Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust, including VivoCity in Singapore, helped boost the group’s performance
In today’s roundup of regional news headlines, state-backed Singaporean investor Mapletree reports a 39 percent drop in net profit, and Hong Kong home price growth nearly grinds to a halt amid rising interest rates.
Mapletree Investments Posts 38.8% Drop in Full-Year Net Profit to S$1.2B ↗
Mapletree Investments on Friday posted a net profit of S$1.2 billion (now $890 billion) for the full year ended 31 March, down 38.8 percent from a year earlier.
Revenue was flat at S$2.9 billion compared with the previous year. The Temasek Holdings-owned group noted that operational performance improved, supported by higher contributions from Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust and gradual recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more>> ↗
Hong Kong Home Price Growth Slows Sharply as Interest Rates Rise ↗
Prices of Hong Kong’s lived-in homes nearly stalled in April, indicating that gains may be coming to an end as homebuyers grapple with higher interest rates.
The overall home price index rose 0.5 percent from March levels, the least since prices bottomed out in December, according to data from the Rating and Valuation Department. While property prices have risen 5.8 percent so far this year, on an annual basis they were still down 8 percent. Read more>> ↗
Singapore’s URA Eyes Rezoning of Land Parcels in 6 Areas for Housing ↗
Land parcels in Singapore’s Lavender, Woodlands, Woodlands North, Whampoa, Kallang and Jalan Jurong Kechil areas have been earmarked as future sites for residential development, with high-density housing proposed for five of the areas.
The sixth site, located along Jalan Jurong Kechil and Old Jurong Road, is also intended for future residential development, with cycling paths to be implemented to improve connectivity in the area, the Urban Redevelopment Authority said Friday. Read more>> ↗
Closing Date for Lian Beng Privatisation Offer Extended ↗
The closing date for the offer to take Singapore-listed Lian Beng private has been extended to 9 June. It was initially due to close at 5.30pm on Friday.
The extension comes as the total number of shares held by offeror OSC Capital, its concert parties and valid acceptances reached 81.11 percent of the total number of issued shares of the construction and engineering company. Read more>> ↗
CDL Joins Australia’s Build-to-Rent Race With Brisbane, Melbourne Projects ↗
Singapore-listed CDL has joined the race for a place in Australia’s rapidly evolving build-to-rent sector, with plans to begin building a total of 500 apartments at two projects in Brisbane and Melbourne within the next few months.
The Singaporean player’s move joins a broader acceleration across the rental housing sector with major property platforms such as Brookfield, Cedar Pacific and ASX-listed Stockland flagging their first forays into the BTR sector in the past month. Read more>> ↗
Far East Organization’s The Reserve Residences Sells 71% of Units ↗
Far East Organization announced Sunday that it sold 520 units of The Reserve Residences in Upper Bukit Timah, or 71 percent of the project’s total units, at an average price of S$2,460 ($1,818) per square foot.
Some 635 units out of the project’s 732 units were released for the weekend launch. The project, jointly developed with Sino Group, is part of an integrated development with the Beauty World transport hub. Read more>> ↗
High Court Grants Sale Order to Chuan Park’s S$890M En Bloc Deal ↗
Singapore’s High Court granted a sale order to Chuan Park’s S$890 million ($658 million) collective sale on Friday, with the judge concluding that there is no evidence the deal was not arrived at in good faith by its collective sales committee.
Justice Kwek Mean Luck said the six minority owners who submitted grounds of objection before the High Court had also failed to show evidence for why Chuan Park’s gross floor area should be higher than the plot ratio of 2.1. Read more>> ↗
China’s R&F Group Finds a Silver Lining in Upbeat Overseas Property Markets ↗
Guangzhou R&F Properties, one of China’s most indebted developers, is capitalising on upbeat sentiment in overseas markets where some of its projects are located, to inject some relief into its operations and improve its creditworthiness at a time when the sector is experiencing sluggish conditions in China.
The debt-stricken group is marketing projects in London, Australia, Malaysia’s Johor Bahru and Cambodia’s Phnom Penh and leveraging buoyant market conditions in these markets, Garry Yau, R&F Group’s Hong Kong regional sales and marketing director, told the South China Morning Post. Read more>> ↗
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