Hong Kong wins the housing unaffordability for the 10th straight year
A survey shows that while Hong Kong’s leadership may have lost the plot regarding what makes a great financial centre, they continue their mastery of creating a housing shortage as the city ranks as the world’s least affordable place to buy a home for the tenth straight year. Also in the news, Singapore gets its first REIT denominated in British pounds and Indian cities dominate this year’s rankings of the world’s most dynamic cities. Keep reading for all these stories and more.
Hong Kong Holds Onto Title for World’s Least Affordable Housing
Hong Kong has been ranked yet again as the world’s least affordable housing market with social unrest failing to make any meaningful dent on home prices for most of 2019. That dubious honour is for the 10th straight year and is unlikely to be toppled in near future.
A family in the city would need to save up for 20.8 years to afford a home in the city, according to the annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Study, which ranks 92 major markets across the world based on median affordability scores. That has barely changed from 20.9 years in 2018. Read more>>
UK Commercial REIT Expects to Raise £119.5 in Singapore IPO
The offer price for the first Reit denominated in British pounds to list here has been set at £0.68 per unit.
With this offer price, Elite Commercial Reit’s proposed Singapore initial public offering (IPO) will raise around £119.5 million (S$209.3 million) to £131.2 million (S$229.7 million), based on a total offering size of 175.7 million to 192.9 million units, according to a term sheet on Monday (Jan 20) seen by The Business Times. Read more>>
Hyderabad Tops List of World’s Most Dynamic Cities
Hyderabad has emerged as the world’s most dynamic city, performing better on parameters like socio-economic and commercial real estate, according to global property consultant JLL India.
Seven Indian cities feature in the top 20 in this year’s ranking, despite economic slowdown, it added. Bengaluru has been ranked second, while Chennai is at fifth and Delhi at sixth position in the list of 130 cities across the world. Read more>>
HK Commercial and Industrial Deals Fall to Lowest Level Ever Recorded
Hong Kong’s commercial and industrial property transaction volumes fell to the lowest level last year since record-keeping started in 1996, sinking nearly 50 per cent year on year, as investor sentiment took a beating since the anti-government protests started last June.
Transaction volumes of industrial units, offices and shops plummeted to 4,636, from 9,217 in 2018, while turnover tumbled 35 per cent to HK$103.8 billion (US$13.3 billion), from HK$160.3 billion the previous year, according to data from property agency Ricacorp on Monday. Read more>>
Greenland Group Tries for Singapore Digital Banking License
Chinese real estate developer and state-owned enterprise Greenland Group, through its investment arm Greenland Financial, has formed a consortium with partners including Chinese financing platform MinIPO to vie for a wholesale digital banking licence in Singapore.
The group intends to build a digital bank that will tap China’s financial technology to serve SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) in Singapore, leveraging the resources and capabilities of the joint parties, they told Lianhe Zaobao in an exclusive interview. Read more>>
Ascott Opens Serviced Apartments in Former Osaka Department Store
The Ascott, the lodging business unit of Singapore real estate firm CapitaLand, has given a facelift to a pre-war Japanese heritage site in Osaka and turned what was once a department store into a luxury residential hotel.
Located in Osaka’s Namba entertainment district, the east annex of Takashimaya department store was built in 1928 and is recognised as a tangible cultural asset by the Japanese government. Read more>>
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