China Vanke plans to sell its unfinished Shenzhen headquarters project to boost liquidity
China Vanke leads Mingtiandi’s headline roundup today as the distressed developer plans to sell an unfinished project in Shenzhen. Also in the news, embattled Country Garden seeks help from a state-backed programme to pay bond interest and Princeton Digital Group secures a green loan to help finance a $1.5 billion data centre project in Malaysia.
Vanke Selling Would-Be Shenzhen HQ Site for $305M to Raise Cash
China Vanke plans to sell an unfinished property project once designated as its new headquarters, the developer’s latest effort to divest assets and boost liquidity.
The commercial real estate project in Shenzhen, which spans an area of almost three soccer fields, will go on sale on 18 May, according to a land auction statement published Wednesday on a government-backed newspaper in the city. It will seek bids at a starting price of RMB 2.2 billion ($305 million). That’s less than the RMB 3.1 billion Vanke paid for the plot in 2017. Read more>>
Country Garden Asks China’s State Guarantor to Pay Bond Interest
China’s Country Garden is seeking help from a state-backed programme guaranteeing developer bonds to pay interest due Thursday, said people familiar with the matter.
The cash-strapped developer is in talks with China Bond Insurance, which guarantees the two notes with coupons falling due as part of a broader programme introduced by authorities in 2022 to help private developers ease liquidity crunches. The two coupon payments total RMB 65.95 million ($9.1 million) and are due Thursday. Read more>>
Princeton Digital Gets Green Loan for $1.5B Johor AI Hub
Princeton Digital Group secured a $280 million green loan to help finance a $1.5 billion data centre it’s building in southern Malaysia, a first for the Asian infrastructure operator as it aims to get that complex operational by June.
The Warburg Pincus-backed company, which builds and operates server facilities around the region, secured the financing from Maybank, Standard Chartered and UOB. Princeton Digital said the deal marked its first so-called green loan, a form of debt targeted at environmentally friendly projects. Read more>>
Blackstone, Starwood Split on Commercial Property Market Risks
Two of the world’s biggest property investors are split on the current state of the US commercial real estate cycle.
For Blackstone, with about $600 billion in property globally, the market is finding a floor. A peak in interest rates and a slowdown in the supply of new construction are indicators that real estate in the US is bottoming, according to global co-head of real estate Kathleen McCarthy. Starwood Capital Group, with $115 billion under management, sees more pain ahead, with banks at risk of failing because higher interest rates have left the loans in their portfolios underwater. Read more>>
Manulife US REIT Portfolio Occupancy Fell to 78.7% in Q1
Singapore-listed Manulife US REIT posted a portfolio occupancy of 78.7 percent for the first quarter ended March, down from 84.4 percent at the end of 2023.
On Wednesday, the pure-play US office REIT manager said this was largely due to its major tenant TCW Group’s lease expiry at the Figueroa asset in Los Angeles, which amounted to 189,000 square feet (17,559 square metres) of space. Read more>>
Six Condo Projects Seek Presale Consent in Hong Kong
Six new projects applied for presale consents in April, Hong Kong’s Lands Department revealed on Tuesday. Among them is a project in Kwu Tung developed by Wing Tai Properties, former Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa’s family members and former financial secretary Henry Tang, which will offer 765 homes.
The others include Wheelock Properties’ project in Kwu Tung involving 324 flats, CK Asset’s project in Kai Tak offering 307 flats and Vanke Hong Kong’s two phases in Tai Po providing over 1,200 homes in total. Read more>>
New World, China Merchants Shekou to Build Northern Metropolis Project
State-owned conglomerate China Merchants Shekou Group has formed a partnership with New World Development to jointly develop a mixed-use project in the Northern Metropolis, with the residential component set to provide some 2,000 flats.
The investment comes as Hong Kong pushes the Northern Metropolis as a new engine of the city’s future growth and to integrate the area’s development with that of Shenzhen and other cities in the Greater Bay Area. Read more>>
China’s Housing Plan Buoys Markets Without a Whole Lot of Details
China’s cryptic hints at a plan to address its property market woes have buoyed investors. But economists want more details before buying into the recovery story.
The ruling Communist Party last week hinted at interest rate cuts and said it would research ways of dealing with unsold properties — a shift from past plans to build more social housing which threatened to add to oversupply problems. Upon reopening from a three-day trading break, Chinese stocks rallied Monday, pushing gains for property shares to about 30 percent over the past two weeks. Read more>>
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