In today’s roundup of regional news headlines, Li Ka-shing’s CK Hutchison closes a Watsons shop in Tsim Sha Tsui as Hong Kong tourism dries up, Singapore’s Mapletree acquires a bottling plant in the southern US, and momentum builds for a collective sale of the GB Building in the city-state’s downtown.
Watsons Closes Shop in Tsim Sha Tsui After 20 Years
Personal health care chain Watsons said it will close its shop in one of Hong Kong’s major tourist locations on Thursday after leasing it for two decades, a sign of the retail industry’s struggle to survive a near-total absence of visitors during the pandemic.
Watsons, owned by tycoon Li Ka-shing’s CK Hutchison Holdings, said the closure of its large store at Star House in Tsim Sha Tsui, a popular shopping destination, was because the pandemic had “severely affected the local economy and customers’ lifestyles”. Read more>>
Mapletree Acquires North Carolina Industrial Asset for $32M
A local bottling plant near Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina, fetched a $32 million price this week, thanks to a real estate investment firm controlled by Singapore’s Temasek Holdings.
The US arm of Mapletree Investments bought the Refresco plant at 4843 International Boulevard in the city of Wilson, according to a deed filed Monday. Read more>>
Cecil Street Strata Owners Eye Collective Sale in Singapore
Some subsidiary proprietors of the GB Building, located at 143 Cecil Street in Singapore’s central business district, are aiming for a collective sale of the commercial development.
A collective sale committee was appointed earlier this year to start the process, said mainboard-listed property developer and investor Chuan Hup Holdings, whose wholly owned subsidiary Provest Realty owns three floors in the building. Read more>>
Singapore New Private Home Sales Down 32% in September
New private home sales continued to ease in September after August’s drop. Based on caveats lodged, analysts estimated that developers in Singapore sold 823 new private homes in September, down 32 percent from August’s 1,215 units.
Comparing year-on-year, the estimates are 38.1 percent lower than the 1,329 new private homes sold in September 2020. Read more>>
CK Asset, Henderson Set to Launch Projects in HK’s Northern Metropolis
CK Asset Holdings and Henderson Land Development are likely to see huge interest in their upcoming projects in the northern New Territories, as investors bet on an improvement in infrastructure in the area after the announcement of the proposed Northern Metropolis.
The two projects will provide close to 2,000 units in Hung Shui Kui and Fanling, close to the mainland border, which come under Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s Northern Metropolis plan that aims to have 2.5 million residents within 20 years. It will also include a “Silicon Valley” that will closely interact with neighbouring Shenzhen. Read more>>
MNC Land, Infokom Agree to Data Centre Project South of Jakarta
MNC Land has signed a deal with Infokom to build a data centre in a new resort city south of Jakarta.
MNC Land is the development unit of Indonesian conglomerate MNC Group. Located to the south of Bogor in West Java, Lido City is an MNC project to create a large tourist and resort destination in Indonesia that will include hotels, theme parks, a golf course and other attractions. Read more>>
Hong Kong Govt Won’t Set Minimum Size for Homes Until Next Year
A minimum size for private homes in Hong Kong could be set at slightly bigger than 210 square feet (19.5 square metres) next year at the earliest, Secretary for Development Michael Wong said.
Authorities are mulling a new requirement for private residential plots in the future to stop developers from building “nano flats”, aka super-small studio flats. Read more>>
Chinese Media Warns of Weakening Housing Market
China’s property market faces pressure in the fourth quarter as the authorities continue to tighten controls, the state-run China Securities Journal reported, citing research institutions.
Most developers are more cautious about bidding to buy land in the second half of the year, amid a grim outlook for financing and falling profit margins, the newspaper reported, citing a research note by CSC Financial Co. Read more>>
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