Wing Tai Awarded Singapore Site for S$492M and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

With mainland China and Hong Kong taking a break to honour the dear departed on Friday, stories from Singapore and Australia push their way to the top of Asia’s real estate news. In the Lion City, the government has chosen a winner of the tender of a site near the Bugis area, while a local unit of mainland developer China Poly picks up a residential site in Brisbane. Also in Australia, a tighter funding environment is said to be behind a Sydney developer’s decision to sell to Guangzhou-based Aoyuan, and there are still more stories awaiting you further down the page.

Wing Tai Holdings Awarded SG Site After S$492M Bid

Wing Tai Holdings’ Wingcharm Investment Pte Ltd won a state tender for a 99-year leasehold site on Singapore’s Middle Road with its nearly S$492 million bid. The site is zoned for private residential with commercial at first storey use, with Wing Tai’s offer beating out nine others.

Spanning over 80,000 square feet, the site will be developed into two 20-storey residential towers and one block of low rise residences atop a row of commercial units, said Wing Tai on Friday. Read more>>

Poly Australia Buys Brisbane Site for A$36.5M

Developer Poly Australia has secured its first acquisition in Queensland, a 6.2-hectare corner site in Ascot, Brisbane for $36.5 million.

The project will be Poly Australia’s first development outside of NSW and Victoria since the international developer arrived in Australia in early 2015. Read more>>

China Aoyuan Acquires Sydney Developer for A$200M

China Aoyuan Group Ltd.’s Aoyuan International Investment Group subsidiary is buying a majority shareholding in Sydney-based developer Capital Bluestone under an approximately A$200 million deal, The Australian Financial Review reported.

As part of the deal, Aoyuan International will gain six Capital Bluestone residential developments, including the Woolooware Bay Town Centre and the Cronulla Sutherland Leagues Club in Sydney. According to the April 3 report, it will boost the residential footprint of the Hong Kong-listed developer’s international arm by approximately A$2 billion. Read more>>

Hong Kong Developers to Limit Tender Sales of New Flats After Uproar

The industry body for Hong Kong’s property developers said its members would from now on ensure that 20 per cent of flats in a new project are sold on the open market, as the government warned it could take action against those that sell through tender.

Lawmakers have slammed developers for the increasingly widespread and “unfair” practice of selling new flats through tender, a marketing tactic they claim puts the buyer at a disadvantage. And they were quick to criticise Thursday’s decision by the Real Estate Developers Association (REDA) for not going far enough. Read more>>

India’s OYO Hotels Kicks Off Japan Operations After Softbank Deal

After announcing the launch of OYO Life in Japan through a joint venture with Yahoo! JAPAN, Oyo on Thursday announced that it had started its hotel operations in Japan through a joint venture with Tokyo-based Softbank Corp and Softbank Vision fund. This joint venture forms OYO Hotels Japan.

Ken Miyauchi, President and CEO of SoftBank Corp, said in a press statement, “Combining OYO’s most advanced business model with SoftBank’s knowledge of the Japanese market, we will provide a brand new hotel experience to travellers in Japan.” Read more>>

Frasers Property Singapore to Sell S$400M in Perpetuals

Frasers Property plans to sell $400 million of 4.98 per cent subordinated perpetual securities with a five-year reset under its S$5 billion multicurrency programme.

The securities will be issued at 100 per cent of the nominal amount by Frasers Property Treasury, a wholly owned subsidiary of the listed real estate developer. Read more>>

Marriott to Add 100 APAC Hotels This Year

Marriott International is ramping up its presence in Asia-Pacific as it targets 1,000 properties in the region by 2020, with the US hotel operator identifying China, India and Southeast Asia as its growth drivers.

This year alone, the company expects to add about 100 new hotels or close to 20,000 rooms in the region. Marriott said it is well positioned to capitalise on global travel trends in China, India and Indonesia, three of the world’s four most populated nations. Read more>>

Mortgages Still Dominate Mainland Lending Despite Policy Crackdown

Despite Beijing’s push for state-owned banks to lend more to private companies, half of new loans issued by China’s big six banks last year went to individual property buyers.

Data retrieved through a South China Morning Post analysis of the banks’ reported annual results underscores the challenges faced by Beijing in guiding more money into the real economy, amid mounting worries about higher household debt and a new housing bubble. Read more>>

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