Capsule apartments being designed for China's poor
Wen Jiao, a 22-year-old unemployed Chinese, who is waiting for a breakthrough in her music career, lives in cramped quarters on the outskirts of Beijing.This two-m-sq capsule apartment, which can only fit her bed and her laptop, is all Wen could afford, as monthly rent is just 250 yuan, or...
Continue Reading • 3 May 2010
Cage home rents in HK exceed luxury condos
The so-called “cage men” in Hong Kong may be among the city’s poorest, but rents per square foot for their dingy wire-mesh cubicles are now on the same level with luxury flats in HK’s famed Peak district.With property prices in HK increasing and urban redevelopment...
Continue Reading • 30 Apr 2010
Expo boosts Shanghai's dream of becoming world financial hub by 2020
Shanghai has commissioned a new landmark to be revealed during the World Expo, which will capture the city’s rising global ambitions – a replica of Wall Street's “Charging Bull”.The sculpture on Shanghai’s historic Bund riverfront is proposed to have a more vibrant...
Continue Reading • 26 Apr 2010
Guocoland plans to double property investment in China
Guocoland Ltd, a Singapore-based property developer, plans to double its investment in the China property market to more than US$9 billion on confidence that government’s efforts to lift property bubble will work.Guocoland, whose projects include apartments, hotels, shopping malls and...
Continue Reading • 23 Apr 2010
Property demand in China remains strong, says HSBC
Property demand in China is likely to remain strong in spite of the central government’s implementation of tighter measures to curb property prices, said Richard Yorke, head of HSBC Holdings plc for China operations.“The strength of the demand story in the medium term remains...
Continue Reading • 21 Apr 2010
AustraLand acquires Northshore Hamilton land site
AustraLand, CapitaLand's Australian unit, has purchased a 1.8 hectare land parcel at a site in Northshore Hamilton in Queensland, Australia.The acquisition price will be a combination of an upfront payment worth US$11.1 million and a revenue share through the life of the project.The purchase...
Continue Reading • 15 Apr 2010
Housing market weakness a small factor in US inflation drop
The drop in the US inflation rate since mid 2008 is not just a narrow indication of a housing market weakness, but a sign of a broad economic slack, according to several economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.The result came as Fed policy-makers consider how much longer the...
Continue Reading • 7 Apr 2010
Ascott launches Somerset Riverview, Chengdu
The Ascott Limited, a listed serviced residence unit of CapitaLand, yesterday launched a new property in China called the Somerset Riverview, Chengdu.Acquired through the Ascott China Fund, the 200-unit development will begin its operations this month. It will increase Ascott's portfolio in the...
Continue Reading • 6 Apr 2010
Indonesia now allows foreigners to own a property
Indonesia will now allow foreign buyers to purchase property in the country and own bigger shares in health-care firms, as it completes a review of investment rules, according to the country's investment coordination agency.Gita Wirjawan, chairman of the Investment Coordination Board of...
Continue Reading • 1 Apr 2010
Ascott wins contract to manage serviced residence in Vietnam's fourth largest city
The Ascott, a wholly-owned serviced residence business unit of CapitaLand, said that it has won a contract to manage a serviced residence in Danang, the fourth largest city in Vietnam.The contract was awarded by the Korea Investment and Development Company, a property group that specializes in...
Continue Reading • 30 Mar 2010
Mapletree acquires industrial property in Tokyo
Mapletree Investments has acquired IXINAL Monzen-Nakacho Building, an industrial property in Tokyo, from Itochu Corp, Japan.The property is a five-storey light industrial building that houses an operations cum data centre, information systems development and corporate headquarters.However,...
Continue Reading • 30 Mar 2010
US home sales drop in February
Sales of previously owned US homes dropped slightly in February, based on a report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Sales fell 0.6 percent month-over-month to an annual rate of 5.02 million units, the sales’ third straight month of decline, according to the trade group....
Continue Reading • 24 Mar 2010
Australian office sector to recover next year, says JLL
Vacancy rates of office space in Australia are likely to grow further due to new supply and should peak by the last quarter of the year, setting a stage of recovery in 2011, according to research conducted by Jones Lang LaSalle.Office property yields peaked at 7.78 percent during the third...
Continue Reading • 23 Mar 2010
Real estate is China's modern-day god of fortune
Zhou Yafen, 59, a retiree, saw crowds “rushing madly to buy apartments” in Hainan province a day after the government announced its plan to transform the island into a world-class tourism paradise.“Property prices shot up like an arrow,” she said. She owns a 125-sq-m flat...
Continue Reading • 22 Mar 2010
HK listed firm to buy luxury house for near-record price
A Hong Kong listed firm said it plans to purchase a luxury house for a near-record price in the city, a month after the HK government introduced measures to cool the city's property market.According to the electronics components maker Sino-tech International Holdings, it has agreed to acquire the...
Continue Reading • 19 Mar 2010
Henderson introduces property equity funds in China
Henderson Global Investors, an independent asset management firm with US$93.8 billion worth of assets as of end-2009, is introducing a set of property equity funds in China.Citibank China will exclusively distribute the Henderson Horizon Global Property Equities Fund, Henderson Horizon Pan...
Continue Reading • 11 Mar 2010
Thailand will not renew property tax breaks
Thailand will not renew its real estate tax breaks after they expire at the end of March, as developers are returning to normal profit levels and the economy is recovering.According to officials, the incentives, including a cut in the mortgage registration fee, a reduction in the real estate...
Continue Reading • 5 Mar 2010
Australian property sales hit a record A$1.03bn
Prices of Australian properties have seen a robust increase and show no signs of abating, said some analysts, after the weekly sales in one state hit a record A$1.03 billion (S$1.3 billion). According to the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, “the largest dollar volume of transactions ever...
Continue Reading • 2 Mar 2010
Chinese Premier vows to make housing more affordable
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said he is committed to taming the “wild horse” of the escalating housing market in China, and maintain prices at an affordable level during his term as Premier.Mr. Wen made his promise after several netizens complained about the increasing housing prices...
Continue Reading • 1 Mar 2010
Lower gearing provides MRCB more chances to acquire land in Malaysia
The lower gearing of Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd (MRCB) has provided more chances to acquire a new land bank for future growth, according to Kenanga Research.“The successful rights issue, which raised RM514 million (S$212.7 million), lowered net gearing to 0.3 times from 1.25 times....
Continue Reading • 25 Feb 2010