Japan pops to the top of today’s real estate headlines as TH Real Estate and Australia’s Future Fund jointly sell off a Manhattan tower to a Japanese buyer. Also in the news, a Chinese government program to subsidize housing is also propping up developers faced with a glut of homes in the country’s smaller cities, and Blackstone raises $100 million from a California pension fund for its latest Asia real estate vehicle. All these stories, and more, await you if you just keep reading.
TH Real Estate, Future Fund Sell NYC Tower to Japan’s Unizo for $468M
Japanese real estate firm Unizo Holding Company has just bought 685 Third Avenue in Midtown for $467.5 million.
Unizo, formerly known as Jowa Holdings, bought the property from TH Real Estate, an affiliate of financial planning firm Nuveen. TH Real Estate bought the 31-story, 651,492 s/f in 2010 for $190 million. The firm later sold a 49.9 percent interest in the property to Australian sovereign wealth fund Future Fund. Read more>>
Chinese Govt Home Buying Campaign Swaps Housing Glut for Debt Balloon
A push by the Chinese government to ease local housing gluts and fill empty apartments is creating a different headache by driving indebted cities deeper into the red.
Under Beijing’s direction, more than 200 cities across China for the last three years have been buying surplus apartments from property developers and moving in families from condemned city blocks and nearby villages. China’s Housing Ministry, which is behind the purchases, said it plans to continue the program through 2020. Read more>>
HNA Pumps $93M into Kai Tak Project
A subsidiary of HNA Group, Hong Kong International Construction Investment Management Group (HKCIM), has injected HK$728 million (US$93.24 million) into a land parcel owned by its parent at Kai Tak, the site of Hong Kong’s former airport.
HNA has splashed out a total HK$27.2 billion (US$3.48 billion) on four residential land parcels at Kai Tak through different subsidiaries during 2016, to grab a major stake in what is one of Hong Kong’s highest-profile new development projects, the most expensive of which was plot number 6565. Read more>>
China’s Landing Intl Sells Off London Casino for $320M
Hong Kong-listed casino investor Landing International Development Ltd said on Wednesday that it had clinched the disposal of Les Ambassadeurs Club and Casino (pictured), an upmarket gaming venue in London in the United Kingdom.
“All conditions precedent of the disposal agreement have been fulfilled and the completion took place on 11 October 2017,” said Landing International in a filing. Read more>>
SF ERS Fund Invests $100M into Blackstone Asia Fund
San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System is investing $100m (€84.4m) into the Blackstone Real Estate Partners Asia II commingled fund – the fifth time it has made a real estate commitment using a Blackstone vehicle.
The pension fund revealed the new commitment in a board meeting document, in which it also said it had put its $176m investment in the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust under review because of underperformance. Read more>>
CSCEC Signs Deal for $3B Project to Build New Egyptian Capital
China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) finalized on Wednesday a $3 billion deal to build a massive Central Business District (CBD) in Egypt’s new administrative capital, some 50 kilometers east of Cairo.
The deal was signed by CSCEC Vice-President Zheng Xuexuan and Egyptian Housing Minister Mostafa Madbouly, in the presence of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi and Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Song Aiguo. Read more>>
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