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Post by oldman on Oct 29, 2013 15:18:56 GMT 7
Good documentary by CNA on the housing bubble in China.
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Post by oldman on Oct 31, 2013 14:24:55 GMT 7
Amazing. 30 empty skyscrapers....
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Post by zuolun on Nov 6, 2013 20:45:53 GMT 7
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Post by candy188 on Dec 10, 2013 15:34:42 GMT 7
Perhaps the Singapore property agents might face similar fate....  Having a Prosperity company name doesn't seem to be of much assistance to withstand the cooling measures.  HK property agents losing jobs amid govt home-buying curbs
[HONG KONG] Chu Kin-lan has already shuttered six of 11 offices of her Hong Kong real estate agency, whose Chinese name translates as Precious Prosperity, and let go half of her 70 employees amid the city's toughest curbs on home buying in its history. The worst pain may be still to come. As many as 10,000 real estate agents are forecast to lose their jobs, according to Centaline Property Agency, as the government presses ahead with measures to rein in house prices that have more than doubled since 2009 and hit a record high in March. Because of the cooling measures, home transactions fell to 27,714 in the first half of the year, the lowest since data were first available in 1996, according to the Land Registry. "We're getting killed by the government here," said Ms Chu, who is in her 50s. She has operated her Bo Fung Property Agency Group in Hong Kong island's district east of Causeway Bay since 1984 and now sees some of her vacated branches replaced by eateries.
"This is by far the worst I've experienced. Almost every agency I know is losing money and closing shops."
 The government has raised the minimum mortgage down payment six times since 2010 and imposed taxes including a doubling of the stamp duty on deals of more than HK$2 million (S$322,000) in February, plus an extra 15 per cent levy on non-resident buyers.
www.stproperty.sg/articles-property/overseas-property-news/hk-property-agents-losing-jobs-amid-govt-home-buying-curbs/a/146457 HK's Li Ka-shing says property sales worst in 13 yearsHONG KONG Thu Nov 28, 2013 (Reuters) - Asia's richest man, Li Ka-shing, says his business has suffered its worst year in more than a decade as measures to cool one of the world's most expensive real estate markets take their toll on Hong Kong's powerful developers.
"We only recorded about HK$4 billion ($515.97 million) of property sales for the entire year, merely 15 percent of the total sales in between HK$26 billion to HK$27 billion during the past two years," Li told the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily in an interview published on Thursday.  The billionaire octogenarian, who owns property company Cheung Kong (Holdings) Ltd and ports-to-telecoms conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd also sounded a note of caution over soaring land prices in Hong Kong and mainland China. "Land prices are high in Hong Kong, and (we) have seen an unhealthy trend. Land prices in the mainland are soaring as well and we can't win the bids either," he added.
Cheung Kong, the city's second-largest property company by market value, had achieved just 15 percent of its Hong Kong contracted sales target of HK$30 billion with less than two months before the end of the year, Credit Suisse property analyst Joyce Kwock said in a recent note. Major rival Sun Hung Kais Properties Ltd in September posted a 14 percent fall in full-year underlying profit for 2013, lagging forecasts and marking its first drop in annual earnings due to slow sales in Hong Kong. ~~ Deutsche Bank forecast last month that Hong Kong home prices could drop up to 50 percent in the next 12 months,
~~~ while Barclays said the market will enter its first real downturn since 1998 with a 30 percent plunge by 2015.
uk.reuters.com/article/2013/11/28/cheungkong-property-li-idUKL4N0JD1QD20131128 |
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Post by zuolun on Feb 7, 2014 11:30:02 GMT 7
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Post by oldman on Feb 23, 2014 20:43:58 GMT 7
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Post by zuolun on Feb 24, 2014 8:23:10 GMT 7
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Post by candy188 on Feb 28, 2014 11:28:12 GMT 7
Brilliant move! Earning lesser better than losing money.   Hong Kong property tycoons bank on middle class to weather tough times
When things get choppy at the top of the property ladder, it pays to have your feet planted on the middle rungs, which makes developers Cheung Kong (Holdings) (0001.HK) and Sun Hung Kai Properties (0016.HK) the best bets to weather the storm brewing in Hong Kong.  These powerful property developers are targeting middle-class, first-time buyers who are exempt from the impact of government cooling measures at a time when secondary home transactions are hovering at a 17-year low.
"This represents a large potential market for developers launching new projects, so long as they price units affordably and draw first-time buyers from the secondary to the primary market," said Raymond Liu, a property analyst at brokerage Macquarie. First-time buyers comprised 70 percent of the market last year, up from 53 percent in 2011, Liu said. With 45 percent of its saleable units this year aimed at mass-market buyers, the highest among its peers, Macquarie has identified Sun Hung Kai as a potential winner in this market, although success will come at the expense of profit margins.HK's Li Ka-shing says property sales worst in 13 yearsHONG KONG Thu Nov 28, 2013 (Reuters) - Asia's richest man, Li Ka-shing, says his business has suffered its worst year in more than a decade as measures to cool one of the world's most expensive real estate markets take their toll on Hong Kong's powerful developers.
"We only recorded about HK$4 billion ($515.97 million) of property sales for the entire year, merely 15 percent of the total sales in between HK$26 billion to HK$27 billion during the past two years," Li told the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily in an interview published on Thursday. |
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Post by zuolun on Feb 28, 2014 15:26:16 GMT 7
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Post by me200 on Mar 18, 2014 12:11:20 GMT 7
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Post by zuolun on Mar 20, 2014 16:56:30 GMT 7
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Post by me200 on Apr 1, 2014 15:05:12 GMT 7
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Post by candy188 on Apr 1, 2014 17:20:15 GMT 7
China housing prices - cntvna "First tier cities accommodate large population who has rigid demand for housing. The cities are attractive because of their advanced economic and culture development. Besides, land scarcity in major cities also push up housing prices." Ma Jiantang, Director of National Burean of Statistics said.
But not every city enjoys a rise, as housing prices in the third and fourth - tier cities have gone south. Generally speaking, second and third - tier cities have seen steady price increase. Prices in several fourth-tier cities, however, are falling. So the situation is a split, and it would be an over-conclusion to use price hike in some cities to summarize the scenario of the whole country." Ma Jiantang said. Ma hopes to see property prices easing further in the coming months. He attributes the decline to the government’s curbing measures and thinks China’s real estate market is still in a healthy development.Evergrande paints upbeat picture of China propertyExecutives from Evergrande Real Estate Group painted a rosier picture of China's real estate market than their peers after the company posted a 49 percent rise in net profit and outpaced analyst estimates for core profit. Hong Kong-listed Evergrande's strong earnings come as investors are becoming increasingly jittery about softening prices and defaults in the sector. Earlier this month government officials told Reuters that Zhejiang Xingrun Real Estate Co was on the brink of bankruptcy. Though Zhejiang Xingrun is a smaller, local developer, investors are worried that it could signal cracks in the Chinese debt market. Evergrande, whose net profit rose last year by 49.3 percent to 13.7 billion yuan and whose core profit rose 66.3 percent to 10.3 billion yuan, seemed to allay at least some of those fears. The core profit beat a median analyst forecast of 8.8 billion yuan, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters Smart Estimates. "We like the company's strategy change of moving up to first and second tier-cities because those are the cities we feel upbeat about," said Haitong International analyst Jason Huang. Housing prices to drop in China's first- and second-tier cities: expertsCurrently, market observers are mixed in views on the movement of the country's housing market. Some believe that prices in first- and second- tier cities will continue to rise, while third- and fourth-tier cities will see a price drop. But the capital cost needed to support the housing market in first- and second- tier cities is higher, and therefore many claim that the market will collapse earlier than in third- and fourth-tier cities, the paper added. Home-price gap between first-tier and provincial cities widens furtherIt found that in Ordos - known as a "ghost city" because of its low occupancy rates - prices had fallen sharply to 3,000 yuan per square metre because of excessive speculation, while prices in Longnan were at risk of falling because of its location in the nation's poorest area and also because of a shortage of water. Guangyuan in Sichuan province was ranked as the 18th most risky city for property development.  "It has been reported that people in Ordos own up to eight flats. How many more can they buy?" asked Alan Chiang Sheung-lai, head of residential at DTZ Greater China. Meanwhile, demand in first-tiers cities remained strong in view of their economic development, and the supply pipeline in the major cities was not as large as it was in smaller cities, he added.
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Post by zuolun on Apr 7, 2014 10:55:05 GMT 7
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Post by zuolun on May 8, 2014 9:41:30 GMT 7
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