Tencent Goes Full Gadget for New Shenzhen HQ and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

Leading today’s real estate news from around the region, Tencent is hoping that its newly-opened Shenzhen offices will help the tech giant to build a vertical community campus, while slightly further south in Hong Kong it was revealed that among the shareholders dumping shares in developer Jiayuan as it plunged 89 percent last week were the company’s chairman and his wife. Plus, CapitaLand’s retail REIT boosted its distributions in the most recent quarter, and there are still more stories as you cruise down the page.

Tencent Shows Off High Tech Headquarters in Shenzhen

Tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s new twin-tower headquarters in this southern megacity offers a glimpse into the future of office life, a future where China is pulling ahead in the race for innovative workspaces.

Tencent – a company best known for developing WeChat , the social-networking mobile app with over a billion users—began moving employees into its centerpiece high-rises, the Seafront Towers, in October to prepare for future expansion. Read more>>

Chairman of HK-Listed Jiayuan Sold Shares as Stock Plunged 89%

The chairman of a Hong Kong-listed property developer and his wife cut their stake just as the stock plunged 89 per cent.

Shum Tin Ching and his wife Wang Xinmei sold 93.6 million shares of Jiayuan International Group on Jan 17 at an average of HK$2.7611 (S$0.478) apiece – about a 79 per cent discount from the previous day’s close – according to a Hong Kong exchange filing. That reduced their shareholding to 53.92 per cent from 57.65 per cent. Their trades made up about a quarter of the entire volume in the stock for that day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Read more>>

CapitaLand Mall Trust Boosts Distributions for Q4 2018

CapitaLand Mall Trust (CMT) will pay a higher distribution per unit (DPU) for the fourth quarter to Dec 31, 2018, as revenue rose on a consolidated stake in Westgate owner Infinity Mall Trust.

Investors can look forward to DPU of 2.99 Singapore cents, against 2.9 Singapore cents for the same quarter the year prior, according to full-year financial results released on Wednesday morning. Read more>>

Sun Hung Kai Syndicated Loan Costs Rise in Hong Kong

Hong Kong real estate giant Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd.’s syndicated-loan costs are rising after five years of decline, setting the stage for a rebound in local-currency borrowing expenses for other firms in the city.

The company is offering an interest margin of 75 basis points over the interbank rate, known as Hibor, for its five-year syndicated loan of HK$5 billion ($637 million), according to people familiar with the matter. The margin is 10 basis points higher than that of its similar facility last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Read more>>

Owners of Grange Heights Condos in SG Make Second Try for S$820M Sale

Grange Heights is the latest condominium to relaunch a sale en bloc bid, as property owners take another stab at hawking their homes in a decidedly chillier market.

Home owners will reopen a collective sale tender for the St Thomas Walk freehold property on Wednesday (Jan 23) , according to an announcement from marketing agent Colliers International on Tuesday. Read more>>

Country Garden Turns to Robots to Grow Business

Chinese property developer Country Garden is restructuring its business, banking on robots to build houses as part of its plan to weather through the currently lackluster Chinese property market. Ironically, the firm had already earned itself the nickname “robot factory” for its harsh working conditions.

The firm’s chairman Yang Guoqiang proposed a new structure that counts on a troika of businesses streams including real estate, robotics, and agriculture at his firm’s annual meeting on Monday. Country Garden was the largest Chinese real estate firm by sales in 2017. Read more>>

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