China's largest banks have not stopped making new loans to property developers but are keeping such loans at low levels, executives from some of the lenders said yesterday to refute a report in a state-run newspaper. Chinese banks have been facing additional scrutiny over loans to the property sector because existing government measures have had a limited impact on cooling the overheated domestic...
Overseas Property
Overseas properties may offer good returns but risks abound Signs of a slowdown in Singapore home sales showed in both the number of primary and secondary transactions following the Government's announcement of property market cooling measures on Aug 30. The number of developers' sales, subsales and resales fell by about 28 per cent, 52 per cent and 42 per cent, respectively, in September from the...
Singapore and Hong Kong have emerged as the top two preferred property investment markets in Asia. That's according to property consultant Colliers International's "Global Investor Sentiment Survey" for the third quarter of this year. The survey found 70 per cent of the investors are only interested in their own domestic market when looking to expand their real-estate portfolio. The remaining 30 per...
The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) and a Canadian pension fund could reportedly make a bid for Bluewater, a British mall. The Sunday Telegraph reported that GIC, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the property arm of Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System were all expected to table a bid within the next two weeks. The stake is estimated to be worth 120 million pounds, the...
The Ascott has opened three new properties in China, targeting to operate 12,000 apartment units there by 2015. The 605 new units in three cities of Tianjin, Wuhan and Xi'an will bring to more than 6,300 the number of apartments Ascott has in 34 properties across 15 cities in China. Ascott said the expansion strategy is underlined by China's rapid development and high foreign investment, which are making...
Beijing's latest move on Sunday to charge higher mortgage rates for first time home buyers may not be enough to curb the country's huge appetite for real estate investments, an analyst told CNBC on Monday. "Even with the increase in mortgage (rates), those rising costs are not even keeping pace with the rise in inflation in China, which means the real interest rate that households are looking at — the...
Property developer Keppel Land has sold more than 90 per cent of the 220 units released during the soft launch of its Seasons Park residential development in the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City. Seasons Park, comprising a total of 1,672 residences, is the first collection of eco-homes to be launched in the Keppel development in China. The average price achieved was about 11,000 renminbi or S$2,124 per...
Malaysia's central bank will clamp down on any speculation that threatens to create a property bubble, the central bank chief said yesterday. Governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz said the central bank wanted to promote house ownership but that it had "wide ranging instruments" to deal with any excesses in the sector. "For first time house owners and perhaps even the second one, any new rules would not apply. It...
Two Singapore property companies CapitaLand and Keppel Land are investing some US$218 million in the real estate market in Vietnam. CapitaLand signed a joint venture agreement with Vietnamese partner No Va Land Investment Group to develop a 9,000 square metre residential site, worth US$40 million in Ho Chi Minh City. Keppel Land signed two joint venture agreements. The first is to jointly develop a 9.8...
Hong Kong luxury home prices have exceeded the previous peak of 1997, fuelling speculation the government may introduce further steps to prevent the housing bubble from bursting. Prices of apartments with an area of at least 100 sqm (1,076 sq ft) are 13.8 per cent higher than in the third quarter of 1997, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)said in a slide presentation posted on its website on...