CK Asset Said Floating $1.4B Sale of UBS London HQ and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

In today’s roundup of regional news headlines, Li Ka-shing’s CK Asset is said to be entertaining offers for UBS’s London headquarters building, Singapore plans a public tender for a development site near Marina Bay, and China Evergrande chairman Hui Ka Yan faces an investor revolt over the group’s financial health.

CK Asset Reportedly Floating $1.4B Sale of UBS London Headquarters

Li Ka-shing’s real estate flagship is said to be mulling a sale of UBS’s London headquarters and has held initial discussions with a handful of potential buyers, according to a UK media report this week.

CK Asset Holdings is reportedly in discussions with buyers for 5 Broadgate, a Grade A office building adjacent to the Liverpool Street train and subway station. The company acquired the property for £1 billion ($1.4 billion) in 2018, and the Hong Kong-listed developer will not sell the property if the offers do not exceed the purchase price, the report said. Read more>>

Central Singapore Site on the Way to Tender This Year

The Urban Redevelopment Authority will launch for public tender a white site at Marina View after an unnamed developer made a successful application for the site’s release from the Reserve List.

The 99-year leasehold site — which can yield about 905 private homes, 2,000 square metres (21,528 square feet) of gross floor area for commercial space or 540 hotel rooms — will be released for sale on 28 June. The white site was on the reserve list of the H1 2021 Government Land Sales programme. Read more>>

Evergrande Tycoon Loses $20B as Investors Revolt

Just eight months after celebrating a narrow escape from financial disaster, Chinese billionaire Hui Ka Yan finds himself back in crisis-fighting mode.

Resurgent concerns about the health of China Evergrande Group, Hui’s flagship property company, have pushed its stock to within a hair’s breadth of the lowest level since March 2020. Bondholders are rushing for the exit too, spooked by missed payments at the developer’s affiliates and a report that regulators are probing Evergrande’s ties to an obscure bank in northern China. Read more>>

Lai Sun Chooses Knight Frank, CBRE to Advise on London Project

Lai Sun Development announced this week that it has appointed real estate consultancies Knight Frank and CBRE as office leasing and development advisers on its 100 Leadenhall project in London.

Situated next to the Gherkin and opposite the Scalpel in the high-rise district in the City of London, 100 Leadenhall is a 56-storey mixed-use development designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and is slated for completion in 2028. Read more>>

Vanke Prices Hong Kong Project at 3% Above Secondary Market

Vanke Holdings Hong Kong, a unit of China Vanke, China’s third-largest developer, will launch a new residential project in Ho Man Tin at prices in line with those of the secondary market.

The price list for a first batch of 50 units measuring 209-388 square feet (19-36 square metres) at Vau Residence was launched on Thursday. The units will be offered at an average price of HK$24,519 ($3,160) per square foot after factoring in a discount of as much as 16 percent. Vanke has not announced a starting date for the sales yet. The development will have 165 units in total. Read more>>

Beijing Again Warns Investors Against Betting on Housing Market

China’s top banking and insurance regulator has sounded the alarm over the country’s red-hot residential property market.

Investors were warned about severe losses arising from a potential boom-and-bust cycle in the sector by Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, on Thursday. Guo, who was speaking at Lujiazui Forum in Shanghai, also warned investors against speculation on the renminbi’s foreign exchange rate and gold and commodity futures. Read more>>

A Fresh Face Revamps 27-Year-Old Bugis Landmark

Bugis Junction Towers is being refurbished so that the 27-year-old office development can keep up with new projects coming up in the Beach Road/Rochor Road locale.

And that job is now being done by a fresh-faced and homegrown property investment outfit with ties to the Yeo Hiap Seng family. Read more>>

Singapore Boosts Residential Land Supply as Market Heats Up

The bump in the supply of private housing on the Confirmed List under the H2 2021 Government Land Sales Programme is a calibrated move by the government — one that will nonetheless be welcomed by developers hungry to replenish their landbank amid diminishing inventory, analysts said.

Analysts expect keen demand for the four residential sites on the Confirmed List, which can potentially yield about 2,000 private homes (including executive condominium or EC units), citing heated bidding in recent tenders for GLS sites at Northumberland Road, Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 and Tengah Garden Walk. Read more>>

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