Signs of life in commercial real estate (China Daily, March 16)

After a period of relative inactivity, China's commercial real estate market is heating up again. Analysts expect prices to stabilize in the second half of this year, thanks to the government's stimulus package, and both foreign and domestic investors are looking for deals. Compared with the fourth quarter of last year, foreign institutional investors are much clearer about their investment targets in China, due to a re-confirmation of their risk/return requirements and less perceived uncertainty in the market.

SOHO China to capitalize on weak property market (China Daily, March 14)

SOHO China is looking at acquisition opportunities amid the deflating property market. The company will step up the pace to acquire new projects this year after asset values plummeted more than half since the outbreak of the financial crisis.

Swire expanding property unit after profit dives 77.5pc (SCMP, March 13)

Swire Pacific will spend HK$13 billion in the next five years to expand its investment property portfolio by 50 per cent after reporting a 77.5 per cent drop in net profit last year. The blue-chip conglomerate announced a net profit of HK$5.9 billion for the year to December due to a HK$3.55 billion loss from Cathay Pacific Airways and a 99.08 per cent decline in revaluation gain on investment properties to HK$177 million.

SOHO China's net profit down 79.7% in 2008 (China Knowledge, March 13)

SOHO China posted net profit of RMB399 million in 2008, a year-on-year drop of 79.7%. Last year, the company reaped RMB3.12 billion in operating revenue, a sharp decline of 55.11% from a year earlier. In 2008, the real estate company declared a dividend of RMB0.1 per share and earnings per share were RMB0.076, plummeting 84.07% year on year.

Sun Hung Kai H1 profit drops (Shanghai Daily, March 12)

Sun Hung Kai Properties’ first-half profit excluding property revaluations fell a more-than-estimated 27 percent as Hong Kong's economic slump reduced home sales. Sun Hung Kai's property sales fell 8 percent as the global financial crisis pushed Hong Kong's economy to its steepest contraction since 1998 last quarter.

Real estate prices see falling trend (China Daily, March 11)

Property prices in China's 70 major cities fell 1.2 percent year-on-year in February, the third drop in a row since December 2008. An apartment in Tomson Riviera, the most expensive residential complex in Shanghai with an average price of 110,000 yuan per sq m, was sold for 68,000 yuan per sq m, a discount of 38 percent, in January. Beijng Runfeng Real Estate Co Ltd, the developer of Riverside, a residential project in the capital's CBD area, initially priced its new apartments at 14,000 yuan per sq m. The price is now around 2,000 yuan lower than those sold last year.

Boost in spending planned for low-income public housing (SCMP, March 11)

The central government plans to step up spending on public housing for low-income families as part of its drive to improve people's well-being. 33 billion yuan has been earmarked - almost five times last year's total - to build low-rent flats this year in an effort to address housing problems for 2.6 million families.

Property and steel units hit Fosun profits (SCMP, March 11)

Fosun International reported net profit dropped 60.4 per cent to 1.33 billion yuan last year from 3.35 billion yuan in 2007. The decline was attributed to sharply lower profits from the property development and steel businesses despite strong gains in the pharmaceuticals and mining sectors.

Shareholders approve Poly's 8b proposal (China Daily, March 11)

Poly Real Estate Group's 8-billion-yuan funds raising proposal was approved at its shareholders meeting on Tuesday, and its parent company, China Poly Group Co, will buy up to 1.5 billion yuan. Poly indicated in its annual financial report last month that it would raise 8 billion yuan through a private placement of newly issued domestic A shares to help finance eight of its property projects.

China Overseas Land Feb Ppty Sales HK$1.83B; Up 61.2% On Yr (WSJ, March 10)

China Overseas Land & Investment’s property sales in February rose 61.2% from a year earlier to HK$1.83 billion. The blue-chip company, which focuses on property development in China, sold 214,000 sq.m of floor area in February, up 110.9% from the year-earlier period.

Tomson denies 38% price cut in Shanghai luxury properties (China Knowledge, March 12)

Tomson Group denied the rumour that it has cut price up to 38% to RMB68,000 per sq.m from the opening price of RMB110,000 per sq.m in its luxury property Tomson Riviera located in Binjiang Avenue, Lujiazui. Tomson Riviera includes one chamber and four apartment buildings. Two apartment buildings, building A and building B, are currently for sale and lease, with average area for each apartment standing at 597.57 sq.m and 434.27 sq.m, respectively.

Old school 'graduates' to a new site (Shanghai Daily, March 11)

An 89 year old school will be picked up and moved to a new location to save it from the wrecking ball and make way for a commercial project in downtown Shanghai. The former office building for the Minli Middle School, a three-story structure on Weihai Road near Shimen No. 1 Road, will be rolled 57 metres southeast on rail tracks to its new location. The relocation is part of a reconstruction program for the Dazhongli area, in which HKR International Ltd and Swire Properties Ltd will join to build two high-rise office buildings, three hotels and a retail centre.

Top-grade office rent continues to drop (Shenzhen Daily, March 17)

As landlords lowered their expectations for rental income amid the global economic downturn, rent for Shenzhen’s grade-A office spaces continued to drop this year. But few international companies have moved out of the expensive offices because it would still cost money to decorate and furnish cheaper offices. In the first two months of this year, rent for grade-A offices in Shenzhen fell by 11 percent from the fourth quarter of last year.

SZ attracts luxury hotel investors (Shenzhen Daily, March 13)

J.W. Marriott will formally enter the Shenzhen market by opening a hotel in Chegongmiao neighbourhood in Futian. Funded by the Shanghai-based Jin Mao Group, J.W. Marriott Shenzhen aims to take a strong position by attracting “new luxury” consumers.

Mandarin Oriental Sanya Holds China Roadshow (CHN, March 10)

The newly-opened Mandarin Oriental, Sanya, was recently introduced to the media and corporate bookers at a series of road-shows in Beijing and Shanghai. The hotel is located on a 12-hectare beachfront site in the sheltered Coral Bay near the city's shopping and entertainment area, Dadonghai.

SHKP pins hopes on dragon legend (SCMP, March 10)

At Dragon Lake Forest Park SHKP together with a local partner are now building 3,700 low-density and detached houses, providing a total gross floor area of 841,278 sq.m. The project, which is taking shape on a 1.2 million sq.m site in the park, will be completed in the next five to seven years. Taking advantage of the site's natural charms including a forest and lakes, SHKP wants to make its Lake Dragon project the top class and probably the most expensive residential development in Guangzhou. The first phase, providing about 245 villas and twin houses, is being built and will be completed by mid-2010.

Caofeidian New District establishes officially (Xinhua, March 14)

Caofeidian New District has established officially on March 14 in Tangshan, Hebei Province. The district covers a planned area of 1,934 sq.km. with 80 km of coastline and a population of 220,000. Caofeidian Industrial Zone, Nanbao Economic Development Zone, Tanghai and Caofeidian New City are included in the new district. The accumulative investment on infrastructure construction amounts to CNY 80 billion and the relocation of Shougang Group, and new projects of CNOOC & China Petro will be completed in the coming years.

Highest land price transacted in Shenyang (Times Business Post, March 12)

Shenyang Langqin Industrial has successfully bid for land at the prime location of Taiyuan Street with a 5,484 sq.m. site area and a plot ratio no more than 12. Average land price transacted amounts to CNY47,951 per sq.m., a new record in Shenyang. The land is expected to accommodate a commercial use building with around 65,000 sq.m. gross floor area.

Harbin to invest RMB16 bln in property development (China Knowledge, March 10)

Harbin has earmarked RMB16 billion to start property construction with potential floor area of 14 million sq.m, of which 4.5 million sq.m are expected to be completed this year. Real estate transactions are predicted to reach 7.1 million sq.m in area and RMB17.5 billion in revenue in Harbin this year.

Chongqing to build China's first 3G industrial base (China Daily, March 13)

Southwest China's Chongqing municipality is planning to build the country's first 3G industrial base, drawing 18 investment projects from the world's leading technology companies such as IBM and Infineon with investment amounting to 15.63 billion yuan. The 3G industrial base will focus on the country's self-developed TD-SCDMA technology, covering the overall process from chip development and terminal devices production to marketing.

Dalian Wanda to inject RMB 10 bln in Wuhan property projects (China Knowledge, March 12)

Dalian Wanda Group has signed an agreement with Wuhan municipal government to invest around RMB10 billion in three projects in the city. The three projects include a plum blossom garden in the city's East Lake area, two mixed-use properties located in Xinhua West Road and Wuchang Binjiang Area respectively.

Longfor to sell RMB3 bln properties in Sep (China Business News, March 10)

Longfor Group plans to sell its mixed-use properties in Chongqing's central district no earlier than September, contradicting rumours that the group would resell the land in the near future. The enterprise purchased the land, which has an area of 380 Mu, for RMB3.03 billion on Aug. 10, 2007 and began construction on Feb. 17. The group will develop one to three pieces of land if the real estate market revives.