Sun Hung Kai Buys Sites in GZ, New Territories for $2.2B and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

In today’s roundup of regional news headlines, one of Hong Kong’s biggest developers splashes out for land in the New Territories and Guangzhou, a CDL-backed REIT agrees to acquire a large retail portfolio in France, and PGIM completes its purchase of an office building on Singapore’s Robinson Road.

Sun Hung Kai Buys GZ, New Territories Land Parcels for $2.2B

Sun Hung Kai Properties spent more than HK$17 billion ($2.2 billion) Tuesday on land in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, two key cities in the Greater Bay Area, betting big on the future of the planned economic and innovation hub.

The Hong Kong developer outbid nine rivals to win a parcel in the New Territories for a jaw-dropping HK$8.614 billion, some 40 percent higher than the market valuation. Read more>>

IREIT Global Ventures Into France With €111M Retail Portfolio Deal

Fit 2, a wholly owned subsidiary of IREIT Global, has entered into a conditional sale agreement with Decathlon to acquire a portfolio of 27 retail properties in France for a purchase consideration of €110.5 million ($177 million).

The acquisition marks IREIT Global’s first foray into France. The gross lettable area for the portfolio totals 95,477 square metres (1,027,706 square feet). Read more>>

PGIM Confirms Purchase of 108 Robinson Road in Singapore

PGIM Real Estate has confirmed its acquisition of the 108 Robinson Road office building in Singapore for $107 million as part of its deeper push into Asia.

The transaction, which was reported by Mingtiandi last week, comes as the real estate unit of PGIM, the investment management business of Prudential Financial, has raised at least $970 million in the fourth of its series of Asia-Pacific value-add funds, BT reported in February. Read more>>

CapitaLand China Trust Says Rock Square Mall Helps Boost Income

CapitaLand China Trust saw improved occupancy in its retail and business park portfolio in the first quarter of 2021, owing to a recovery in sales and traffic and an increased percentage of the workforce reporting to work.

In the quarter ended 31 March 2021, retail occupancy stood at 94.4 percent and business park occupancy was at 92.1 percent. In a business update released Tuesday, the manager said “consecutive quarterly improvements” for the retail portfolio and completed acquisitions drove these occupancy rates. Read more>>

Hong Kong’s Towering Office Rents Coming Back Down to Earth

Hong Kong’s economy is finally turning the corner. But it could be years before the city’s once-lucrative office-rental market is back to full health.

Companies are scaling back to cut costs and to adapt to an era of flexible working. That has added strain to a market already roiled by the economic impacts of social unrest, US-China tensions and the pandemic. And a series of new skyscrapers will open for business next year and in 2023, putting further downward pressure on prices. Read more>>

Crown Resorts Fined for Crime Links of Chinese Junket Operators

Beleaguered casino operator Crown Resorts said Tuesday that it has been fined A$1 million ($778,600) by the Victoria state gambling regulator for failing to vet its high-roller junket operations for criminal links, Reuters reports.

The fine comes as part of a wider scrutiny of Crown’s engagement with junket operations after accusations of dealing with operators with links to organised crime to bring Chinese high-rollers to the group’s flagship asset in Melbourne. Read more>>

Mapletree Commercial Trust’s H2 DPU Up 58%

Mapletree Commercial Trust on Tuesday reported that its distribution per unit for the second half of the year ended 31 March rose 57.9 percent to 5.32 Singapore cents from 3.37 Singapore cents in the previous year.

The DPU includes a part release of retained cash carried forward from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020. The amount released was S$13 million ($9.8 million). Read more>>

Sun Hung Kai Lobbies for Increase of Plot Ratio in HK’s Wetland Buffer

Hong Kong’s largest developer by capitalisation and a prominent think-tank are urging the local government to allow areas with low ecological value within the city’s wetlands buffer area to be developed into higher-density housing projects to alleviate a housing shortage.

Building density in the Wetland Buffer Zone — a strip of land measuring about 1,200 hectares (2,965 acres) some 500 metres away from the Deep Bay Wetland Conservation Area in the northwestern corner of Hong Kong’s New Territories near the border with Shenzhen — could be higher to accommodate medium-height apartments of about 15 stories, said Sun Hung Kai Properties’ planning and development project director, Spencer Lu. Read more>>

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