The Lippo Mall Puri in West Jakarta.
Shopping centres seem to be swinging back into style with investors and a story on Indonesia’s Lippo Group preparing to sell a Jakarta mall leads Mingtiandi’s set of real estate headlines from around the region today. There’s also signs of recovery in Singapore’s housing market, where condo resale prices rose 0.5 percent in February after dipping the previous two months. Meanwhile India’s first REIT, Embassy Office Parks, is also in the news after it received $125.71 million in commitments from strategic investors. All these stories and more await you in Mingtiandi’s roundup of news from around the region.
Lippo Retail REIT to Buy Jakarta Mall for $262M
Lippo Malls Indonesia Retail Trust (LMIRT) is looking to acquire Lippo Mall Puri in West Jakarta for IDR 3.70 trillion ($262 million), financed with a combination of debt and equity financing, the REIT’s (real estate investment trust) manager said in a regulatory filing.
LMIRT Management, the REIT manager of LMIRT, has entered into a conditional sales and purchase agreement with PT Mandiri Cipta Gemilang for the proposed acquisition of Lippo Mall Puri. PT Mandiri Cipta Gemilang is a wholly owned subsidiary of PT Lippo Karawaci Tbk, which is the sponsor of LMIRT. Read more>>
Singapore Condo Resale Prices Up 0.5% in February
Singapore condo resale prices increased for the first time in February, up 0.5 percent from January, after two consecutive months of cooling in December and January, according to monthly figures from real estate portal SRX Property on Tuesday (March 12).
It was the largest price increase since July 2018, with year on year prices up by 4.6 percent compared to February 2018. Prices were up 0.2 percent in the core central region and 0.8 percent in the city fringes, or rest of central region. The suburbs, or outside central region, followed suit with prices rising 0.5 percent. Read more>>
India’s First REIT gets $125M Ahead of Public Issue
Ahead of India’s first real estate investment trust (REIT) initial public offering (IPO) Embassy Office Parks REIT, joint venture of private equity firm Blackstone and Bengaluru based real estate developer Embassy Group, announced INR 8.760 billion ($125.71 million) commitment to the trust from strategic investors.
Reports said Embassy Office Parks REIT has entered into unit subscription agreements with strategic investors and would allot them over 2.920 billion units for INR 8.763 billion. Read more>>
Dongguan Loosens Tax Rules for Second-Hand Home Sales
A city in South China’s Guangdong province has joined other Chinese cities in loosening its real estate tax – meaning Beijing is now one of the few left with stricter levies. The city of Dongguan now allows property owners to choose how they would like to pay the tax on income made from selling homes, a move many other cities have adopted to combat a sluggish housing market.
As part of the policy, sellers can decide whether they’d like to pay a 20 percent tax on the increase in price of their property or two percent of the total transaction price, according to a new policy. Previously, the latter calculation was not an option. Read more>>
SG’s Great Room to Offer Co-Working at Raffles Hotel
The Great Room’s co-working space in Singapore’s Centennial Tower doesn’t look like your average office. The floor is marble, the finishings are brushed gold and there’s coconut water in the pantry fridge. It’s a step up from the sector’s more utilitarian offerings, and the pricing reflects that.
The Great Room Offices Pte has just signed with Raffles Hotel to open its fourth location in the city. The first co-working space in a six star hotel, it will occupy 1,393 square metres (15,000 square feet) in one wing when the iconic property reopens after a major refurbishment later this year. At The Great Room’s existing Singapore locations, membership for a dedicated office (as opposed to a hot desk pass) starts from S$2,500 ($1,840) a month. The Raffles location will be priced even higher. Read more>>
Hong Kong Property May Have Bottomed as Builder Lifts Prices
Hong Kong property prices are bouncing back.
Henderson Land Development Co raised the average price for a new batch of apartments at The Vantage in Kowloon by about ten percent, a price list shows. The move is well founded — demand is rising with developers selling more units in the first 11 days of this month than all of February, according to Midland Holdings Ltd.
Used homes are also fetching higher prices. Values for secondary homes have risen for the past four weeks, after sliding ten percent in the seven months through January, figures from Centaline Property Agency Ltd show. 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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