China’s new home prices are drifting upward in January
China’s relaxation of home purchase restrictions has spread into the country’s wealthiest markets in recent weeks and average home prices are already starting to drift upward, with that story leading Mingtiandi’s headline roundup today. SGX-listed Daiwa House Logistics Trust also makes the list with its acquisition of a warehouse near Tokyo and Country Garden hires Knight Frank to market its $570 million London project.
China New Home Prices Rise at Fastest Pace in Nearly 2½ Years
China’s new home prices rose in January at the fastest monthly pace in nearly two and a half years, according to a survey released on Thursday, following a slew of government support measures and expectations of further relaxation in home buying policies.
Average prices across 100 cities grew for a fifth consecutive month, with January’s monthly gain of 0.15 percent outpacing the 0.1 percent increase in December, according to Chinese real estate research firm China Index Academy. It was the fastest rise since a 0.2 percent gain in August 2021. Read more>>
Daiwa House Logistics Trust to Acquire Greater Tokyo Warehouse
Daiwa House Logistics Trust has entered into an agreement to acquire a two-storey warehouse near Tokyo for JPY 2.6 billion ($17.7 million) from its sponsor, Daiwa House Industry.
The consideration for the distribution centre in Ibaraki prefecture is 18.1 percent less than the average of two independent valuations of the property — which was JPY 3.2 billion — and the move shows support from the sponsor, the trust’s manager said in a bourse filing on Wednesday. Read more>>
China’s Country Garden Marketing $570M London Development
Chinese developer Country Garden has put its £450 million ($570 million) residential development in East London up for sale as it presses ahead with asset disposals at home and overseas after defaulting on its offshore debt.
Property agent Knight Frank said it had been appointed by Risland UK, a subsidiary of Country Garden, to market the 1,000-home Calico Wharf development, where construction has yet to start, in the Poplar area of the city. Read more>>
Evergrande Founder’s Unsold Mansion Shows Struggle to Sell Off Assets
If the lack of buyers for a prime office tower and a mansion in Hong Kong are any guide, China Evergrande’s liquidators are in for a long road ahead.
Alvarez & Marsal, the company chosen this week to unwind the fallen Chinese developer, is still trying to sell Evergrande’s $1.6 billion former Hong Kong headquarters building after it was seized in separate proceedings in 2022. A luxury house formerly owned by Evergrande founder Xu Jiayin remains on the market after a foreclosure that year. Read more>>
Hong Kong ‘Underwater Mortgage’ Levels Surge to Two-Decade High
“Underwater mortgage” levels in Hong Kong surged to a two-decade high amid a prolonged slump in what is forecast to be one of the world’s worst property markets this year.
The value of negative-equity loans jumped to HK$131.3 billion ($16.7 billion) as of the end of December, up from HK$59.3 billion in September and the highest level since 2003, according to Hong Kong Monetary Authority statistics released Wednesday. Read more>>
EC World REIT Seeks Legal Action Against Sponsor in China
The manager of EC World REIT said the group is initiating legal action to push for the discharge of illegal mortgages.
It noted that the illegal mortgages imposed over Fuzhou E-Commerce and Fuheng Warehouse had not been discharged as of Thursday, as the sponsor Forchn is still exploring various options to discharge the mortgages. Read more>>
China Kicks Off ‘Whitelist’ Real Estate Funding Programme
China has started its so-called whitelist property financing programme, by sending the names of the first recommended projects still under development to banks in an effort to match loans with cash-strapped projects.
The first batch of names included 107 projects in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and 314 in Chongqing. The names were collected and examined by the local governments and the whitelists sent to about 50 banks for consideration, with the first loan already made to a project in Nanning, the capital of Guangxi, according to a Securities Times report. Read more>>
China Rolls Out Fresh Property Relief Measures to Stem Evergrande Fallout
Policymakers in China have rolled out new measures to guard the property sector against the fallout from the collapse of developer Evergrande, which a Hong Kong court ordered to liquidate this week.
Beijing announced its latest real estate “cure kit”, which includes a new loan worth RMB 330 million ($46 million) to a state-backed development as part of the government’s newly introduced “project whitelist” mechanism, China state media reported Wednesday. Read more>>
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