SOHO’s Zhang Xin Wins $1 Bil Bid for GM Building in NYC – and more of Today’s China Real Estate Links | June 4, 2013

Here is a list of the day’s latest China real estate news collected from around the web:

• SOHO’s Zhang Xin Wins $1 Bil Bid for GM Building in NYC

  A group of investors, including Chinese real estate tycoon Zhang Xin, paid about $1 billion for a 40 percent stake in a landmark New York office building, a person familiar with the deal said on Sunday, in the latest sign of how foreign investors are fueling a U.S. commercial real estate market recovery.

  The deal, which closed on Friday, comes in the same week that food company Shuanghui International Holdings Inc agreed to buy pork producer Smithfield Foods for $4.7 billion. That purchase, if approved, would be the largest ever acquisition of a U.S. company by one from China.

• Beijing Real Estate Agency Fined for Helping Clients Dodge Taxes

  A leading Chinese real estate agency, 5i5j Real Estate, was fined 30,000 yuan ($4,890) by the Beijing Housing Administration Bureau because it helped a homebuyer sign a housing sales contract online illegally, China National Radio reported Saturday.

  Under the guarantee of 5i5j, the homebuyer reached an agreement with the seller to buy an apartment at 2.9 million yuan ($470,000). But the parties first signed a contract worth 2 million yuan on a government housing website, then the buyer paid an additional 900,000 yuan to the seller without informing the housing bureau.

• China’s May SouFun Home Prices Jump, Defying Tightened Curbs
  

  China’s new home prices jumped in May by the most since they reversed declines in December, as the government’s efforts to tighten property curbs this year fail to deter buyers.

  Prices surged 6.9 percent from a year earlier to 10,180 yuan ($1,659) per square meter (10.76 square feet), SouFun Holdings Ltd. (SFUN), the country’s biggest real estate website owner, said in a statement today after a survey of 100 cities. The costs rose 0.81 percent from April, the 12th month of gains on a month-on-month basis.

• Developers’ asset-liability ratio drops

  The asset-liability ratio of listed property developers saw a slide in 2012, the first drop since 2009, according to a TOP 10 research report by the China Index Academy and Real Estate Institute of Tsinghua University.

  The ratio of listed property developers in Shanghai and Shenzhen stood at 62.27 percent by the end of 2012, down 1.16 percentage points on the previous year.

  The ratio for those listed in Hong Kong was 67.05 percent on average, a drop of 0.38 percentage points year-on-year, according to the report.

• Pilot reform to improve data credibility

  Revamped system to make data on fixed-asset investment more accurate

  The central government’s fixed-asset investment reform trial in four regions across the nation will greatly improve the credibility of the nation’s economic indictors, an expert said on Friday.

  “Fixed-asset investment plays a key role in driving China’s economic growth, so working on the pilot reform of fixed-asset investment and ensuring accuracy of the data is significant for improving our country’s ability to exercise macro control,” said Ma Jiantang, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, at a meeting in Xi’an, Shaanxi province.

This list is updated daily, so tune in again tomorrow for more up to date information.