Trade War to Pop Hong Kong Property Bubble

The sky could be falling in on the Hong Kong property market

The trade war leads the way in Mingtiandi’s roundup of Asia real estate news today with economists predicting a possible tumble in the world’s least affordable housing market, while Singapore slashes the supply of private residential housing.

In other news around the region, a ratings agency warns that mainland developers could be exposed by snowballing maturities, and an India listings portal receives a funding injection of $51 million, while new rankings are released for Asia’s most business-friendly destinations.

Trade War to Pop Hong Kong Property Bubble

Record high home prices in Hong Kong have prompted some economists to forecast a bursting of the bubble.

Residential property values in the city reached an all-time high last week after relentless gains over the past three months. However with Hong Kong exposed to the trade war between China and the US and the city’s stock market taking a hit, analysts say the likelihood of home prices declining is even greater now. Read more>>

SG Govt Cuts Private Homes Supply By 15%

The Government has cut the supply of private residential housing from confirmed sites under the government land sales (GLS) programme for the second half of 2019, due to a drop in demand after property cooling measures and a large supply in the pipeline.

Five confirmed list sites and eight reserve list sites that can yield about 6,430 private homes, 92,000 square metres gross floor area (GFA) of commercial space and 1,100 hotel rooms were released, the Ministry of National Development (MND) said in an announcement on Thursday morning (June 6). Read more>>

US Data Centre–Mitsubishi JV Acquires 5 Acre Tokyo Land Parcel

Digital Realty (NYSE: DLR), a leading global provider of data center, colocation and interconnection solutions, announced today that MC Digital Realty, a 50/50 joint venture between Mitsubishi Corporation and Digital Realty, has closed on the acquisition of a five-acre land parcel in Tokyo.

The site is located at the centre of the Inzai data center cluster, one of highest-density areas in Japan with well-established utility and connectivity infrastructure, and home to leading global cloud providers and financial institutions. Read more>>

India Property Listings Portal Raises $51M

Realty portal NoBroker.com has raised USD 51 million from investors, including General Atlantic, for business expansion. This is the Series C Funding. NoBroker has raised USD 71 million so far.

“The round was led by General Atlantic and included participation from existing investors SAIF Partners and BEENEXT,” the company said in a statement. Read more>>

S&P Says Snowballing Maturities Leave Mainland Developers Exposed

The rush by Chinese real estate developers to rebuild their land banks during the recent property revival could expose those with weaker capital positions to problems as bond repayments come due, S&P Global Ratings said in a research note on Wednesday.

The rating agency said it was most concerned about real estate companies with thin land reserves, as these groups have been active in building up reserves in step with the rising market since March. Read more>>

China Clamps Down on Access to Funding to Cool Land Prices

Chinese authorities are taking fresh steps to cool the property market, curtailing onshore fundraising for developers found to have bid aggressively in land auctions.

The curbs have affected companies including Sunac China Holdings Ltd and Gemdale Corp, said people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named. Read more>>

CDL Hospitality Trusts Renews Lease on Auckland Hotel

A unit of mainboard-listed CDL Hospitality Trusts (CDLHT) has renewed its lease on a New Zealand hotel for another three years with the lessee, Hospitality Services.

CDLHT – a stapled group comprising CDL Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust (CDL H-Reit) and CDL Hospitality Business Trust – said in a bourse filing on Thursday morning that CDL H-Reit’s wholly owned subsidiary, CDLHT (BVI) One, as lessor, renewed the deed of lease on Grand Millennium Auckland with the lessee. Read more>>

HK Less Business-Friendly Than Thailand, S Korea, Japan

Hong Kong is the fourth easiest place to do business in Asia, behind Thailand, South Korea and Japan, as compliance requirements has made the city less friendly to companies than before, according to a report by TMF Group, a global administrative services firm.

But for mainland businesses looking to enter the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong can still play a role in helping them to reduce compliance complexity and costs, it said. Read more>>

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