Singapore home sales were up 105% in June
The coronavirus still plagues the world but recovering markets lead the news today as housing sales in Singapore recover and home prices in southern China take a great leap upward.
Also in the headlines, the COVID-19 crisis is triggering layoffs at a Singapore casino and a US debt investor makes a deal in India. Keep reading for all these stories and more.
Singapore Home Sales Bounce Back
Singapore new home sales posted a surprise rebound, with developers selling 998 non-landed private homes in June, up 105 per cent from 487 private homes in May, as showflats were allowed to reopen on June 19 after a two-month partial lockdown ended.
The numbers – the highest monthly sales for June in seven years – seem to indicate resilience in the property market, as also evidenced by a 22 per cent rise in new home sales from 821 a year ago. Read more>>
SG Apartment Rents Slid 0.6% Last Month
Rents for private apartments and Housing Board (HDB) flats continued their decline amid the Covid-19 outbreak, according to flash data released by real estate portal SRX Property on Wednesday.
In the private rental market, rents in June dipped 0.6 per cent from May.
Year on year, private rents in June fell for the core central region and rest of central region by 0.7 per cent and 2.2 per cent respectively. Read more>>
Govt Moves to Cool Frothy Shenzhen Housing Market
China’s policy makers have sent another warning to property and stock investors in an attempt to prevent the formation of asset bubbles that could dilute their efforts to fund the economic recovery.
The municipal government of Shenzhen, the tech hub where home prices have seen the biggest surge in two years in recent months, tightened the rules on property transactions on Wednesday. That came after a cautious liquidity operation by the People’s Bank of China, in which some central bank funding was withdrawn from the banking system for the month. Read more>>
Dongguan Home Prices Jump 17%
Dongguan, a city in China’s Greater Bay Area development zone that is also home to Huawei Technologies’ new campus, has recorded a sharp increase in home prices, which have been boosted by increased liquidity and speculative buying driven by hopes around its economy.
“My landlord last year asked me whether I would like to buy the 110 square metre home I live in for 3.6 million yuan [US$514,096]. We, however, passed up on it, as we found it a bit over our budget. And now it is priced at 5 million yuan. Who can tell me why?” Vic Li, a Dongguan resident, said in a recent social media post on Douban.com. Read more>>
Sentosa Casino Laying Off Staff as Virus Risk Sinks Gambling Game
Integrated resort operator Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) will be laying off a significant number of staff as it struggles to cope with the impact to tourism brought about by Covid-19. The Straits Times has contacted RWS to verify the number of staff retrenched.
In a statement on Wednesday (July 15), RWS said it has been streamlining its operational resources to stay agile and respond quickly to situations in the current “unpredictable climate”. Read more>>
Singapore Press Holdings Warns on Profit
Media and property group Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) said yesterday that its operating profit for the year ending Aug 31 is expected to be “significantly lower” than the $187 million recorded a year earlier due to the ongoing pandemic.
It is also expecting a negative outcome for the revaluation of its investment properties as at Aug 31 this year. Read more>>
Oaktree Lends $76M to Indian Developer
Gurugaon developer M3M India Pvt. Ltd has raised Rs 570 crore ($76 million) from American alternative investment manager Oaktree Capital through non-convertible debentures.
The developer received Rs 370 crore this week and will get the remaining in coming days, The Economic Times reported, citing people it didn’t identify. The report said M3M will use the capital to finish under-construction projects. Read more>>
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