Hong Kong’s Lee Kum Kee is shopping for some pricey Gherkins
Leading today’s real estate headlines, a Hong Kong sauce maker may add a pickle-shaped London tower to its portfolio of flavors, as more of the city’s investors shop for Brexit bargains in the UK. Also in the news GLP reports rocketing profits just in time for its buyout plans, and Hong Kong authorities move to cool down the housing market for the second time in a week. Read on for all these stories and more.
Hong Kong’s Lee Kum Kee Shopping for London’s Gherkin
The Hong Kong-based sauces and condiments group Lee Kum Kee has approached the owners of London’s “Gherkin” tower about a potential purchase in the latest sign of east Asian appetite for trophy real estate in the UK capital.
The group is eyeing a bid for the Norman Foster-designed skyscraper, which is owned by Brazil’s Safra Group, said two people briefed on the situation. But they cautioned that the building was not being marketed and there was no certainty of a deal. Read more>>
Net Profit Jumped 62% for Warehouse Developer GLP
Global Logistic Properties (GLP), the GIC-backed owner of modern warehouses and distribution centres, posted a 62 per cent surge in fourth-quarter net profit to US$247 million (S$342 million), driven by higher asset values.
Revenue for the three months ending March 31 rose 14 per cent to US$227 million, GLP said. After adjusting for non-recurring items, core earnings for the quarter dropped 5 per cent year-on-year mainly due to lower contribution from its second US portfolio following its syndication. Read more>>
Hong Kong Rolls Out New Mortgage Rules to Cool Housing Market
Hong Kong has announced the second set of mortgage-tightening measures in a week to cool a property market that has broken records, taking aim at borrowers with multiple loans and whose income sources come from outside the city in an attempt to reduce banks’ credit risks.
Starting immediately, banks must allocate a larger risk weighting toward their assessment of credit worthiness, while cutting the amount of allowable loans on residential and commercial properties, according to a statement by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). Read more>>
Swire Quarry Bay Projects Win More Tenants Fleeing Central
For 30 years that it has been in Hong Kong, Ince & Co. – one of the UK’s top maritime law firms with a history that stretches back to 1870 – has always had its place in the city’s central business district.
Ince, which opened its first Asia office in 1979, has also witnessed Hong Kong’s maritime rise as the world’s largest container port, and only to loose the glory to Shenzhen and Shanghai. Read more>>
Shanghai Joins the Movement Against Commercial-Title Condos
The Shanghai authorities have called off the approval of any new apartments to be built on land designated for commercial use, their latest measure in response to a broader campaign to curb the red-hot property market in China’s biggest cities.
According to a document released by the Shanghai housing authorities, any planned residential projects converted from offices and shops will not be granted sales approval, while the relevant departments will re-examine cases where the projects have won approval but have yet to be launched for sale, or where the units have been sold but the keys have not been handed over to the buyers. Read more>>
Shenzhen Hazens Drops Tower From LA Project
The area around LA Live is booming with projects from Chinese developers, with the Metropolis and Oceanwide Plaza sites in deep construction. Another long-awaited mega-project, this one from Shenzhen Hazens on the site of the Luxe City Center Hotel, appears finally to be moving forward, though not to the scale previously envisioned.
Representatives of the project last week announced that the three towers previously planned for the 2.6-acre parcel at 1020 S. Figueroa St. have been reduced to two. The project is still in the environmental review phase. Read more>>
Is Tianjin China’s Latest Ghost City to Be Exorcised?
When Zhang Zhenhua arrived to Tianjin in 2014 to take on a job as a security guard at a luxury apartment complex, he didn’t expect to work in a surreal ghost town of vacant office canyons and half-finished high-rises.
Yet that’s pretty much what Zhang, who hails from a village in nearby Hebei, encountered when he reported for duty in Tianjin’s Xiangluowan district, the epicenter of the northern port city’s audacious proposal to create a 1.59 square kilometer replication of Manhattan. “The place was empty,” Zhang recalled. “I could barely see anyone on the street.” Read more>>
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