Beike boss Zuo Hui hopes to find a happy listing home in the US
WeWork’s IPO belly flopped and Luckin Coffee got kicked out of the NASDAQ, but these setbacks have not deterred online property brokerage Beike Zhaofang from attempting a US stock market listing.
An account of the Softbank and Tencent-backed firm’s plans for a $3 billion IPO leads today’s real estate headlines from around the region, followed by coverage of yet another Asian financial hub seeing rising office vacancy.
Also in our roundup, Hong Kong’s richest man may soon be ready to start selling London homes to any residents of his home city looking for an overseas getaway and Mumbai’s real estate market has started to recover from its lockdown blues.
Online Brokerage Beike Braves Skeptical US Market to Try $3B IPO
Beike Zhaofang, a Chinese online property brokerage backed by SoftBank Group Corp., is planning to raise up to $3 billion in an initial public offering in the coming months, according to people familiar with the matter, in what would be the largest listing of a Chinese company in the U.S. in more than two years.
Beike, which means seashell in Mandarin, was valued at slightly more than $14 billion after raising $1 billion in November 2019 from SoftBank and another $500 million from private-equity firm Hillhouse Capital Group, social-media giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. and venture-capital firm Sequoia Capital, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. Read more>>
Tokyo Office Vacancy Climbs for Fourth Straight Month
Tokyo’s office vacancy rates have worsened for a fourth straight month as the coronavirus pandemic pushed some tenants to reduce office space and delay relocations, a Japanese broker said on Thursday.
The average vacancy rate in the Japanese capital rose to 1.97 per cent in June from 1.64 per cent from May, said Miki Shoji, a company that tracks nationwide office occupancy and rents. Read more>>
Mainland Developer Tahoe Weighs $1B Sale of Insurance Unit
Tahoe Investment Group Co. is weighing a sale of its life insurance unit that could fetch about $1 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The company, which is also the major shareholder in luxury real estate developer Tahoe Group Co., is working with an adviser to seek buyers for Tahoe Life Insurance Co., said the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is private. Read more>>
Korean Officials Dump Pricey Properties as New Taxes Rolled Out
As Seoul property prices soar, there’s a new apartment on sale this month: for the best part of an estimated $1 million (£794,281), you could buy a piece of future Gangnam glitz from reluctant seller Noh Young-min – the chief of staff of President Moon Jae-in.
Noh is one of a group of senior government officials facing a public backlash over multiple home ownership in one of the world’s hottest property markets, where median apartment prices have rocketed more than 50% in three years, KB Bank data shows. Read more>>
Vanke Opens First Rental Housing Project in Beijing
Vanke, among China’s largest residential property developers, has welcomed tenants to the country’s first village-turned-rental-housing-estate as authorities look to help more workers find places to live in increasingly unaffordable large cities.
The development on the edge of Beijing occupies about 47,500 sq. meters of former village land still owned by residents who moved elsewhere during the capital’s rapid urbanization. Read more>>
Li Ka-shing’s CK Asset Wins Approval for $1.26B London Project
CK Asset Holdings, the developer founded by Hong Kong’s best known tycoon, has been given the green light from the UK government to start work on a £1 billion (US$1.26 billion) project offering 3,500 homes in London 15 years after it bought the site.
Approval for the first phase of the development in Deptford, southeast London, came within days of Prime Minister Boris Johnson offering Hongkongers a path to British citizenship in the wake of the controversial national security law imposed by Beijing. Read more>>
Mumbai Property Sales Bounce Back in June
Property buyers came out of hiding in Mumbai, India’s priciest real estate market, to boost the sagging fortunes of a segment crippled by the coronavirus lockdown.
A raft of transactions for commercial and residential properties were finalised in the Mumbai registration and stamp duty department after it reopened for business on May 18. Read more>>
Tune in again soon for more Hong Kong news, and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter, or bookmark Mingtiandi’s LinkedIn page for headlines as they happen.
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