Ng Kiat, chief executive officer for APAC logistics development at Mapletree (Image: Mapletree)
Singapore’s Mapletree aims to reach a first close for a $1.8 billion emerging Asia logistics fund by the middle of this year, with that initiative leading today’s real estate headlines from around Asia Pacific. CapitaLand Investment also makes the news with a 10 percent reduction of its China workforce, and Japan’s leading budget hotel operator is taking aim at the US market.
Mapletree Targets Mid-2026 First Close for $1.8B Emerging Asia Logistics Fund
Singapore’s Mapletree Investments expects to reach a first close for its Mapletree Emerging Growth Asia Logistics Development Fund by mid-2026, with a second close planned later in the year, the company said. When fully capitalised, the closed-end fund will hold logistics assets worth up to $1.8 billion and targets returns in the mid-teens, a Mapletree executive told the Business Times.
The fund will invest in logistics developments across Malaysia, Vietnam and India, where structural undersupply of institutional-grade logistics space is being driven by e-commerce growth and supply chain shifts, Mapletree said. The strategy targets allocations of approximately 40 percent each to Malaysia and Vietnam, and 20 percent to India. Read more>>
CapitaLand Investment Cuts 10% of China Workforce as Downturn Bites
Singapore’s CapitaLand Investment shed about 365 China-based staff last year, cutting its mainland workforce by roughly 10 percent as the fund manager continues to grapple with a prolonged real estate downturn, according to a global sustainability report published by the company. The reduction reduced its overall headcount to 9,542 in 2025, down from 10,158 the year before — the first such decline since 2022.
China remains the country with the largest share of CapitaLand Investment’s workforce, though its proportion of the total fell to 33 percent from 35 percent in 2024. The company recorded a fair value loss of S$545 million ($427 million) in China last year and continued to see rents under pressure across offices, retail malls and business parks in the first quarter, CapitaLand said. Read more>>
APA Group Targets 10,000 Overseas Rooms as Japan Hotel Giant Pushes Into US
Tokyo-based APA Group aims to double its overseas hotel room count to 10,000 by fiscal year 2031 and grow total revenue more than 30 percent by 2030, with growth expected to come partly through acquisitions, chief executive Isshi Motoya told Bloomberg. The privately held operator, which runs more than 1,100 hotels and nearly 150,000 rooms globally, is targeting direct operations in major US gateway cities and franchises in regional markets.
APA began its North American push a decade ago with the acquisition of Vancouver-based Coast Hotels, and in 2024 bought and rebranded a former Hilton property in Seattle as its first directly operated US hotel, the company said. Analysts warn the group faces a distribution disadvantage against dominant loyalty-network players such as Marriott and Hilton in the crowded US budget and midscale segment. Read more>>
Chinese Online Gaming Tycoon Doubles Money on Singapore Bungalow Sale
Chrissy Luo, co-founder of China-founded investment group Shanda, has sold a freehold bungalow in Singapore’s Tanglin Hill district for S$76 million ($59.5 million), nearly double the S$38.8 million she paid for the property in 2011, according to a report by the Business Times.
The sale works out to approximately S$3,169 per square foot of land area and was completed in February. Luo and her husband Chen Tianqiao founded Shanda Interactive Entertainment in 1999, listing it on Nasdaq in 2004 before taking it private in 2012 and repositioning it as a global investment group. Read more>>
Sydney, Melbourne Home Prices Fall as Rate Hikes and Tax Reforms Bite
Australian home prices stagnated in May as higher borrowing costs and government tax reforms aimed at property investors weighed on demand, with Sydney and Melbourne recording declines of 0.9 percent and 0.8 percent respectively, property consultancy Cotality said. The combined capitals index fell 0.1 percent for the month.
Perth and Darwin outperformed with gains of 1.5 percent each, with prices in both Brisbane and Hobart rising 0.9 percent, the company said. The Reserve Bank of Australia has raised interest rates three times this year, and Sydney’s median dwelling price of approximately A$1.3 million ($934,000) makes it one of the least affordable housing markets in the developed world. Rents rose 0.6 percent in May, lifting annual national rent growth to 5.9 percent. Read more>>
Stockland Files Plans for A$2B Melbourne Data Centre on Brooklyn Warehouse Site
Australia’s Stockland has lodged a planning application to replace nearly half of its Brooklyn Distribution Centre in Melbourne’s western suburbs with a data centre valued at more than A$2 billion ($1.4 billion), the company said. The proposed facility would occupy part of the 22-hectare site at 413 Francis Street in the Brooklyn industrial precinct, which is around 10 kilometres from the Melbourne city centre.
Stockland said that the Victorian Government’s Development Facilitation Program is currently reviewing its application for the change in plan. The Melbourne proposal is one of several data centre initiatives the developer is advancing across Australia’s eastern seaboard, including a 168-megawatt facility proposed at Kemps Creek in western Sydney with Fife Capital, and a 50:50 joint venture with EdgeConneX to develop a portfolio of data centres across its industrial land holdings. Read more>>
Chinese Developer Stocks Jump After Beijing Releases Five-Year Urban Renewal Plan
Shares of Chinese property developers surged on Friday after China’s State Council released a five-year urban renewal plan targeting renovation of 500,000 units of dilapidated urban housing and redevelopment of around 115,000 ageing residential communities by 2030. Country Garden led the rally with its Hong Kong-listed shares closing more than 16 percent higher, while China Vanke’s Shenzhen-listed shares rose 7.3 percent.
Longfor Group, Sunac China Holdings and China Resources Land gained 5.0 percent, 6.7 percent and 2.4 percent respectively in Hong Kong, according to the report. The gains reflected improving sentiment toward the sector supported by the urban renewal agenda, said Sinolink Securities analyst Zhang Xinyue, who also attributed part of the move to investor rotation out of technology stocks. Read more>>
Korea’s Mastern Premier REIT 1 Freezes Dividends and Moves to Sell European and Domestic Assets
South Korea’s Mastern Premier REIT 1, which holds office buildings and an Amazon-leased logistics centre in France, has suspended dividends plans to sell major assets at home and abroad as it seeks to avert a liquidity crisis, according to a shareholder letter sent by asset manager Mastern Investment Management. The REIT’s share price has fallen sharply as global real estate values declined.
The planned disposals include a French Amazon logistics centre, where the REIT holds 100 percent equity and a local loan matures in April next year, and a roughly 13 percent stake in the Crystal Park office building in France, where dividends have been suspended since last year, the company said. Mastern Premier REIT 1 is also seeking to sell its approximately 26 percent stake in a Coupang cold-storage warehouse in Incheon, South Korea’s port city west of Seoul. Read more>>
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