Evergrande Boss Commits to Repaying Debt and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

In today’s roundup of regional news headlines, China Evergrande’s Xu Jiayin promises results in a New Year message to employees, and the developer’s electric car unit prepares for a round of layoffs and salary cuts.

Evergrande Vows Debt Payment After Restructuring Delay

China Evergrande chairman Xu Jiayin has vowed to ensure project delivery and debt payment, as the billionaire’s credit crisis drags into the new year.

It’s a crucial year for Evergrande to complete residential projects it pre-sold, Xu said in a 1 January letter to employees, adding that construction resumed for all of its 732 real estate sites last year. Read more>>

Evergrande’s EV Unit Lays Off Employees, Cuts Salaries

China Evergrande’s electric vehicle unit said Friday that it was laying off workers and cutting the salaries of some employees as a part of cost-reduction measures.

The unit, China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group, also said it was arranging for some employees to take a break from work. Read more>>

Alibaba, Tencent Layoffs Burst Property Bubbles in Headquarters Cities

When Linda Wu, a product manager working at Alibaba, moved to Hangzhou several months ago, she was surprised to hear an agent press her to buy a house near her office at a “very low price”, rather than renting. The agent presented it as a “golden time” to buy, because many people who lost their jobs were unable to pay their mortgages and were putting their homes on sale at low prices.

A wave of job cuts among China’s giant tech companies has sent the home market reeling in neighbourhoods where waves of tech professionals — flush with high salaries and housing perks — drove prices upward in recent years. Read more>>

Singapore Bungalow Fetches Eye-Watering $63,000 Monthly Rent

Leasing demand for Singapore’s landed homes continued to expand in the second half of 2022 amid a “red hot” residential rental market, according to PropNex.

The top leasing transaction signed between July and October was for a Good Class Bungalow in Dalvey Estate near the Botanic Gardens. It fetched a monthly rent of S$85,000 ($63,201), which is equivalent to an annual rental expense of S$1.02 million. Read more>>

Singapore’s HDB Resale Prices Climb at Slower Pace

Singapore’s Housing and Development Board resale prices climbed 2.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022, marking the 11th straight quarter of growth, according to flash estimates released Tuesday.

The growth in resale prices came at a slower rate than that of the previous quarter, which saw 2.6 percent growth. Read more>>

Canada Bans Most Foreigners From Buying Homes

A ban on foreigners buying residential property in Canada took effect Sunday, aiming to make more homes available to locals facing a housing crunch.

Several exceptions in the act allow individuals such as refugees and permanent residents who are not citizens to buy homes. In late December, the government clarified that the ban would apply only to city dwellings and not to recreational properties such as summer cottages. Read more>>

HK Property Expected to Recover on Border Reopening: Paul Chan

Hong Kong finance chief Paul Chan says he is optimistic about the city’s economic prospects for this year and expects the local real estate market to rebound after the China border reopens.

Hong Kong’s exports, tourism and local service industry are all expected to rebound on China’s border reopening, and consumption in the first quarter is likely to rise significantly from a year earlier, Chan wrote in his blog on Sunday. Read more>>

Can Hong Kong Recover From COVID to Reclaim Luxury Retail Crown?

Just over two years ago, Hong Kong’s Russell Street was the world’s priciest retail strip and hosted luxury brands such as Burberry and Prada, among others.

But a double whammy of Hong Kong’s worst social unrest in decades and the COVID-19 pandemic knocked Russell Street — and subsequently Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon — off the perch of the world’s most expensive retail spaces in terms of rents per square foot, according to a report by Cushman & Wakefield in November. Read more>>

Tune in again soon for more real estate news and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter, or bookmark Mingtiandi’s LinkedIn page for headlines as they happen.