Shandong City Lifts Ban on Flat Flipping and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

In each cycle of policy restrictions and market slowdowns mainland municipal governments squeezed by falling revenues look to test the limits of Beijing’s tolerance, with a city in Shandong province testing the strength of that leash today. Also in the news, Singapore’s Keppel Land signs up for one more Jakarta JV and Alibaba opens what could be the world’s first staff-free hotel in Hangzhou. Read on for all these stories and more.

Shangdong’s Heze Lifts Rules on Home Flipping

A city in eastern China has reversed a rule designed to curb real estate flipping, briefly boosting shares in property developers on Wednesday on speculation that more cities could follow suit as slowing sales weigh on the economy.

The policy reversal, announced by the city’s government, was the first of its kind since authorities around the country began taking steps about two years ago to control soaring house prices, according to state-run media. Read more>>

Keppel Land Agrees to Jakarta Residential JV

Keppel Land on Tuesday said that it has, through its wholly-owned subsidiary PT Sukses Manis Indonesia, signed an agreement with Indonesian property developer, PT Metropolitan Land (Metland), to jointly develop a 12-hectare residential site in the Metland Menteng township in East Jakarta, Indonesia.

Keppel Land will hold a 50-per-cent stake in the joint operation which will yield about 500 landed homes with ancillary shophouses for sale. Keppel Land’s share of the total development cost for the project is estimated to be about 600 billion rupiah (S$57 million). Read more>>

Alibaba Opens Unmanned Hotel in Hangzhou

China’s Alibaba has finally opened its first unmanned hotel after two years of trial preparations. The hotel, named ‘FlyZoo’, is an unmanned hotel located on the east side of Hangzhou, where the e-commerce giant headquartered.

Codenamed the ‘Future Hotel’, the site will be operated in a similar manner as Alibaba’s other ventures in the restaurant and bookstore industry, leveraging on technologies to transform traditional businesses. In this case, the hotel’s all processes, from check-in to check-out, will be unmanned, and provided by robots. Read more>>

Banyan Tree Celebrates 26 New Hotels in 2018

Banyan Tree Group announces its continuing global expansion with the successful signing during 2018, of 26 hotel agreements for its four brands. These are in addition to the current 48 hotels in operation at end 2018, and seven new hotels slated to open in 2019.

The projects comprise 5 Banyan Tree, 10 Angsana, 2 Cassia and 9 Dhawa hotels and resorts. They encompass 17 projects in Greater China and the rest in Oceania (Fiji and Palau), ASEAN (Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam), and Europe (Austria and Spain). These are expected to become operational over the next three years. Read more>>

Mainland Developers Invest in Insurers

Amid a cooling market, Chinese developers are making a push into the insurance sector in an effort to forge stable revenue flows and offset volatile property sales.

Hong Kong-listed developer Greentown China Holdings announced on Monday that it will spend 2.718 billion yuan (US$390 million) to acquire an 11.55 per cent stake in Aeon Life Insurance. Read more>>

Swire Contributes $1M for Affordable Housing in Miami

It could be two to three years before work starts on the next phase of sprawling Brickell City Centre, but when it does the City of Miami will get $1 million for affordable housing.

Developer Swire Properties agreed to the voluntary public benefits contribution as it seeks approvals to expand its footprint in the neighborhood south of the Miami River. Read more>>

Tune in again on Friday 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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