Hong Kong apartment rents are sliding
Hong Kong housing leads the way in Mingtiandi’s roundup of Asia real estate headlines today with the news that apartment rents in the Asia financial hub are at their lowest level since March 2018.
In other events around the region, a Singapore-listed shopping mall REIT has posted an 18.5 percent drop in its distribution per unit, while COVID-19 is causing tussles between home owners and apartment rental operators in mainland China over withheld rental payments. Elsewhere, a Chinese developer has commenced a $233 million residential project down under.
Hong Kong Apartment Rents Sink to Two Year Low
Apartment rents in Hong Kong have dropped to the lowest level in almost two years as people leave the city and home owners try to lease rather than sell.
Advertised residential prices on a per-square-foot basis are the lowest since March 2018, data from property agency Spacious showed. While the city’s rents have been under pressure since anti-government protests started in the middle of 2019, the spreading novel coronavirus outbreak is also dampening demand. Read more>>
Thailand’s Central Retail Sinks on First Day of Trading
The share price of SET-listed Central Retail Corporation Plc (CRC) ended in the red on the first day of trading Thailand’s largest-ever market capitalisation equity on Thursday, amid sentiments blighted by the Covid-19 epidemic.
The price closed at 41.75 baht, down 25 satang, or 0.60%, from the IPO price of 42 baht per share. Read more>>
Sasseur REIT Q4 DPU Drops 18.5%
Sasseur Real Estate Investment Trust (Sasseur REIT), which owns outlet malls in China, posted an 18.5 percent decline in its distribution per unit (DPU) to 1.629 Singapore cents (1.2 US cents) for the fourth quarter of 2019, from 1.999 cents a year ago.
This was due to lower income tax expense in Q4 2018 as a result of utilisation of available tax losses, as well as a one-off adjustment during that quarter relating to statutory reserves set aside during Q2 and Q3 2018, the trust’s manager said on Thursday. Read more>>
Virus Outbreak Chills China’s Apartment Rental Market
Zhang Yan learned first-hand how the coronavirus is ravaging China’s once booming real estate economy. The Shanghai landlord on internet home-listings platform Danke was surprised when she recently got a terse notice from the company declaring it would withhold all rental payments for a month because of the epidemic.
Customers who have demanded payments owed were rebuffed because of an overload in requests. “Danke has caused me big trouble,” Zhang said of the company, which connects landlords with renters and allows them to lease apartments online. “The platform should protect apartment owners’ interests. I also have a family to feed.” Read more>>
Singapore’s Trax acquires Paris-based AI startup Qopius
Singapore-headquartered retail tech unicorn Trax announced it has completed its acquisition of Paris-based Qopius, which provides AI-based in-store tech solutions in Europe.
The acquisition will help Trax in pushing real-time store monitoring and autonomous inventory management into mainstream adoption, the company said in a statement. It did not disclose any financial details of the deal. Read more>>
Singapore Hotel Sector to Recover Faster than Hong Kong
Singapore’s hotel sector is expected to take a significant hit from the COVID-19 outbreak in the short-term and recover just as quickly as after Sars in 2003.
Operators in Hong Kong, however, may not be that lucky and will have to wait until the social unrest is resolved, according to analysts. Read more>>
Chinese Developer Moves on A$350M Aussie Masterplan
Chinese-based developer Dahua Group, one of the biggest land holders in Sydney’s south-west, has moved ahead on its A$350 million ($233 million) masterplan south of Wollongong.
Civil and subdivision works have commenced on the 90-hectare site, located in Illawarra region, which is set to comprise of 500 new homes, four parks and a sports field. 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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