alice + olivia Plans China Expansion – and more of Today’s China Real Estate Links | May 17, 2013

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

• alice + olivia Plans China Expansion

  New York-based fashion brand alice + olivia by Stacey Bendet and Asia’s leading retail, brand management and distribution company ImagineX Group announced an exclusive strategic partnership to develop the brand in Greater China and Southeast Asia through the opening of 23 points of sale over the next five years.

  ImagineX will commence the rollout with the first free-standing Alice + Olivia store in Hong Kong’s International Financial Centre (ifc) in June with more stores in Hong Kong, mainland China, Macau, Taiwan and Singapore to follow.

• Brokerages banned from housing trusts

  A Beijing local authority released a draft guideline Monday to regulate the businesses of real estate brokerage agencies.

  The guideline will forbid brokerage agencies to run housing trust services, which allow the agencies to sign contracts directly with tenants, earning additional profits in the process.

  Under China’s present rules, tenants can find homes through real estate brokerage agencies. They pay brokerage fees and sign lease contracts with homeowners that are guaranteed by the brokers.

• Chinese developers see land prices surge in Jan-April

  The average price of land purchased by Chinese property developers surged 21.1 percent year on year in the first four months of this year, according to the latest data.

  The Shanghai-based E-house China R&D Institute said in a report released Tuesday that the growth rate was 6 percentage points faster than that of the first quarter of this year.

  It marked the fastest growth in the past two years, as the supply of high-quality land in major cities promoted fierce competition and drove prices up, said Liu Weiwei, an analyst with E-house China.

• Wahaha sets out plaza plan for boutique brands

  Hangzhou Wahaha Group, the Chinese drinks giant, is “in discussions” to bring a number of boutique European brands to its own new shopping malls across the country, according to its chairman.

  Zong Qinghou, recently named China’s richest man by Forbes Magazine, said during a tour of eight European countries which concluded in the UK on Friday, that many brand owners said they have had difficulty in finding a trusted Chinese distributor.

• Developers Fall on Economy, Speculation of Curbs

  China Vanke Co. (000002), Poly Real Estate Co. (600048) and Gemdale Corp. (600383) led declines by shares of property developers on concerns that China’s economy is slowing and that authorities may introduce new curbs to rein in home prices.

  A gauge of developers listed in Shanghai declined as much as 2.1 percent and was 1.7 percent lower at 2:05 p.m., heading for the biggest one-day drop since April 25. Vanke, China’s biggest publicly listed developer, fell as much as 2.9 percent in Shenzhen. Poly Real Estate fell as much as 3.8 percent and Gemdale dropped as much as 4.5 percent in Shanghai. China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.1 percent.

• JP Morgan cuts China’s GDP growth forecast

  JP Morgan Chase & Co on Wednesday joined an increasing number of foreign institutions that have lowered their expectations for China’s economic growth due to the country’s worse-than-expected economic data in April.

  The investment bank said in a research note that it cut its forecast for China’s 2013 GDP growth to 7.6 percent from its previous 7.8 percent estimate.

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