Investors may worry about a potential Luckin contagion
A scandal-hit coffee company leads the way in Mingtiandi’s roundup of Asia real estate headlines today with the news that the co-founder of a BlackRock-backed chain of skinny latte outlets may be stepping back from his other ventures to prevent a scandal spill-over.
Newly published research shows that Singapore’s office market held up better under the COVID-19 crisis than Hong Kong’s during the first quarter, while one developer has decided that robots may be the best way to clean its hotels durin the current virus crisis.
Luckin Coffee Boss Seeks to Limit Investor Exodus
The co-founder of China’s would-be Starbucks rival Luckin Coffee, Lu Zhengyao, is seeking to distance himself from his network of other companies to help them weather the fallout from a scandal at the beverage group.
Like Luckin Coffee, which attracted investment from foreign companies such as BlackRock, Mr Lu’s other businesses — which include China Auto Rental, China’s largest online car rental company, and Ucar, a chauffeur-car service — count overseas companies such as Warburg Pincus among their investors. Read more>>
Singapore’s Office Market Outperforms Hong Kong Amid Pandemic
Singapore’s office market has weathered the coronavirus pandemic better than rival Hong Kong’s, data shows, as the latter relies more heavily on mainland Chinese companies, many of which have bailed amid the crisis.
Premium office rents in Singapore’s central business district were unchanged from the fourth quarter of 2019, according to property consultancy Colliers. Read more>>
Chinachem Brings in Robots to Beat Virus Slump
Hong Kong hotels operator L’hotel Group has turned to robots amid a COVID-19 driven slump in the hospitality sector, with the aim of providing meals to guests and ensuring reduced interaction with staff.
The company, which is wholly owned by property developer Chinachem Group, will have three artificial intelligence robots called Genie delivering meals and drinks to guests at its 432-room L’hotel Island South property in Wong Chuk Hang, which welcomes guests in quarantine, by mid-April. L’hotel said it was the first hotel to introduce meal-delivery robots in Hong Kong. Read more>>
Cromwell E-REIT Proposes Rent Holidays for Tenants
Cromwell European Real Estate Investment Trust is proposing to offer tenants a switch from quarterly to monthly rent payments, and allow these to be deferred by one to three months in special cases, it said in a bourse filing on Wednesday.
This comes comes after 139 smaller tenants, comprising 9.7 percent of the Reit’s annual rent roll, requested for rental payments to be deferred for one or two months. Read more>>
Pandemic Fallout Delayed as Singapore Office Rents Rise in Q1
CBD grade A office rents rose 4.7 percent year on year to S$10.09 ($7.09) per square foot per month in Q1, with the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will be delayed until in Q2, according to a Colliers report.
On a quarterly basis, grade A office rents remained unchanged. Likewise, CBD grade B office rents also inched up 4.8 percent year on year or 0.3 percent quarterly to S$8.44 per square foot per month. Read more>>
Hong Kong Home Prices Not Expected to Fall to SARS Levels
Developers and the owners of homes in Hong Kong waiting to sell or let out their properties may have to slash their asking prices as the good old days of them sitting back and letting buyers fall over each other are long gone.
Transactions and business sentiment in one of the world’s most expensive cities to live and own a home have never been immune to upheavals, and this time around, the realty sector as a whole has taken a beating from the still-rampant novel coronavirus pandemic. 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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