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Singapore private residential rents could fall 5% this year
Singapore residents still in shock over rising condo leases could be in line for brighter days, with a story of rent reductions leading today’s headline roundup. Also in the news, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Bank cuts its exposure to China’s property markets by a third in 2023, and HSBC sees its record results marred by a write-down on its stake in Beijing’s Bank of Communications.
Singapore Private Residential Rents to Fall 5% in 2024
Savills Singapore is predicting a 5 percent drop in rental rates for private residences this year. This comes as leasing activity slowed further in 2023’s fourth quarter, the agency said in its latest residential leasing market report.
The URA’s island-wide rental index for non-landed private housing fell 1.8 percent on a quarterly basis in the last three months of 2023, marking the first quarterly decline since the fourth quarter of 2020. The drop was driven by lower rents in all regions, with the Outside Central Region registering the largest quarterly fall of 2.8 percent. Read more>>
Hang Seng Bank Cut China Property Exposure by a Third in 2023
Hang Seng Bank Ltd trimmed its mainland China commercial real estate exposure by a third last year to reduce its risk in the struggling sector.
The bank has made “good progress” in “de-risking” in mainland China commercial real estate, with the exposure dropping 33 percent to HK$35 billion ($4.5 billion), the Hong Kong-based lender’s Chief Executive Officer Diana Cesar said at a press conference on Wednesday. Read more>>
HSBC $3B Write-Down on China BoCom Stake Mars Record Annual Profit
HSBC Holdings reported record annual profit on Wednesday although it missed estimates due to a hefty $3 billion charge on its stake in a Chinese bank amid mounting bad loans in the world’s second-largest economy.
Shares in the British lender slid 6 percent in early London trade, against a flat FTSE index (.FTSE), opens new tab, also hurt by higher operating costs and despite the announcement of a fresh $2 billion share buyback. Read more>>
Chinese Banks Approve $17B in Loans Under ‘Whitelist’ Project
China’s housing authority said $17.2 billion worth of development loans have been approved and RMB 29.4 billion ($4.1 billion) has been issued under a special mechanism aimed at injecting liquidity into the crisis-hit property sector.
Under China’s “whitelist” mechanism launched on 26 January, city governments recommend residential projects to banks suitable for financial support and coordinate with financial institutions to meet project needs. Read more>>
Hong Kong’s Luxury Home Market Stirs as Discounts Drive Bottom Fishing
Hong Kong’s luxury home segment, which has been hit by a wave of deep discounts amid soaring interest rates and macroeconomic turbulence, has shown early signs of stability as bottom fishing has emerged in one of the world’s priciest real estate markets.
The city’s luxury property prices fell 8 percent in 2023 and 15 percent from the peak in July 2018, according to CBRE. But a total of 173 deals involving units priced at $10 million or more were recorded last year, a 31 percent year-on-year increase, according to Knight Frank. Value volume rose 13 percent year-on-year to HK$25.5 billion ($3.2 billion). Read more>>
Hong Kong Faces Mounting Pressure to Remove Property Curbs
Hong Kong’s influential developer association and politicians are putting pressure on the government to remove extra property taxes to lift the lacklustre market.
The government is confronting demands from the city’s elite to scrap curbs introduced a decade ago. Developers and lawmakers are ramping up lobbying efforts to sway Financial Secretary Paul Chan on the budget plan scheduled for 28 February. Read more>>
Sasseur REIT Posts 8.7% Rise in Q4 DPU on Outlet Sales Growth
Singapore-listed Sasseur REIT’s distribution per unit rose 8.7 percent year-on-year to S$0.01415 ($0.011) for the fourth quarter of 2023.
The increase was driven by an 81.7 percent year-on-year surge in the variable component of the rental income under the REIT’s entrusted management agreement model, which stood at RMB 58.7 million ($8.1 million) for the quarter, the trust’s manager said Wednesday. Read more>>
Norway’s Prime Office Value Drop Hits Korean Retail Investors
A South Korean real estate fund is set to post a 100 percent loss as the value of its sole asset, a prime office wholly leased out to Norway’s largest energy firm, Equinor, has significantly dropped amid the European commercial property market slump, according to banking sources on Monday.
ARA Korea, a REIT manager, injected KRW 23 billion ($17.2 million) to buy 25 percent of common shares into the office located in Fornebu, 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) west of Oslo, in 2019. Korea’s high-net-worth individuals were the clients of the private real estate fund. Read more>>
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