Ziroom Pulls Listings for 20,000 Rental Homes and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

China’s nascent rental housing market hits the news again today as leading rental operator Ziroom pulls down 20,000 recent home listings over formaldehyde concerns.

Singapore’s ARA Asset Management also gets some ink as it searches for bargains in Malaysia and the chances for a ski holiday may be growing in Shanghai. Read on for all these stories and more in today’s headline roundup.

Ziroom Pulls Listings for 20,000 Rental Homes

Ziroom Shunguo Asset Management, whose long-term rentals platform is under fire after a tenant died from exposure to formaldehyde, has delisted 20,603 first-time rentals for air testing and treatments.

The Beijing-based firm took down the newly-remodeled listings, spanning nine cities, on Sept. 1 and has been working with 62 agencies approved to carry out China Metrology Accreditation tests, state-backed news outlet The Paper reported today, citing a company statement. Ziroom is testing as many as 1,147 properties a day, the report added. Read more>>

ARA May Be Shopping for Malaysian Assets

ARA Asset Management Ltd would consider acquiring retail, commercial and logistics properties in Malaysia, its chief executive officer for Malaysia Thomas Kong said, adding that these properties would have the potential to generate attractive and stable returns within a three- to five-year time frame.

This is in line with the fund manager’s plan to grow its global assets under management to S$100 billion (RM301 billion) from S$77.2 billion as at June 1, 2018. Today, ARA manages 11 real estate investment trusts (REITs) across four jurisdictions. Read more>>

Country Garden Says Forest City Too Pricey for Malaysians

Publicly, Country Garden Pacificview (CGPV) Sdn Bhd is only willing to say that its Forest City project complies with the rules and regulations but privately, its official admits that the real estate there is too expensive for Malaysians, according to a report by the Washington Post.

The report quoted a CGPV official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as saying that Malaysia does not want to see “the Chinese taking over Malaysian land”. Read more>>

Secoo in Omni-Channel Retail Partnership with Sasseur

NASDAQ-listed online luxury platform Secoo Holding Limited announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Strategic Partnership with SASSEUR Group, a leading operator of outlet malls in Asia.

Building on this strategic, durable and comprehensive partnership, both parties will leverage respective resources and expertise to drive the exceptional growth of omni-channel retail networks, boost both companies’ growing and leading market presence in the respective field and jointly explore new business initiatives to offer superior luxury shopping experience for consumers in China. Read more>>

Landing Chairman Still MIA After Cambodia Arrest

Casino resort investor Landing International Development Ltd says it still can’t reach the firm’s chairman, Yang Zhihui. The Hong Kong-listed firm said in an August filing that it had been “unable to contact or reach” Mr Yang since August 23.

“There is still no update on Mr Yang’s whereabouts,” a spokesperson from Landing International said on Monday in an emailed reply to GGRAsia. In August’s filing, the company gave no reasoning for its assertion that the absence of Mr Yang would be temporary. Read more>>

Shanghai Set to Host World’s Largest Indoor Ski Hill

China’s latest import is snow. From Dubai.

Well, not quite. Dubai-based retail giant Majid Al Futtaim — the company behind Ski Dubai, the Middle East’s first indoor ski slope — has announced it is helping develop what it claims will be the world’s largest indoor snow and ski resort for Shanghai.

The company says the snow park, called Wintastar Shanghai, will be 90,000 square meters (nearly 1 million square feet) — or more than three times the size of Ski Dubai, the largest indoor ski resort in the world when it opened in 2005. Read more>>

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