Archive for Real Estate News

4 plots of Land sell in Shanghai’s Qingpu Area of Zhujiajiao

4 large plots of land have just found owners in Shanghai’s popular High Tech industrial District of  Zhujiajiao which is also a
famous travel destination for it’s historic water towns.

The biggest transaction there was a 107′000 square meter plot of land selling for around 825 Million Rmb or approximately 7650 Rmb per square meter.
Bought by Shanghai Jiu Qing Real Estate which is a developer focused in the area of Qingpu.

The three other plots were as followed
68860 square meters to the City owned conglomerate SCS Group (the guys building about everything in the city) for 520 Million Rmb or about 7550 Rmb per square meter.

83926 square meters to Haibo Xijiao Logistics at about 1803 Rmb per square meter for a total of 227 Million Rmb and
25797 square meters to Shentong Express China’s answer to FedEx for 59 Million or 1134 Rmb per square meter.

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Ferguson Lane is expanding

The neat developement that is Ferguson Lane on Wukang Road near Tai’an Road in the French Concession has expanded already last year by taking in the Residential Mansion in front of Franck and convert it into a modern Gallery Space.

Now it has continued on it’s way to become a major French Concession Destination by acquiring the  Real Estate Hotel (actual name really was this, since the owner was the Real Estate Bureau of Shanghai) and added 5 Floors of Office Space over 3300 square meters, and a grand first floor flag ship Restaurant, 2nd Floor Cocunut Paradise and top Floor Cocktail Bar.

Ferguson Lane is a Hongkong Shanghai Creative, upper class developement, housing boutique businesses, creative and financial companies as well as some fine Dining Restaurants.
Commercial Space in Ferguson Lane is for lease here.

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Mainland buyers rush to snap up Hong Kong luxury

What may come to no surprise to some is that mainland buyers are increasingly snapping up Hong Kong luxury properties recently.
1 in 5 luxury properties in the island city (a property sold at higher than 10 Million Hong Kong Dollars is considered luxury) comes from the mainland now.
The more accurate figure is 18.1 % according to Centaline Property Agency or Zhong Yuan.

Since the downturn in 2008 more and more Mainlanders rush to the island to buy bargains deemed good investment.

Shanghai itself has slowed down a bit and transaction volume is siginifcantly lower.

It’ll be interesting to see what comes after the holidays.

Happy chinese new year everyone, may the year of the tiger bring health and success to all of you.

Filed under: China Real Estate, Market News, Trends | , , , , |1 Comment

Shanghai Real Estate news update

Hello 2010!
I hope that all of you, as I had a great ride into the new year, excited to see what 2010 brings, especially in our fantastic Shanghai!

1.32 Billion RMB

…thats what Shanghai’s Gubei Developement Group paid for block B7 and B8 or roughly 33 acres in Shangha’s tourist town Zhujiajiao (or little venice).
146%  price increase, and they beat out 14 other competitors, congratulations!

298100
Is the new record of 2nd hand houses sold during one year in Shanghai. And
it was last year!
320.7 Billion Rmb was the transaction volume of these apartments and houses not including
new developements, also a record.

14.5 Million Rmb

…is what Shanghai’s hero Liu Xiang paid for a 436 sqm Villa in Putuo.  Roughly 33′000 Rmb per square meter.
The olympic gold medalist will surely bring lot’s of attention to one of the hottest Shanghai districts these days.

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Shanghai’s new housing supply to dry up within 3 years

There was a real interesting article on Focus Shanghai recently, examining the new house supply in the city and the rapid consume recently.

According to DTZ Shanghai’s housing reserves are still feeding from new developements from 2006 and before.

The Real Estate Industry in China considers Housing Reserves as what is extra after what the market predicts will be consumed in 18 months.
From 2006 until now, Shanghai’s Reserves have been exactly 0 (spelled out zero).

The Research expects the reserves to be 0 and be mostly used up within the next three years.
Much of this the research pushes to foreigners, beginning to actually settle in the city.
After years of renting, affluent migrants, and expats are beginning to see Shanghai as their permanent home, hence the recent buying spree, after the recent slump last year many people started to pick up bargains and prices rose quickly again putting buyers under pressure to avoid ever rising higher prises.

Quite amazing, thinking of oversupply, being in this market. The bearish mood. The news from the western world.

But, also, the recently sold out Wellington Garden (after being a drag for 6 months), raising prices again after quickly lowering them last year.
The Casa Lakeville going like crazy and even the Tomson Riviera (China’s so called most expensive luxury housing) supposedly selling more than 20 units this year already.

Shanghai’s Real Estate market, something truly interesting to watch these days, the total makeover for the expo,
Expats really “settling” here, the new Jing An Temple Skyline, the tallest tower so far (Shanghai Center) and the 22 Line Metro Grid.

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7-Eleven to open it’s first Shanghai Store soon

The President Chain Store Company intends to open the first 7-Eleven Store in Shanghai before the end of this year.
The Company (”tong yi zhao shang” in chinese) won the franchise rights to the popular convinience store earlier this year after wooing the brand for 10 years. 

As Shanghai is already accustomed to many 24h-store brands (lawsons, alldays, c-store to name a few) 7-Eleven will have to differentiate itself from it’s competitors.

I believe 7-Eleven will most likely compete in prime locations and try to attract customers by offering a cleaner more organized environment than it’s rivals.
That will be benificial for upscale locations in Shanghai that are in desperate need of better organized and cleaner stores to lift it’s appeal to residents and corporations. (anyone that’s been to an alldays or the likes during lunch time or rush hour understands what i’m talking about)
Office towers and shopping malls targeting the more affluent chinese buyers will most likely be keen on striking deals with the company for that reason.

Unfortunately I don’t think they’ll bring the delicious sandwiches we’re used too from the franchise in HK to the city as stores in Shenzhen and Guangzhou didn’t seem to carry them neither. ;-(

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Merrill Lynch to invest 2.65$ Billion in Asian Real Estate

Seems that even in this turmoil there still are some good news out there for the Chinese Real Estate Market.

Merrill Lynch announced that it recently raised 2.65 Billion US Dollars to invest in asian Real Estate.
Attractive to the funds will be mainly commercial properties in Japan, China, India and South Korea.
The Company also said it is considering investements in south-east asia and australia if the price is interesting.

Tim Grady who is the managing director of the firms commercial real estate investment arm in Asia said:
“We see exceptional opportunities in Asian real estate over the medium and longer term,” 

JP Morgan and Citigroup also announced funds of 1.3 Billion and 1 Billion US Dollars it plans to invest in Chinese and Indian Real Estate.

Though this is mainly a good event developers in China shouldn’t cheer to early.
Because of the low sales volume the Merrill Lynch and it’s competitors know that chinese real estate developers are starving for cash and financing and are therefore willing to give deep discounts to get rid of inventory.

If volume continues to fall in the coming weeks there will be quite a few large properties that an investor with sufficient cash can pick up for cheap.
They are also likely to hold out for a bit for the best deals.
Probably most of these attractive properties won’t pop out in Shanghai, since I only see some distressed sellers in the outer districts of developements with low margins, hardly anything that would fit in the portfolio of the investement banks that have until now mostly invested in up-scale luxury residential properties and downtown office towers.
Personally I’m  looking forward to see what kind of deals will come out of it.

Filed under: China Real Estate, General News, International News, Market News | , , , |1 Comment

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