HSBC’s Hong Kong headquarters in Central (Getty Images)
Trouble at a key regional lender leads today’s headline roundup, with HSBC reporting a spike in defaults on Hong Kong commercial property loans. Also making the list, the Fed’s rate cut fails to ignite Hong Kong home sales and a family feud plays out at Chinese developer Aqualand.
HSBC Hit by Soaring Defaults on Hong Kong Commercial Property Loans
HSBC’s exposure to defaulted commercial property loans in Hong Kong surged almost sixfold to more than $3 billion in the first half of this year, underscoring the risks the UK bank faces from a slump in the Chinese territory’s real estate market.
The London-headquartered bank had $3.2 billion in “credit impaired” commercial real estate loans to Hong Kong clients as of 30 June, up from just $576 million six months earlier, according to its financial report for the first half of this year. Read more>>
Hong Kong Home Sales Fall Despite Rate Cuts
The new cycle of interest rate cuts spurred by the US Federal Reserve failed to lift Hong Kong’s secondary property market over the weekend, as cautious buyers from the mainland stayed on the sidelines.
Only seven deals got done over the weekend, a decline of 53.3 percent from a week earlier, marking a new eight-week low, according to Centaline Property. South Horizons in Aberdeen saw three transactions, and there was one each at Metro City in Po Lam, Whampoa Garden in Hung Hom and Caribbean Coast in Tung Chung. Read more>>
Aqualand Boss Locks Wife Out of Company in Aussie-Chinese Family Feud
A blow-up at the top of Chinese property giant Aqualand has seen its senior executive Helkin He — the wife of company boss Jin “Jim” Lin — demoted. The company insists that she remains “responsible for certain aspects” of the business, despite sources revealing that her access to company systems had been terminated.
He was reportedly cut off from company systems in recent weeks after a breakdown in her relationship with Lin. Sources with direct knowledge of the circumstances said He continued to attend the Aqualand office for days after she was removed from her role as head of procurement and construction. Senior figures in the company eventually ordered that she be barred. Read more>>
PAG Expected to Announce Completion of Wanda Takeover Soon
Dalian Wanda Group is close to bringing in new shareholders for its mall operating unit, according to people familiar with the subject.
The completion of the Chinese conglomerate’s plan, which has been months in the making, could be announced as soon as the coming weeks, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter. Read more>>
Hong Kong Office Market Slides as Developers Complete New Projects
Hong Kong’s office leasing market is in a troubling slump. Nearly a fifth of floor spaces across the city are vacant, unprecedented in the financial hub, and rents have fallen to levels last seen in 2015. Not even lower interest rates can turn this around over the next 12 months, experts say.
While businesses are not recovering fast enough to fill up the floors, the city’s landlords — including Sun Hung Kai Properties, Hongkong Land and SEA Holdings — are partly to blame for the glut. Read more>>
Chinese Nationals Account for Nearly 40% of Foreign Purchases of Thai Condos
Chinese nationals bought 2,872 condo units in Thailand from January to June, accounting for 39.5 percent of all condominium ownerships transferred to foreigners in the first six months of 2024, the Real Estate Information Centre reported Friday.
In second place are buyers from Myanmar with 638 units (8.8 percent), followed by Russia with 567 (7.8 percent), Taiwan with 326 (4.5 percent) and the US with 292 (4 percent). Read more>>
Why Rate Cuts Won’t Revive Hong Kong’s Luxury Housing Market
In the rarefied air up on The Peak, the owner of the penthouse in the Opus Hong Kong development — which has been called the city’s most expensive apartment building — unexpectedly put his unit up for sale.
Some of the city’s wealthiest residents rub shoulders here. But it is rare that a unit in the 12-floor building, which twists upwards toward the clouds and was designed by the famed architect Frank Gehry — his first residential project in Asia — would come on the market for a second-hand sale. Read more>>
Malaysia Offers Tax-Free Family Offices at Country Garden’s Forest City
Malaysia is offering a zero-percent tax rate for family offices to set up shop in the struggling Forest City mega-project, as the country looks to revive investor interest in the $100 billion development near its border with Singapore.
The government is also offering a concessionary corporate tax rate of between 0 and 5 percent, and an individual income tax rate of 15 percent for knowledge workers and Malaysians working there, Second Finance Minister Amir Hamzah Azizan said Friday. Read more>>
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