S&P Says Hong Kong Hotels May Face 50% Fall in Revenues

Collapsing hotel bookings lead the way in Mingtiandi’s roundup of Asia real estate headlines today with the news that hoteliers in Hong Kong could see their revenues halved, according to ratings agency S&P, as visitors stay away from the protest-hit city.

In other news around the region, a Singapore-based fund manager has seeded a $250 million logistics property platform with two million square feet of sheds, while an India hotel chain is said to be burning cash at a rate reminiscent of WeWork.

Elsewhere, office tenants in Singapore are pushing back against rent hikes as home sales in the city record their busiest September in seven years, according to new government data.

S&P Says HK Hotels Face May 50% Fall in Revenues

Hotel owners are facing the grim prospect of their revenues being halved as conferences and exhibitions have either been cancelled or postponed and tourists are choosing to staying away from Hong Kong amid escalating social unrest.

The hotel segment will bear the brunt of the impact, says S&P Global Ratings. Read more>>

Singapore Home Sales Record Best September in 7 Years

New private home sales in September were the best for that month in seven years – and also the highest in the 14 months since property cooling measures were imposed in July last year.

This came as developers, after the Hungry Ghost month, revved up launches in the city-fringe and more buyers opted to trade up to this location. Buyers snapped up 1,270 new private homes last month, up 13 per cent from August’s 1,123 units and 36 per cent more than the 932 units sold in September 2018, according to newly released government data. Read more>>

Xander Seeds $250M Logistics Platform with 2M SQ Ft Portfolio

Singapore’s Xander Investment Management on Tuesday announced a $250 million industrial real estate venture for India, a platform that will acquire assets in the high growth logistics and e-commerce sector along key industrial corridors across major cities.

Sponsored by Xander Group, the platform has raised capital from leading European institutional investors that have previously been limited partners in the firm’s sponsored opportunity funds. Read more>>

Thai REIT Rally Trims Yields

Thailand’s real estate investment trusts have outperformed their Asian peers amid lower borrowing costs. The stellar performance, however, also reduced the allure of the much-loved sector as their surging prices trump yields.

A measure of REITS and property funds on the Thai exchange has rallied 30 percent this year, beating a 27.5 percent gain in the Bloomberg Asia Real Estate Investment Trust Index. Read more>>

Is Oyo the next WeWork?

Oyo Hotels & Homes might be the fastest-growing big company in the world. Ritesh Agarwal’s Indian startup is moving at dizzying speed, frantically racing to become the world’s top hotel-room provider and more.

Oyo’s rise to a $10 billion valuation and dealings with Japanese investor SoftBank and its Vision Fund also echo some of the hype before the fall of Adam Neumann’s shared office space empire The We Company. Read more>>

Singapore Office Tenants Push Back

Some office tenants in Singapore’s central business district (CBD) are resisting further increases in rents, following nine consecutive quarters of increase in grade A office rents in the business area, according to a market report by Colliers International.

Cumulatively, grade A office rents in the CBD have risen by 27 per cent since the second quarter of 2017, driven by tightening supply. Read more>>

CLSA Says India Property Market Showing Signs of Recovery

CLSA is positive on real estate and has seen encouraging signs of recovery in the coming days, Mahesh Nandurkar, India Strategist at CLSA, said. He added that the real estate sector turnaround is only a matter of time.

On markets, Nandurkar said: “The reason why the market has given up the gains post corporate tax cut is the economic data points continue to be negative and we continue to see data points which show that the slowdown is sharper than what it was thought to be a month ago or a few months back.” Read more>>

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