of the real-estate market. Read more>>

Central Singapore Office Rent Index Up 1.3% in Q2

The Urban Redevelopment Authority’s rental index for office space in Singapore’s central region rose 1.3 percent in the second quarter of this year versus the previous quarter — a smaller increase than the 3.3 percent quarterly rise in Q1 2021.

The price index for office space in the central region rose 0.9 percent in the second quarter, contrasting with a 2.7 percent drop in the previous quarter. Read more>>

Rents, Prices of Singapore Industrial Properties Rose in Q2

Singapore’s industrial rents and prices rose during the second quarter for the third straight period, reflecting the economic recovery seen in the manufacturing sector, data released by JTC on Thursday showed.

Analysts see a global chip shortage and more in-bound biotech investments creating more demand ahead, though this is tempered by the rise in supply, with total available stock seeing its largest quarterly rise since 2017. Read more>>

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