Troubled Developer Forise Intl Discloses CEO Departure and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

A Singapore-listed mainland developer leads Mingtiandi’s roundup of real estate headlines today with the disclosure that its 31-year-old CEO had left the company four months ago after disclosing that it also seems to have lost its executive chairman.

In other news around the region, a Lion City-listed dormitory operator has acquired a student housing property in the Uk for $20 million, while a cattle farm owned by a Hangzhou-based company is said to be under offer.

Elsewhere, Tesco is said to be mulling the sale of its $9 billion Thailand and Malaysia businesses.

Mainland Developer Discloses Departure of CEO, Chairman

SGX-listed Forise International announced, apparently four months after his departure, that its chief executive officer (CEO) has resigned because he and the board could not agree on his remuneration.

The company, in a written response to the bourse operator Singapore Exchange on Dec 8, said that Ching Yeh quit his position as CEO shortly after his appointment on July 26 as the 31-year-old was not able to accept the remuneration package offered by the board. Forise earlier had disclosed that its executive chairman Wang Xin resigned from the position on Nov 29 “due to personal reasons”.

The development offshoot of Beijing-based Forise Holding earlier sold of an Australian project after failing to pay insurance premiums. Read more>>

Centurion Buys Student Digs in Nottingham for £15M

Dormitory operator Centurion Corporation is acquiring Archer House, a 177-bed student accommodation asset in Nottingham, UK, at a purchase consideration of 15.1 million pounds ($20 million).

Centurion’s second acquisition in Nottingham, this will bring the group’s UK portfolio to a total of over 2,850 beds across 11 purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) assets in five cities. Read more>>

Zhejiang Rifa’s A$150M Aussie Cattle Farm Under Offer

An offshore player has swooped on Ashleigh Station in northern NSW, one of five properties put on the market as part of the Chinese-owned Rifa Salutary business.

It is understood the 4391-hectare property along the Gwydir Highway in an area known as the Northern Slopes is under offer from a foreign investor. Ashleigh comprises five contiguous holdings and is designed as a cattle finishing hub using winter and summer fodder crops. Read more>>

Tesco Shares Jump on Possible Sale of $9B Asian Business

Shares in Tesco rose more than 5 percent on Monday after Britain’s biggest retailer said it might sell its Asian businesses, in Thailand and Malaysia, which analysts valued at up to $9 billion.

Tesco said on Sunday it had begun a review of its Asian operations after receiving approaches for the businesses. Read more>>

Singapore Hotel Conversions on the Rise

Developers continue to jump on the hotel-conversion bandwagon, with Fragrance Group for its flagship office building in Alexandra Road and Lian Beng for Wilkie Edge among the latest to have received nods from URA.

The trend is being fuelled by the rise in hotel land values and a perceived shortage of hotel room supply on the island; this follows URA generally having disallowed, over a four-year period, development applications for new hotels, including change-of-use proposals, on sites that are not zoned for hotel use. Read more>>

Singapore Property Oversupply Could Take Years to Clear

Singapore has an oversupply of private homes that could take years to clear, threatening to kill a nascent price recovery amid an already uncertain economic outlook.

The city-state had an overhang of 31,948 units as of 30 September, according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority. Sales have averaged about 2,500 homes per quarter this year, and at that rate it will take almost four years to clear the backlog, according to Ms Christine Li, head of research for Singapore and South-east Asia at Cushman & Wakefield. Read more>>

Only 54 Out of 80 Lucky Draw Applicants Show Up for Hong Kong Home Sale

The 4,871 flats from six Housing Authority estates in different districts was the largest number of homes put on the market since the authority restarted its Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) in 2011.

Eighty applicants – selected by lucky draw – were on Monday the first group of buyers for the newly available homes. But only 54 showed up, a turnout rate of 67.5 percent, and 53 bought a property. Read more>>

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

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