China's huge malls, high prices and few shoppers

Beijing - For a closer look at China's sizzling economy, walk the marble floors of Beijing's latest luxury mall. From its Japanese-style food court selling $4 chocolate éclairs to its glittering floors of branded international fashion, Shin Kong Place is a palace of conspicuous consumption. Since 2002, China has built hundreds of malls in towns and cities, each trying to get a slice of a retail pie worth $800 billion last year. Captivated by the promise of a vast consumer class itching to spend, foreign brands have jostled for space at the table only to find a scarcity of customers. As a result, retail vacancy rates in Beijing are currently 8 percent and rising as more malls enter a crowded market.

Macquarie looks to Chinese real estate market

BEIJING: Macquarie Group, the biggest Australian securities firm, is seeking to develop real estate trusts in China, even though financial markets are being roiled by a credit crunch and China is clamping down on property speculators. Macquarie is in talks with regulators and institutional investors including insurers and pension funds to help build a market in China, Andrew Low, head of corporate finance in Asia, said Wednesday in Beijing. The discussions are "nearing fruition," he said without elaborating.

China's Nanjing Suning Real Estate buys Shanghai land for 4.4 bln yuan

China's Nanjing Suning Real Estate Development Co has outbid rivals from Hong Kong and the United States in a land auction in Shanghai, and bought a 66,930-square-meter tract of land in the Huangpu district for 4.404 bln yuan, the official Shanghai Securities News reported.

China arrests online activist for organizing real estate price rally

BEIJING: Chinese police have jailed a man for 14 days after he posted messages to chat rooms calling for a gathering of people angry over high real estate prices, state media and a rights group said Friday. The move appeared to be part of efforts to ratchet up already tight media and Internet controls ahead of a sensitive political congress expected in October. The Communist Party congress, held every five years, will set the agenda for the party and country for the next half-decade, and will likely include a reshuffling of some top leaders. It will also mark a renewal of party leader Hu Jintao's five-year tenure.

China developers selling bonds, shares

SHANGHAI: Property developer Gemdale Corp said yesterday it would raise about 20 billion yuan (US$2.6bil) selling shares and bonds – part of an unprecedented series of fund raisings in China's booming real estate sector. The scramble to raise funds reflects the breakneck growth of the property market, but it is also the result of the authorities' actions to make bank loans more expensive and difficult to obtain as they seek to cool property prices and the economy. “As China's interest rates keep rising, selling bonds will help reduce capital costs and alleviate the risks of purely relying on bank loans,” Gemdale said in a statement.

Shanghai real estate tycoon faces new charges

Shanghai real estate tycoon who served a three-year prison term after a stock market scandal has been charged with new bribery and tax offenses, a state news agency reported Saturday. Zhou Zhengyi was detained in October amid a probe of government misconduct that brought down the Shanghai Communist Party secretary and other city leaders. Prosecutors have charged him with misappropriation of funds, bribery and forging value added tax receipts, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing unidentified people in the city prosecutor's office.

Chinese Real Estate Tycoon Faces New Charges

A Shanghai real estate tycoon who served a three-year prison term after a stock market scandal has been charged with new bribery and tax offenses, a state news agency reported Saturday. Zhou Zhengyi was detained in October amid a probe of government misconduct that brought down the Shanghai Communist Party secretary and other city leaders.

Four priorities in China real estate regulation

At a seminar on macro economy and the real estate industry, Chen said the first priority is making low-rent housing more available. Currently low-rent houses are only available for extremely low-income families, but many low-income ones still earn too little to afford housing. The new low-rent housing policy will cover at least 18-20 percent of citizens in Beijing and Shanghai.

Housing prices to keep rising in China

The China Real Estate Association (CREA) reported on Sunday that housing prices in China may continue to rise in the second half of the year, following the announcement that house prices over the first six months were up 16.34 percent. "The disparity between tight supply and overheating demand pushed the prices up," said Zhu Zhongyi, vice-president of the association, at a recent forum. Due to expectations of further hikes, ordinary consumers are scared into buying a house for fear that they will pay even more if they keep waiting. The growing urban population has also boosted demand.

Tightens rules on foreign property investors

China is tightening its grip once more on foreign investors in Chinese real estate, banning them from borrowing offshore in the latest effort to tame property prices and cool the economy. The new rule, set out in a circular from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange , could squeeze foreign investors who take advantage of lower interest rates outside China. Investors seeking to bring capital into China to set up a real estate company must now lodge documents with the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing.

Ascendas sets up two real estate funds in China

Business-park developer Ascendas has set up two funds to invest in the real estate sector in China to the tune of S$1.4 billion. Ascendas China Industrial & Business Parks Fund is expected to invest up to S$600 million in industrial and business park assets. It will focus on light industrial and logistics facilities across China. The seed assets in this fund include buildings in the Suzhou Industrial Park. The second fund - Ascendas China Commercial Fund - will invest in high quality commercial properties in first-tier cities in China.

More foreign capital flows in property sector

An increasing amount of foreign investment capital flowed into China's real estate market between January and June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Data from NBS show that in the first half of this year, realized foreign investment in the property sector accounted for 24.1 percent of the country's total used foreign capital, 11 percentage points higher than the whole of last year. Foreign investment in property projects averaged US$7.04 million between January and February, up US$3.61 million from last year's average, while investment averaged US$7.17 million between January and March, up US$3.74 million.

China's Zhong'An Real Estate to raise 4.0 bln hkd in Hong Kong IPO

Zhong'An Real Estate Holdings, a real estate developer based in Zhejiang province, plans to raise at least 4.0 bln hkd through an initial public offering in Hong Kong in September or October, the South China Morning Post reported, without identifying the information source.

Beijing's campaign to crack down on illegal land acquisitions

SHENZHEN - China's galloping property market has become a growing headache for the country's central government, which has been forced to increase the land supply while worrying that corrupt local-government officials will use the real-estate boom as an opportunity to hasten the depletion of the country's shrinking farmlands.

China again raises bank reserves

Economic planners worry that the export-fueled flood of cash surging through China's economy is driving dangerously fast investment in stocks, real estate and other assets.
The money-supply surge strains the central bank's ability to contain pressure for prices to rise. The bank, China's equivalent of the U.S. Federal Reserve, drains billions of dollars a month from the economy through bond sales, piling up reserves that have topped $1.3 trillion. Still, deposits at Chinese commercial banks top $4 trillion, and are growing by tens of billions of dollars a month, leaving plenty of money for new lending.

Money flows from stocks to property

An increasing amount of investment capital is flowing from the Chinese stock market to the relatively stable real estate markets in major cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, according to several banks and property consultancies. The survey, which covers 16 real estate projects in Shenzhen, Beijing and Tianjin, estimates that funds diverted from stocks accounted for around 50 percent of the total transactions in low- to medium-priced residential properties from October 2006 to June 2007, 10 to 20 percent in luxury apartments and about the same percentage in office premises.