A wobbling housing market leads the way in Mingtiandi’s roundup of real estate headlines today with the news that a government crackdown in Asia’s most talked-about city may have hit housing prices more harshly than it has black-clad protestors.
In other news around the region, financial authorities in mainland China have passed new rules that restrict developers’ access to foreign currency bonds, while a California tech giant is said to have plans to invest $140 million in online and offline retail in India.
Elsewhere, a building collapse in a Guangdong metropolis has led to a hike in property prices.
Hong Kong Private Home Prices Retreat for Second Straight Month
Prices of Hong Kong’s lived-in homes declined 0.1 percent in July, the second straight month of retreat as the city continued to reel from an escalating political crisis and the US-China trade war.
The drop was slower than the 0.6 percent slide recorded in June, but nevertheless deviated from the general uptrend in the first five months of the year. Read more>>
Thai REIT Aborts KL Hotel Deal
Concern over the volatility in the Thai and global capital markets has caused the Strategic Hospitality Extendable Freehold and Leasehold Real Estate Investment Trust (SHREIT) to back out of a deal to acquire two hotels in Kuala Lumpur.
Located in Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman and owned by Singapore’s Royal Group, Hilton Garden Inn North and Hilton Garden Inn South are now back on the market. Read more>>
China Restricts Developers’ Access to Foreign Currency Bonds
As China allows the yuan to depreciate to a level not seen in 11 years, financial authorities have rolled out measures to stem capital outflows from the mainland.
The new rules include stricter oversight of banks in times of capital flight and restrictions on real estate developers’ access to foreign currency bonds. The National Development and Reform Commission told companies in the sector that debt instruments denominated in foreign currencies are limited to those with maturities up to one year. Even then, procurement of those funds can only be applied to refinancing. Read more>>
Apple to Invest INR 10B in India Retail Strategy
Apple, the maker of iPhones, has told government officials that it plans to invest close to INR 10 billion ($140 million) in setting up its online selling platform, and opening three of its iconic retail stores across major cities over the next two to three years.
“There have been meetings with company executives. The first store is likely to come up in Mumbai followed by Delhi and a third location is yet undecided,” a senior government official familiar with the company’s plans said. Read more>>
Asia Pacfic 1H Hotel Investment Hits $4.5B, Led by Japan
APAC hit US$4.5 billion in the first six months of 2019, with more than half of the capital originating from domestic buyers in Japan, China and Australia, says global real estate consultancy JLL.
According to JLL’s latest Hotel Investment Highlights report, investors are facing mounting pressure to deploy capital amid geopolitical uncertainty. To generate target returns, a number of investors have adjusted their risk expectations to explore opportunities within their home countries. Read more>>
Shenzhen Homeowners Try to Profit from Building Collapse
One would expect a building collapse to be disastrous for home prices. But in Shenzhen prices have zoomed up instead.
Homeowners in a residential estate in the southern Chinese city where a building collapsed on Wednesday morning raised their prices by nearly 20 per cent within 24 hours of the incident, betting buyers would be willing to pay a premium in the hope that the entire estate would be razed and redeveloped. 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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