戴德梁行：今日全球楼市速览(2010.04.15)

4. The number of new individual mortgages kept falling in Shanghai in Mar as home buyers sat on the sidelines and lenders tightened credit. Banks in the city extended RMB5.15bn of individual mortgages, a drop of RMB2.71bn from Feb, the Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China said. (Shanghai Daily).

5.Business is already booming in the Pudong New Area but hold onto your hats - growth is about to enter the mega phase. Jiang Liang, the area's director, yesterday unveiled a blueprint for the next 10 years that shows both initiative and vision. Disneyland, a jumbo jet assembly plant and research and development centre, the merger with the former Nanhui area, enlarged financial zones and high-tech parks and Shanghai's ambition to become a global financial and shipping centre offer bumper opportunities. The blueprint has framed the area into "7+1" key development zones. The +1 denotes the World Expo site after it closes in Oct. To give an idea of the development scale, the Pudong government will invest RMB100bn in urban infrastructure in the next 3 years, compared with a total of RMB270bn for the past 20 years. (Shanghai Daily).

6.The city's only vehicle tunnel linking the Shanghai World Expo site on both sides of the Huangpu River will open on 20 April, the builder said yesterday. The Xizang Road S. Tunnel, located between Lupu Bridge and Nanpu Bridge, will have 3 ramps inside the Expo site. It will take 4 minutes to travel between the 2 sides at a designed speed of 40 kph, said Tian Jin, an engineer with the builder, Shanghai No.2 Municipal Engineering Co Ltd. (Shanghai Daily).

7. Home prices in the mainland's 70 largest cities rose 11.7 percent in March year-on-year, despite government warnings, prompting further warnings of more measures to come in a bid to deflate the property bubble. At a meeting of the State Council yesterday, Premier Wen Jiabao said the government will accelerate the study of an imposition of tax on home buying. The strength of the mainland's economic recovery was in large part due to the stimulus package, but that in turn brought its own set of problems. Wen told the State Council that inflationary expectations are intensifying and Beijing will work unswervingly to curb excessive housing price rises. Wen, who chaired the meeting, said the State Council vowed to stabilize asset prices and to enhance tough measures to curb any price monopoly and speculative activities in the real estate market. Imposing a property tax is a possibility and the government will speed up the study on it, Wen said. A property tax has already been launched in pilot cities including Chongqing, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. (The Standard).

Hong Kong

1.  Mortgage rates look set to pick up next month as fierce competition in the market has weighed on banks' margins. Citibank (Hong Kong) chief executive Weber Lo Wai-pak said its current rate of Hong Kong interbank offered rate plus 0.65 percent represents the low-water mark. He revealed the lender intends to raise its rate for new customers to HIBOR plus 0.7 percent in May, on par with the reference level suggested by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. With one-month and three-month HIBOR at 0.08 percent and 0.13 percent, respectively, yesterday, Citibank's rates equal 0.73 percent and 0.78 percent. Both Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and DBS Bank (Hong Kong) said similar mortgage promotions based on HIBOR will end in April. They will launch new plans in May pending further details, their spokesmen said. (The Standard).