WeWork has only closed two of its North America locations so far
A US co-working giant leads the way in Mingtiandi’s roundup of Asia real estate headlines today with the news that the company is offering $100-a-day bonuses to lure staff back to its US locations, despite the ongoing pandemic.
In other news around the region, the value of Asia’s REITs have taken a big hit as the mass sell-off of stocks continues, while mainland China’s housing market is showing signs of continued stress.
Elsewhere, shopping malls in Singapore are offering free parking to tempt shoppers back into its shops.
WeWork Offers Staff $100-a-day Virus Bonus to Man Locations
As of Tuesday, WeWork’s website said that only two of its co-working offices in North America were closed and that none were closed in Europe.
The last public communication about the virus from the company to its customers, which include freelancers, small businesses and large corporations like Amazon, was 12 days ago, in which it listed the precautions it was taking. WeWork has allowed employees who normally staff its locations to work from home, but this week it started to entice some to go in with $100-a-day bonuses, according to an internal memo reviewed by The New York Times. Read more>>
Asia REITs Drop 44% in Value as Market Rout Continues
Real estate investment trusts are losing their appeal as a defensive investment amid the coronavirus pandemic that is keeping consumers at home and causing economic activity to pause.
Asian REITs have slumped by 43.8 percent this year through March 19, according to Bloomberg data, while the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index has shed 27.8 per cent. Read more>>
China Housing Market Shows Signs of Deterioration
China’s $43 trillion property sector, the backbone of the economy, is showing signs of deterioration even as Beijing attempts to kick-start growth after the coronavirus outbreak.
Beijing wants to revive economic growth following one of its worst periods since the Cultural Revolution, which ended in the 1970s. Mass quarantines and the restricted movement for hundreds of millions of people have caused important economic indicators such as industrial output and retail sales to contract at record rates this year. Read more>>
Thakral Corp Raises S$5.8M from Sale of Japan Property
Singapore-listed Thakral Corporation raised S$5.8 million ($4 million) from the sale of its retail building in Japan, the group said in a regulatory update on Tuesday.
The divestment of the 6,588 square foot (612 square metre) Nambanaka Thakral Building in Osaka reaped a net profit of about S$300,000 as at Dec 31, 2019 and a profit of about S$6.1 million from its original acquisition and development cost. Read more>>
China Developers Turn to TikTok to Sell Property During Pandemic
China’s biggest property developers are hurting from one catastrophe or another. First, it was a slowdown in the country’s economy, and now, it is the Covid-19 pandemic.
Modern Land (China), however, is hoping to “sing” its way through the crunch. The Beijing-based builder is live-streaming its sales pitches into the living rooms of prospective buyers, some in cities under lockdown in the central Hubei province, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak. Read more>>
HNA Group Warns of Impact on Overseas Hotels Amid Pandemic
China’s HNA Group on Tuesday warned of the impact from the coronavirus pandemic on its overseas subsidiaries, adding that most of them had enough cashflows to cope with the impact over the short term.
But some aviation firms and hotels it owns are heavily affected, the conglomerate said in a statement on its official social media account, but they are proactively applying for support from their respective countries and local governments and have yet raised requests for help with the group. Read more>>
Singapore Shopping Malls Offer Free Parking to Lure Back Shoppers
With stay-home notices and work-from-home arrangements, shopping malls are suffering even more than they had been already as a result of the shift to online shopping.
To encourage shoppers to continue visiting malls, many shopping malls have announced free parking promotions, valid until further notice. Read more>>
Tune in again tomorrow for more news, and be sure to follow @Mingtiandi on Twitter, or bookmark Mingtiandi’s LinkedIn page for headlines as they happen.
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