Dr Jacob Kam at MTR’s Super Operations Control Centre.
The biggest Hong Kong landlord that most people have never heard will have new leadership soon after the MTR Corporation, which operates the city’s light rail network, announced late last week that it has appointed a new CEO and chairman. Meanwhile there are signs of meaningful business just to the Asian financial hub’s south as the Vietnamese cities of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City lead the ranks of the world’s highest yielding office investments, according to a new report, and in China the government’s latest vow to implement a property tax is scaring share investors more than it does homeowners. All these stories and more await you in Mingtiandi’s roundup of news from around the region.
Hong Kong’s MTR Appoints New CEO and Chairman
Hong Kong based operator MTR has appointed Dr Jacob Kam as CEO for a three year term with effect from April 1, following the retirement of incumbent CEO Lincoln Leong on March 31.
The government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has also appointed Rex Auyeung Pak-kuen as chairman of the MTR board of directors for a term of two and a half years, with effect from July 1. Professor Frederick Ma will be retiring from the position of chairman, and will also retire as a member of the board, chairman of the corporate responsibility committee and a member of each of the nominations committee and the remuneration committee when his tenure ends on June 30. Read more>>
Hanoi, HCMC Among Top Five Global Cities for Office Yields
Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) have been ranked among the top five global cities that offered the highest office yield in the world, according to a newly released world office report.
The Savills World Office Yield Spectrum for the second half of 2018 indicates that Hanoi crowned the rankings with the highest office yield at 8.57 percent. The capital city was followed by Manila, Adelaide, HCMC, and Perth. Read more>>
Hong Kong, Berlin, Shenzhen Among Cities With Strongest Markets in 2018
Hong Kong was home to the world’s most expensive real estate in 2018 amid a slowdown in price growth across the world’s major cities, according to a report on Monday from Savills.
Property price growth rose just 2.3 percent in 2018 across the 17 prime global cities Savills tracked for their index, less than the 3.3 percent growth in 2017 and the smallest annual increase since the global financial crisis.
“Prime residential real estate values are settling into a pattern of slower, steadier price growth and we do not expect to see a repeat of the double digit annual price growth seen pre-global financial crisis,” Sophie Chick, director at Savills world research, said in the report.
Berlin saw the largest price increases last year, with annual growth of nine percent, the report said. Read more>>
SG Startup Makes Latest Attempt to Create Real Estate Token Platform
Infrastructure and property firms may soon be able to “tokenise” their real estate and turn it into investment options if fintech start-up Sygnum gets the green light.
“Tokenising” an asset essentially involves dividing it into tiny digital units or tokens that can then be traded on a platform.
The tokens’ small size means an individual could own a part of an asset that would otherwise be out of his or her financial reach. Read more >>
Stocks Slide as China Glaciates Toward a Property Tax
A call by China’s legislature to implement a tax on the nation’s property holdings scared investors into dumping real estate developers’ shares this week, even if the legal foundation for enacting a nationwide levy is at least five years away.
The Shanghai Property Index, which tracks 25 real estate developers on the Shanghai Composite Index, slumped 4.3 per cent on Friday in its biggest one day percentage decline since October 11, causing at least two of the stocks to fall by their ten percent daily limit.
The scare was sparked when Li Zhanshu, the chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee said on Friday that the legislature would focus its energy on drafting several pieces of law this year, including the legal foundations for a property tax. Read more>>
What China’s Leaders Didn’t Say May Point to Easing of Property Curbs
President Xi Jinping famously declared in 2017 that “houses are for living in, not for speculation”. The phrase immediately made its way into all official property policy, underpinning measures aimed at reining in China’s runaway house prices. Fast forward to 2019 and things have changed.
Xi’s mantra was notably missing from a closely watched economic report at this year’s legislative meetings in Beijing, as was any mention of a government pledge “to curb the rise of home prices”, first officially mooted last July.
The omission of such phrases from carefully worded scripts at the annual “two sessions” has given rise to hope that Beijing may be loosening its tight grip on the property sector. 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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