SHK Warehouse to Become HK Hyperscale Data Center and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

In today’s roundup of regional news headlines, Hong Kong developer Sun Hung Kai agrees to convert one of its warehouses into a data centre, the family of Grab’s CEO picks up a bungalow site for redevelopment, and the chairman of Singaporean developer Fragrance Group looks to take the firm private.

Also in the news, investment in Singapore’s shophouses jumped nearly 30 percent in the first half of the year and a new JLL report shows that trades of hotels stayed flat in the first six months of 2021, as investors remain cautious regarding the hospitality industry.

Sun Hung Kai HK Warehouse to Become Hyperscale Data Centre 

Hong Kong data centre operator Sunevision is to convert a warehouse in New Territories owned by its parent company into a data centre for an unnamed hyperscaler.

The division of development giant Sun Hung Kai last week reported that its iAdvantage subsidiary had entered into a master service agreement with a “major” hyperscale customer to establish a single-use 10-megawatt data centre in Fanling. Read more>>

Grab CEO’s Wife Buys Singapore Bungalow for $29.6M

Grab co-founder and chief executive Anthony Tan’s family has bought a property in the Bin Tong Park Good Class Bungalow Area for S$40 million ($29.6 million). The purchase was made by his wife, Chloe Tong, the Business Times has learned.

The couple are expected to redevelop the property, which has a bungalow on site understood to have been built in the 1990s. Read more>>

Fragrance Group Chair Makes Privatisation Bid for SGX-Listed Developer

Fragrance Group on Friday announced that an entity controlled by the company’s chairman intends to make a voluntary conditional cash offer for all the issued and paid-up ordinary shares of the group at 13.8 Singapore cents ($0.10) per share.

Chairman Koh Wee Meng, together with his wife, currently control 85.8 percent of the developer, and the buyout offer represents a premium of nearly 17 percent to Fragrance Group’s share price at market closing on 8 July. Read more>>

Evergrande Boss Hui Ka Yan Gets a Debt Regulator Request

China Evergrande shares fell by 1 percent after Bloomberg reported that founder Hui Ka Yan was asked by Chinese regulators last month to solve the developer’s debt problems.

When he appeared at the Communist Party’s 100th anniversary celebration in Tiananmen Square on 1 July, investors cheered at the implication that the embattled property tycoon still enjoyed favour in Beijing. Read more>>

HK Homebuying Frenzy Spills Over Into Subsidised Housing

Hong Kong’s homebuying fever has spilled over into the subsidised housing market as turnover and average prices rise to new highs amid a recovery in the city’s pandemic-battered economy.

Transactions involving lived-in Home Ownership Scheme flats in the first half of the year reached HK$17.6 billion ($2.3 billion), the highest since records began in the second half of 1995 and up 36.4 percent from the same period last year, according to Centaline Property Agency. Read more>>

Singapore Shophouse Transaction Value Up 29.9% in H1 2021

Singapore’s total shophouse transaction value in the first half of 2021 hit S$836.1 million ($618.3 million now), up 29.9 percent from the previous half, backed by a pickup in activity beginning in 2020’s fourth quarter.

The total was made up of the first and second quarters’ transaction values of S$365.4 million and S$470.7 million, respectively. Read more>>

Hotel Investment Stayed Flat in H1 2021, Says JLL

Asia Pacific hotel investment remained flat in the first half of 2021 at $3.7 billion in sales, a decline of 3.7 percent year-on-year. In total, 61 hotel investment deals were transacted in the first half of the year across nine countries and representing over 10,000 rooms.

According to investment data tracked and analysed by JLL, hotel transaction volume in the first half of 2021 was 18 percent below the same period in 2019, which was the peak of the investment market in the Asia Pacific. Read more>>

Thai Real Estate Giant to Bet $3.2B on Tourism Rebound

With COVID-19 still keeping foreign tourists away from Thailand’s pristine beaches and bustling cities, leaving more than 80 percent of hotel rooms unoccupied, one would expect the CEO of one of the country’s largest developers of hospitality, retail and office properties to hunker down.

Instead, Wallapa Traisorat, CEO of Asset World Corp, has mapped out a THB 100 billion ($3.2 billion) five-year growth plan to position her company for a post-pandemic tourism boom. “It’s a short-term impact that we are facing right now,” she said. “We see huge potential growth and strength in Thai tourism.” Read more>>

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