Fosun Denies Report of Debt Probe and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Mainland debt worries lead today’s real estate headlines from around the region today as Guo Guangchang’s Fosun International denies a Bloomberg report that Chinese banks and state-owned enterprises have been asked to examine their exposure to the firm. Also in the news, a Singapore-listed REIT buys a set of Japanese senior living facilities and the owner of TikTok leases a pair of California office buildings.

Shanghai’s Fosun Denies Report of Regulator Probe

Fosun International said on Wednesday that media reports saying Chinese regulators have told the country’s biggest banks to start a round of checks on their financial exposure to the Chinese conglomerate were false.

Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reported on Tuesday that regulators including the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) had requested that commercial banks check their exposure to Fosun’s debt and understand potential liquidity risks. Read more>>

Mainland Banks Asked to Check Exposure to Fosun

Chinese authorities have told the nation’s biggest banks and state-owned firms to start a round of checks on their financial exposure to Fosun, one of the country’s largest non-state conglomerates, according to people familiar with the matter.

Multiple regulators including China’s banking watchdog and the local commission that oversees state investments in Beijing recently told institutions under their oversight to closely examine their Fosun exposure, said the people, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. Read more>>

Parkway Life REIT Buying 3 Hokkaido Nursing Homes for $18M

The trustee of Parkway Life REIT has entered an agreement to acquire three nursing homes in Hokkaido for a sum of JPY 2.56 billion ($18 million), in a move to further expand the healthcare trust’s Japan portfolio.

The three properties – Blue Terrace Kagura, Blue Rise Nopporo and Blue Terrace Taisetsu – are being sold by Blue Melon Capital Kabushiki Kaisha and its wholly-owned subsidiary, K2 Healthcare Sapporo Godo Kaisha. Read more>>

ByteDance Takes Sublease on Pair of San Jose Office Buildings

A Chinese tech giant has struck a deal to sublease a big chunk of San Jose office space in a move that, if the company expands into the new space, would represent a big economic win for the Bay Area’s largest city.

ByteDance has agreed to a sublease deal for 658,000 square feet for the entirety of two buildings in North San Jose’s Coleman Highline mixed-use complex, according to five commercial property sources who are familiar with the progress of the transaction. Read more>>

VN Startup Backed by Gaw, Softbank Shuts Its Doors

Vietnamese proptech startup Propzy has begun the process of shutting down its business in Vietnam and terminating labor contracts with employees starting September 13, Tech in Asia has learned.

In an internal email, co-founder and CEO John Le said that the company’s efforts to grow the business amid the pandemic resulted in significant losses that it was not able to recover due to continued lockdowns in Vietnam. “Our inability to raise funding amidst the backdrop of an uncertain global environment was the final ‘jab of the knife’ in our young startup,” he said in the email. Read more>>

Chinese Homebuyers Said Rushing to Pay Down Mortgages

China’s real estate crisis prompted home buyers across the nation to stop paying mortgages on thousands of stalled developments. Now, a separate group of Chinese property owners are rushing to prepay their home loans.

The movement to quickly pay off mortgages is an abrupt U-turn for many Chinese people, who used to go all out to borrow funds to buy houses during the real estate boom years. But as the property market slumps, the once sought-after leverage has turned into a burden that some people say they must trim — or even get rid of. Read more>>

Chinese Cities Roll Out Subsidies, Drop Restrictions to Boost Housing Market

A flurry of Chinese cities are rolling out measures to boost housing demand, signalling the government’s intention to arrest a property crisis.

Various local governments have issued at least 70 property easing measures since President Xi Jinping’s Politburo called for efforts from local governments to defuse the property crisis. Among them include a cut to the minimum down payment ratio, and asking parents to help children with home purchases by drawing on their own housing provident funds. Read more>>

Singapore Residential Rents Rose Again in August

Both condominium and HDB (Housing Board) rentals rose in August to achieve the 20th and 26th straight month of growth, respectively, although volumes continued to fall short on a year-on-year comparison.

According to flash data released by SRX Property and 99.co on Wednesday (Aug 14), August rental prices for condominiums rose 3.2 per cent from the previous month with the largest contribution coming from the core central region (CCR) at 3.7 per cent. This was followed by the rest of the central region (RCR) and outside central region (OCR) at 3.1 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively. Read more>>

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