Property News

The prices of China’s newly built homes declined at a slower rate in December, offering a bit of relief to dozens of property developers that are struggling with a cash crunch and mounting debt.The average price of new homes across 70 cities fell by 0.28 per cent in December from a month earlier, a […]

The chill sweeping through China’s housing market is being felt in Shenzhen, China’s Silicon Valley. There are few takers for houses in the once red-hot market as buyers are watching from the sidelines since the start of this year.The 353-unit Shangjing, the year’s first launch on January 2, has been the biggest flop. The […]

China’s crushing “three red lines” policy against home developers continues to claim new victims as Yuzhou Group turned to creditors for forbearance on more than US$5 billion of debt from years of unrestrained offshore borrowing.The group is offering sweeteners to bondholders to delay repayment by a year on two dollar-denominated bonds worth US$582 million […]

Hong Kong’s biggest developers continue to buy prime land sites in top-tier cities in mainland China, as they take advantage of the general malaise among competitors that are struggling to survive an unprecedented debt load in the industry.Kerry Properties, controlled by the Malaysian billionaire Robert Kuok, paid 13.3 billion yuan (US$2.1 billion) for four […]

Heavily indebted developer China Evergrande Group has moved from its previous headquarters in Shenzhen to its own property, in an attempt to save costs as it battles a financial crisis.The company’s logo on the building where it was previously housed was seen being taken down on Monday.“To save costs, [Evergrande] went through lease cancellation […]

Beijing’s loan limit for real estate companies, widely known as the “three red lines”, which has pushed many developers to the brink, has been partially relaxed, according to a report by a state-backed media outlet. Shares of property firms rose in Hong Kong.Analysts, however, said they do not expect an immediate impact on the […]

A Shanghai construction materials supplier with links to the Shimao Group has defaulted on a US$101m project loan guaranteed by the Hong Kong-listed group, adding to its recent debt burden.Shanghai Shimao Construction Company failed to repay the proceeds as a guarantor for a project that raised funds for Shanghai Qianyi Construction Materials Company, according […]

Guangzhou R&F Properties said it may not be able to sell assets in time to buy back some of its offshore bonds, as one of China’s largest and most indebted developers struggles to meet its debt obligations amid a sinking real estate market.The actual amount of funds that can be received from selling certain […]

The crackdown on real estate ordered by Xi Jinping is putting growing pressure on local governments and many companies Source : ft.com Read more…China economy: the fallout from the Evergrande crisis

China’s property tax could be another casualty of the slump in the housing market, with analysts expecting the government to hold off on expanding trials of the levy because of a real estate-led economic slowdown.In October last year, China’s parliament authorised the limited property tax in Shanghai and Chongqing be expanded to more cities, […]

Heavily indebted developer China Evergrande Group will ask its local bondholders to delay an option where they can demand an early repayment of the firm’s yuan-denominated notes.Hengda Real Estate, China Evergrande’s mainland Chinese unit, said it will hold an online meeting with bondholders between January 7 and 10 to vote on proposals concerning a […]

China Evergrande Group, the world’s most indebted developer, was last week ordered to demolish 39 buildings on Ocean Flower Island, a project comprising three man-made islands developed by the company in China’s southern Hainan province, within 10 days.The order, issued by the Danzhou Municipal People’s Government on December 30, states that an illegally obtained […]

China Evergrande Group said it would abide by a government instruction to demolish more than three dozen structures on one of its flagship property projects in Hainan for breaching building approval procedures, as the woes pile up for the country’s most indebted developer.The Shenzhen-based developer will tear down 39 buildings on plot 2-14-1 on […]

Transactions may return to China’s housing market in 2022, most noticeably in the country’s four first-tier tentpole cities, as relaxations in both monetary policy and market-dampening measures attract genuine buyers to re-enter the fray.Median home prices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen may rise by no more than 5 per cent – the level […]

Last year has no doubt been difficult for Chinese developers and the pain could get worse in the new year for companies, homebuyers and investors alike. A liquidity crunch amid slowing home sales are likely to dominate sentiment.China Evergrande, Kaisa Group, Fantasia Holdings and Modern Land (China) all made headlines over their failure to […]

Hui Ka-yan, the founder and chairman of heavily-indebted developer China Evergrande Group, is trying to rally his employees and deliver more homes as the year comes to a close.At a weekly meeting with company executives on Sunday, the 63-year-old billionaire said all employees will be required to not “lie flat” – a buzzword in […]

Ratings moves come as turmoil in property sector threatens economic growth Source : ft.com Read more…China developers hit by record downgrades after Evergrande crisis

Cash-rich Hong Kong companies are increasingly snapping up prime land on the mainland, which used to be few and far between until recently, as their Chinese rivals weighed down by debtavoid taking part in land sales.Shui On Land, the flagship property company of the Hong Kong-based Shui On Group, bought three residential parcels in […]

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Mainland Properties index loses as much as 5 per cent Source : ft.com Read more…China easing fails to calm Evergrande jitters in property sector

China’s new home prices recorded their biggest month-on-month decline in more than six years in November, amid declining sales and a liquidity crunch in the property sector.The average price for 70 cities tracked by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) fell 0.3 per cent last month from October for their sharpest decline since a […]

New home prices decline at steepest rate since 2015 while retail sales come in below forecasts Source : ft.com Read more…China struggles to shrug off weak consumer spending and property woes

A third of firms plan to reduce exposure to sector as developer’s default reverberates through market Source : ft.com Read more…Private equity cuts back on China property as Evergrande hits stocks

Lui Che-woo, one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest men with a casino, hotels and apartments under his belt, met his match in late 2016 when his company K Wah International lost a bidding war to a Chinese airline that was on a land grab in the world’s most expensive real estate market.The HNA Group, a […]

Embattled Chinese property developer China Evergrande Group and Kaisa Group Holdings have been downgraded to “restricted default” by international rating agency Fitch Ratings.The downgrade on Thursday comes after several attempts by China Evergrande, the world’s most indebted developer, to stave off such an event through last-minute bond payments a couple of times over the […]

Also, lockdowns vs stimulus cheques Source : ft.com Read more…Will China have to loosen policy?

Central bank loosens policy as world’s most indebted developer faces imminent default Source : ft.com Read more…China property stocks rise as Beijing tries to ease Evergrande turmoil

All eyes are once again on embattled Chinese developers, as they face bond repayment deadlines on Tuesday.Investors will be closely watching if China Evergrande Group, the mainland’s most indebted developer, will officially default on its public debt for the first time and whether it will be joined by another highly leveraged peer, Kaisa Group […]

The debt crisis affecting Chinese developers, which has reduced the bidding frenzy at land auctions in the mainland, has given a Hong Kong property firm an opportunity to acquire a prime parcel.On Tuesday, Hong Kong conglomerate HKR International won a prime residential site in Shanghai with a bid of 830.4 million yuan (US$130.4 million), […]

China’s beleaguered housing market is showing signs of life after banks made it easier for buyers to get their mortgages approved.New homes covering a total area of 12 billion square metres (129 billion square feet) in 42 major cities were sold in the first 20 days of November, 12 per cent more than in […]

This is the third in a three-part series looking at the potential impact of China’s proposed property tax law.Computer programmer Zheng Wenxuan has two flats in Beijing – one for his own family and one for his parents who moved from their hometown in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang.The 42-year-old spends 25,000 yuan (US$3,900) […]

Evergrande’s missed payments have led to a reckoning across the country’s real estate industry Source : ft.com Read more…China property bond fears remain as house prices fall

This is the second in a three-part series looking at the potential impact of China’s proposed property tax law.On the fourth Friday of every month, 30-year-old Ding Xunan makes a nearly 20-hour train journey of over 1,700km from Shenzhen in southern China to Pingdingshan, a prefecture-level city in the central Chinese province of Henan […]

Cash-strapped Chinese developers are trying to appease investors with partial repayments to win some more time.But with a bunch of deadlines looming, they are not out of the woods yet. Beijing’s “three red lines” have made it more difficult for such overleveraged developers to obtain bank loans, cutting off an important source of liquidity.“This […]

Beijing’s policy loosening to prevent collapse of industry does not represent a retreat, analysts say Source : ft.com Read more…China eases pressure on property sector but reform remains on agenda

This is the first in a three part series looking at the potential impact of China’s proposed property tax law.Timing, we are told, is everything. The success of something is often related to when it happens.And after China announced plans to roll out a nationwide property tax to help address wealth inequality, concerns were […]

Developer’s sale of US media group IDG to private equity firm seen as chance to recoup unpaid debts Source : ft.com Read more…China Oceanwide’s retail investors look to Blackstone deal for hope

China’s biggest property developers – even those not in the grip of a debt crisis – are pulling out all the stops to cut costs as the industry faces a gloomy outlook.China Vanke, the country’s third-biggest home seller by sales, told its staff to “live frugally, spend small money and do big things” at […]

Debt-stricken China Evergrande Group is asking sales agents to sell even more flats at one of its Hong Kong projects so it can afford to pay them the commission it owes them for units they previously sold.The Shenzhen-based developer is offering to pay the outstanding commission fees owed on two flats for every additional […]

China Evergrande Group exited its stake in internet company HengTen Networks Group, raising a further HK$2.13 billion (US$273 million) as the embattled developer faces deadlines to pay overdue interest on its debt next week.Evergrande sold 1.66 billion shares of HengTen to Allied Resources Investment Holdings at HK$1.28 a share, representing a 24.3 per cent […]

Hong Kong property developers are looking to release more expensive homes in the city’s The Peak and New Territories districts in anticipation of the reopening of the border with mainland China.Wheelock Properties, for instance, expects to start taking reservations for private visits to four penthouses at Mount Nicholson, Asia’s priciest address, sometime over the […]

Investors are snapping up commercial properties in Australia with the rare support of Hong Kong buyers despite lingering Canberra-Beijing tensions, pushing the market Down Under towards its busiest in six years.Commercial property investment involving deals above A$10 million has reached A$35.4 billion (US$26 billion) to date, a 70 per cent increase from a year […]

New home prices in China fell by the most in six years in October, as analysts warned a deeper correction is yet to come.The average price across 70 cities dropped 0.25 per cent from the previous month, according to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday. That was much larger then […]

Beijing introduced measures aimed at constraining borrowing at developers over asset bubble fears Source : ft.com Read more…China home prices fall as property slowdown threatens economic outlook

And Zillow vs Opendoor Source : ft.com Read more…The China discount spreads

Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, has emerged as a leading economic and technological hub, with new developments that are helping to shape its transformation as a centre for commerce and lifestyle. Changsha International Finance Square (IFS) is conspicuous as the tallest building on the city’s horizon and the latest addition to its skyline. The […]

Investors worried by apparent defaults by property group Evergrande are dumping debt from other sectors too Source : ft.com Read more…Lex Midweek Letter: swollen China junk yields point to deepening panic

The US Federal Reserve warned in its semi-annual financial health check overnight that stress in China’s real estate sector could pose “some risks” to the American financial system, pointing to the recent concerns surrounding China Evergrande Group, the world’s most indebted property developer.In its latest Financial Stability Report, the US central bank said the […]

Evergrande debt crisis prompts other developers to offer discounts, worrying authorities Source : ft.com Read more…China struggles to regulate house prices despite glut of controls

Suspension of developer’s shares offers another signal of sector’s worsening debt crisis Source : ft.com Read more…China property/Kaisa: fire sale could spark broader real estate price decline   

Activity in China’s services sector expanded at a faster pace in October, buoyed by robust demand, although rising inflationary pressures weighed on business confidence for the year ahead, a private survey showed on Wednesday.The Caixin/Markit services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose to 53.8 in October – the highest since July – from 53.4 in […]

More Chinese property developers have made last-minute efforts to avoid bond defaults after regulators piled on the pressure to ensure embattled home builders repay their debts on time.Central China Real Estate (CCRE), a Henan-based developer, said on Tuesday that it had remitted the funds to pay back all principal and interest on a dollar […]

China’s planned property tax reforms could lift revenues for local governments but would not be sufficient enough to support them unless a large tax is imposed nationwide, according to analysts.To effectively stabilise local fiscal conditions, Zhang Yu, an assistant professor with Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management, estimated that the tax rate needs to […]

Though situated in China’s remote, mountainous and relatively underdeveloped southwestern Guizhou province, the city of Zunyi is not an obscure name for Chinese.The city is engraved in Communist Party history as the location where Mao Zedong was elected leader during the Long March in 1935. It is also the home of Mao-tai, China’s national […]

China Oceanwide Holdings’ real estate troubles are mounting in the US, with credit holders taking control of a stalled skyscraper development in San Francisco.Overseas credit holders of Oceanwide’s two offshore units have taken over their entire holdings in the project, the developer said in a Shenzhen Stock Exchange filing. The two notes, in dollars […]

The longer Beijing takes to address its housing market bubble and accept a lower level of growth the worse the pain will be Source : ft.com Read more…China needs to learn lessons from Japan’s 1990s collapse

Shanghai and Chongqing, two of China’s biggest urban centres, offer a hint of what a property tax would look like as the Chinese legislature gave its nod last week to kick off the tariff after a decade of stop-go measures to rein in runaway home prices.The two municipalities, with a combined population of almost […]

A third of China’s property developers could see their liquidity “acutely strained” in the worst case scenario as weaker sentiment and new government regulations weigh on their funding sources, with a “real” risk of default as some US$84 billion in debt is set to mature by the end of next year, according to S&P […]

China’s overseer of offshore bonds has swung into action, promising easier access to foreign exchange to enable the borrowers of overseas debt to fulfil their obligations, as a string of missed payments turns the final quarter of 2021 into another record period of defaults.In a meeting with several of the biggest offshore bond issuers,the […]

Properties in Sha Tau Kok, a sleepy town in the far north of Hong Kong, have enjoyed a spurt of popularity after the government unveiled plans to develop the northern New Territories.Home prices in the frontier town could jump by between 5 and 10 per cent in the next six to 12 months, according […]

China’s economic policies are seemingly filled with contracting goals, pairs of targets where Beijing sets out how it wants to do one thing and also another thing too.It wants its economic growth to decelerate, but the slowdown cannot be too fast; it wants to cut carbon emissions, but coal must remain affordable; and it […]