Singapore’s sovereign fund leads today’s collection of real estate news from around the region as GIC announces a joint venture with ESR to invest in India logistics properties. Hong Kong’s rising interest rates also make the news as they push the city’s housing market further into the freezer and slowing sales of subsidised homes in Singapore may signal cooling demand for new homes.

GIC Takes 80% Stake in $600M ESR India Core Venture

GIC and ESR Group have extended their existing partnership in India to set up a US$600 million joint venture to acquire income-producing core industrial and logistics assets in the country.

Both entities announced the initiative on Thursday, with global investment firm GIC and real estate investment company ESR Group to have an 80 percent and 20 percent stake in the strategic partnership, respectively. Read more>>

HSBC Raising Hong Kong Interest Rates to 14-Year High

HSBC, the biggest commercial lender in Hong Kong, will raise its key interest rates to the highest levels in 14 years, surprising the market with a bigger-than-expected increase, following another jumbo move by the local and US monetary authorities.

The lender will lift its prime rate by 25 basis points to 5.375 percent, surpassing the previous record of 5.25 percent in March 2008 during the global financial crisis, according to a statement on Thursday. HSBC will also boost the Hong Kong dollar savings rate by 25 basis points. Read more>>

China Developer Debt Crisis Makes Bond Market Go Toxic

The crisis in Chinese property dollar bonds has become so extreme that an analyst who’s been covering the market since its inception in 2005 says meaningful analysis is no longer possible.

“The proven investment approach is that it won’t go wrong being negative or more negative ahead of the market,” said Zhi Wei Feng, a senior analyst at Loomis Sayles Investments Asia, who was working on credit research at Barclays Capital in 2005, when the first-ever Chinese real estate firm dollar bond was issued. Read more>>

Singapore HDB Home Sales Slow in Sign of Market Cooling

Singapore’s housing market is flashing early signs of cooling as recent property curbs weigh on buyer demand.

Resales of apartments owned by the Housing & Development Board (HDB) — Singapore’s public housing authority — plunged 24.1 percent in October, according to data compiled by real estate portals 99.co and SRX. That is the biggest monthly decline since April 2020, when sales fell 78.3 percent during a countrywide Covid-19 lockdown. Read more>>

MGM Resorts Books $1.2B Expense on Macau Properties

MGM Resorts International fell in late trading after reporting a surprise loss that included a $1.2 billion expense for its Macau properties.

The largest casino operator on the Las Vegas Strip reported an adjusted third-quarter loss of $1.39 a share on Wednesday (Nov 2). Analysts had been expecting a profit of 24 US cents. Revenue in the period reached $3.41 billion, higher than the $3.25 billion analysts estimated. Read more>>

Mainland Developers Turn to Layoffs, Pay Cuts

Chinese property industry, which used to offer good salaries, has entered a spiral of layoffs, pay cuts, and deferrals amid the debt-laden sector’s downturn, according to insiders.

Several property developers have recently launched a new round of salary cuts and layoffs, a senior industry insider who has worked for several leading developers told Yicai Global. For example, one developer is planning to reduce nearly 50 percent of its workers by integrating different departments in a swipe that affects almost every department, the person added. Read more>>

Vietnam Apartment Market Slows as Financing Concerns Rise

Demand for residential property, especially apartments, plunged in the third quarter despite discounts and loan incentives offered by developers to boost sales, Vo Hong Thang, research and development deputy director at property developer DKRA Group, said.

The apartment absorption rate in Ho Chi Minh City was 15 percent, the lowest since 2019, while unsold inventories rose to a four-year high of 66 percent of primary supply, according to property consultancy Savills. Read more>>

Attempt at Collective Sale of Singapore Condo Complex Fails a Second Time

Freehold Oxley Garden’s latest collective sale tender closed on Tuesday (Nov 1) without a bid. The prime District 9 site was put back on the market at the same asking price of S$200 million ($141 million) after a previous tender closed in June without a sale.

The residential site was first put up for sale in April by real estate agencies JLL and Brilliance Capital, soon after an adjacent, larger property at 5 Oxley Rise was put on the market. Read more>>

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