戴德梁行：今日全球楼市速览(2010.06.01)

2.  Prices of Shanghai's luxury residential properties remained strong over the past one-and-a-half months although transaction volume plunged amid weak market sentiment caused by a state-level crackdown on speculation in China's overheated housing market, according to a latest industry research. More than 90% of luxury homes maintained their prices or saw higher prices after the Central Government launched tightening measures on 17 April, Shanghai Centaline Property Consultants Ltd, operator of the city's largest realty chain, said after monitoring sales before and after the policy. "While some of the city's mass market housing developments, mostly in outlying areas, began to offer discounts to lure buyers, prices of the upscale and luxury sector continued to be stable," said Gong Min, a research manager with Centaline. "On one hand buyers of luxury homes have stronger purchasing power than ordinary home buyers who are more vulnerable to mortgage and tax policies, while wealthy buyers in most cases view their properties as a symbol of status, and therefore few of them would make home purchases just for short-term speculation," he said. According to its latest research, nearly 70% of luxury residential projects in the city have kept their prices over the past 6 weeks and more than 21% have seen increases of between 2 and 62%. Only 9% of them suffered a decline in prices during the post-policy period, according to the firm. For example, an apartment at Lyceum Mansion on Maoming Road S. was sold at an average price of RMB115,800/sq m 4 weeks after the launch of the Central Government policy. That compared to RMB71,200/sq m recorded on the same floor of the same building 3 weeks before the new policy. Research by Shanghai Uwin Real Estate Information Services Co found that sales of new homes costing more than RMB50,000/sq m fell to RMB22,509/sq m between May 1 and 30, down 68% from April. The average price of luxury homes rose nearly 7% to RMB71,341/sq m during the period. (Shanghai Daily).

3.  More than 8 million people have visited the World Expo since it opened a month ago. (Shanghai Daily).

4.  Shanghai’s Jiading district hopes to attract more e-commerce companies to register with favorable policies as the booming Internet industry is playing a more important role in the city's economy. 20 e-commerce companies have recently signed contracts to locate their offices to the 3131 Creative Industry Zone in the district. The District Government will offer a housing price discount of 10% or 30% off rents for 3 years to companies registered in the zone. Other favorable measures include a RMB200,000 to RMB500,000 government grant to new companies with registered capital over RMB5m. (Shanghai Daily).

5.  Plaza 889, a landmark commercial project in Shanghai's northwestern Caojiadu area, has unveiled its 50,000 sq m retail space. This marked one of the major accomplishments in a government redevelopment plan which aims to transform the area into one of the city's 12 major commercial centres. Located at the intersection of Wanhangdu Road and Changshou Road, Plaza 889 is a RMB3bn mixed-use project developed by Jiangsu Yueda Group which also includes a 50,000 sq m office development. Under an earlier released government plan, the Caojiadu area will eventually have a total of 400,000 sq m of high-quality retail and office space. (Shanghai Daily).

6.  GuocoLand Ltd – a real estate developer controlled by Malaysian billionaire Quek Leng Chan, said that it is keen to expand "Guoson Centre," a brand for mixed-use landmark projects, to more Chinese cities from its existing 2 as it continues to strengthen its presence across China. The company, the property arm of Malaysian conglomerate Hong Leong Group, officially unveiled its US$80m, 442-room Guoman Hotel on 29 May in Shanghai's Putuo district to herald the entry of the deluxe United Kingdom hotel brand, which runs 4 hotels in London, into the Asian market. Guoman Hotel Shanghai is part of Guoson Centre Changfeng, a US$600m, 500,000 sq m project scheduled to be completed in 2012 which also comprises a shopping mall, SOHO, grade A offices and serviced apartments. "We are very keen to extend our Guoson Centre portfolio, which is under development in Shanghai and Beijing, to more Chinese cities in the future particularly in Nanjing, Tianjin and Chengdu," said Violet Lee, group managing director of GuocoLand (China) Ltd. (Shanghai Daily).

7.  Bank of East Asia – is seeking regulatory approval to issue yuan-backed bonds on the Chinese mainland. BEA also plans to open its rural bank in Shaanxi Province in the 4th quarter of this year, joining HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank, while Citigroup has set up lending companies in rural China. China plans to raise the number of rural banks by more than 10 times to 1,027 by 2011. (Shanghai Daily).

8. Pfizer Inc – is said to have sold its swine vaccine business in China to Harbin Pharmaceutical Group. Harbin Pharmaceutical has paid US$50m for these assets, Reuters said, citing an unnamed source close to the deal. (Shanghai Daily).

9.  Eizo Nanao Corp – a Japan-based display device producer, announced it would invest US$9m to establish a wholly owned plant in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, to penetrate the high-end medical-used monitor market in China. The Suzhou-based venture, called Eizo Display Technologies (Suzhou) Co Ltd, will start output in October this year. The venture will cover procurement, manufacturing and sales in China. (Shanghai Daily).