Property stocks rally after
takeover bids
Source: Straits Times
Singapore-listed property developers have rallied
after takeover offers were unveiled for two big companies in the sector. The
FTSE ST Real Estate Holding and Development Index, an 18-member gauge that
includes big names like CapitaLand, City Developments, Keppel Land and UOL
Group, gained 5.6 per cent this week. This caps its rise over the past few
weeks, bringing the index up 11.9 per cent from its recent low on March 20.
http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/saturday/premium/money/story/property-stocks-rally-after-takeover-bids-20140419#sthash.LmkQfOkR.dpuf
Why CMA investors may be
cool to CapLand offer
Source: Straits Times
Capitaland has enjoyed a good run-up in its share
price since it launched a $3.06 billion buyout of the rest of mall operator
CapitaMalls Asia (CMA), in which it already holds a 65.3 per cent stake. It
closed five cents up at $3.18 on Thursday, giving it a rise of 8.9 per
cent for the week.
http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/saturday/premium/money/story/why-cma-investors-may-be-cool-capland-offer-20140419#sthash.ND6aJiHh.dpuf
Capitaland
Source: Straits Times
Capitaland has made a voluntary conditional cash
offer of $2.22 a share for the rest of CapitaMalls Asia (CMA) shares it does
not own. This deal is positive for CapitaLand in the medium term. It would
allow CapitaLand to fully integrate CMA and enhance its competitive strength in
integrated developments. -
http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/saturday/premium/money/story/brokers-call-20140419#sthash.3MlrMCwe.dpuf
Keppel Land
Source: Straits Times
There were no surprises in KepLand's results -
first-quarter core earnings per share was 24 per cent of our full-year forecast
and consensus. Development sales in China and Singapore were soft in the
quarter. Given the weak outlook for the market in China and Singapore, we think
slow sales will persist in the 2014 financial year.
http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/saturday/premium/money/story/brokers-call-20140419#sthash.3MlrMCwe.dpuf
First Reit
Source: Straits Times
First Reit reported first-quarter gross revenue of
$22.5 million, which translates into a 28.3 per cent year-on-year growth. First
Reit's main focus will remain on the Indonesian health-care market. We
conservatively expect contribution from its new Siloam Hospitals Purwakarta to
commence on July 1 this year (pending unitholders' approval).
http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/saturday/premium/money/story/brokers-call-20140419#sthash.3MlrMCwe.dpuf
Ezra Holdings
Source: Straits Times
Ezra announced second-quarter "reported"
net profit of US$19.6 million (S$24.5 million), 34 per cent lower year-on-year.
Adjusting for US$16.6 million one-off gain from associate, EOC Limited,
resulting from the sale and leaseback of Lewek Champion, second-quarter
earnings were about US$3 million. Second-quarter sales rose 22 per cent
year-on-year to US$300 million, mainly driven by higher subsea business
contribution.
http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/saturday/premium/money/story/brokers-call-20140419#sthash.3MlrMCwe.dpuf
Views, Reviews & ForumIskandar losing shine due
to rising costs, labour issues
Source: Straits Times
The Iskandar region has long been touted as a
cheaper destination for Singapore companies grappling with escalating costs at
home, but the shine seems to be fading. Industrialists cite the rising cost of
real estate and labour, a lack of skilled workers and low labour productivity
as among the reasons holding them back from shifting to the sprawling
development across the Causeway.
http://www.straitstimes.com/archive/saturday/premium/money/story/iskandar-losing-shine-due-rising-costs-labour-issues-20140419#sthash.Kk7fqip8.dpuf
China's home price rise
cools to 8-month low
Analysts say this shows stabilisation and expect
easing trend to continue this year
Source: Business Times / Top Stories
CHINA'S home price inflation slowed to an eight-month low in
March, extending to a third month a loss of momentum in a property market that
has been a strong spot in the world's second-largest economy.
Average new home prices in China's 70 major cities rose 7.7 per
cent in March from a year earlier, easing from the previous month's 8.7 per
cent rise, according to Reuters calculations based on data released by the
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) yesterday. In month-on-month terms, prices
rose 0.2 per cent in March, slowing from February's rise of 0.3 per cent.
Analysts said the cooling of the property market is an initial
indication of stabilisation and they expect the easing trend to continue this
year.
-Beijing, China
China March New Home Price Increases
Ease on Tighter Credit
Source: Bloomberg / Luxury
China’s new-home price increases eased across the country last month amid tighter credit that prompted developers to give discounts.
Home prices from the first-tier cities to those less affluent all weakened in March, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Prices in the capital city of Beijing rose 10 percent from a year earlier, the slowest since April last year, while those in Shanghai added 13 percent, the smallest since June. The eastern city of Wenzhou fell 3.9 percent from a year ago, according to today’s data.
Developers including Agile Property Holdings Ltd. (3383) and Wharf Holdings Ltd. cut home prices in some eastern Chinese cities this year as market sentiment weakened on tight liquidity. China’s broadest measure of new credit fell 19 percent in March from a year earlier and money supply grew at the slowest pace on record, central bank data showed this week.
“Mortgage availability is really constrained,” Michael Klibaner, greater China research head at Jones Lang LaSalle Inc., said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Hong Kong with Rishaad Salamat. “Right now, the buyers are still willing, they’re just constrained because they can’t get the debt. If sentiments start deteriorating, that’s a much bigger problem.”
Prices rose in 56 cities in March from a month earlier, compared with 57 in February, according to today’s data.
Shares Gain
Among China’s second-tier cities, the eastern city of Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, posted a 7.8 percent gain from a year earlier, the slowest since July. Prices in the northwestern city of Xi’an rose 8.3 percent, their smallest increase since August, the statistics bureau’s data showed.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange Property Index rose less than 0.1 percent at the close, reversing a decline of 1.1 percent.
“There are definitely risks in the property market of China’s smaller cities,” Lan Shen, a Beijing-based economist at Standard Chartered Plc, said in a phone interview today. “The property market will be a big factor that presses the country’s economic growth this year.”
China’s expansion moderated to the weakest pace in six quarters and property construction plunged, testing leaders’ commitment to keep reining in credit as risks mount of a deeper slowdown. Gross domestic product rose 7.4 percent in the January-to-March period from a year earlier, the statistics bureau said this week, compared with the 7.3 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of analysts.
Regulate Differently
Premier Li Keqiang said last month the government will regulate the housing market differently in different cities to take into account local conditions.
Existing home prices rose 13 percent in Beijing last month from a year ago, and those in Shanghai increased 9.5 percent, according to the data.
Home sales fell 7.7 percent in the first quarter to 1.1 trillion yuan ($177 billion) in the first quarter from a year ago, the statistics bureau data showed this week.
Sheng Laiyun, a spokesman for the statistics bureau, said in a briefing this week that “relevant departments will closely follow the changes in the property market and improve property macro-control policies accordingly,” in response to a question on whether housing-market policies would be relaxed.
Beijing and Shanghai, the country’s financial center, as well as the southern business hubs of Guangzhou and Shenzhen are considered “first tier” by the statistics bureau. The four “are characterized by high levels of international business connectivity, deep corporate bases and well-developed international grade stock, and they are the country’s most liquid and transparent markets,” according to Jones Lang LaSalle.
-By Bloomberg News
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/archive/saturday/premium/top-stories/chinas-home-price-rise-cools-8-month-low-20140419
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-18/china-s-march-new-home-price-increases-ease-on-tighter-credit.html
Thai builders seeking
opportunities abroad
As govt contracts dry up amid political unrest,
firms are turning to neighbouring countries for infrastructure projects
Source: Business Times / World
BANGKOK'S Democracy Monument was erected to commemorate the 1932
coup that ended Thailand's seven-century reign of kings, and became a rallying
point last year for protesters seeking to oust the government. Now, the
landmark's builder is going abroad for the first time in its 84-year history as
political instability saps demand at home.
"Because of the uncertainty, government projects are on hold
and some have been cancelled," said Khushroo Wadia, managing director at
Christiani & Nielsen Thai. "We are looking for opportunities in
neighbouring countries like Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia as a way to diversify
our risk."
Thai companies have endured eight straight years of political
tension marked by violent street clashes, making them increasingly desperate as
orders decline and capacity is idled. With no end in sight to the unrest that
began late-October to unseat Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the danger is
more firms may follow Christiani & Nielsen in search of new markets as the
monetary authority and the World Bank cut growth forecasts and ratings
companies warn of potential downgrades.
-From Bangkok, Thailand
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/archive/saturday/premium/world/thai-builders-seeking-opportunities-abroad-20140419
Britons struggling to save
for home down payments
Source: Business Times / Wealth
MOST Britons between the ages of 20 and 45 who want to buy a home
are not able to save money to put towards a down payment, excluding them from
the strongest UK property market in 3½ years.
Those who say they're unable to save anything for a deposit on a
home rose to 57 per cent from 42 per cent a year earlier, according to a survey
by mortgage lender Halifax. One in five UK residents between the ages of 23 and
27 has no interest in buying somewhere to live, the survey of more than 8,000
people showed.
Record-low interest rates, credit-boosting programmes and a lack
of supply are fuelling price increases, making it harder for first-time buyers
to make a down payment.
-London, UK
Britons Struggle to Save for Home Down
Payments as Prices Surge
Source: Bloomberg / Luxury
Most Britons between the ages of 20 and 45 who want to buy a home aren’t able to save money to put towards a down payment, excluding them from the strongest U.K. property market in 3 1/2 years.
Those who say they’re unable to save anything for a deposit on a home rose to 57 percent from 42 percent a year earlier, according to a survey by mortgage lender Halifax. One in five U.K. residents between the ages of 23 and 27 has no interest in buying somewhere to live, the survey of more than 8,000 people showed.
Record-low interest rates, credit-boosting programs and a lack of supply are fueling price increases, making it harder for first-time buyers to make a down payment. While the government’s Help-to-Buy plan assists homebuyers with deposits, encouraging higher loan-to-value mortgages in the current market is “extremely reckless,” Citigroup Inc. Chief Economist Willem Buiter said this month.
“We may be heading towards the point where the aspiration to own a nice home will be replaced by the aspiration to simply live in one,” Halifax Mortgages Direct Craig McKinlay said in the report. Halifax is a unit ofLloyds Banking Group Plc. (LLOY)
U.K. house prices climbed 7.2 percent last month to an average of 262,291 pounds ($441,000), the largest annual gain since September 2010, Acadata said in an April 11 report.
More Mobility
A preference for renting in Britain, where home ownership has long been a goal for most people, could create better labor mobility and could improve economic growth, Halifax said in the report. It might also lead to fewer homes than necessary being built because demand for properties would be less stable, the mortgage provider said.
Homeownership in the U.K. is falling for the first time in more than a century, according to government statistics. The number of people who live in their own property declined to 64 percent in 2011 from 69 percent in 2001.
Renting a home in the U.K. now costs almost 1,500 pounds a year more than owning one, according to data compiled by Halifax. Average rents have increased by more than 1,200 pounds since 2009, while the cost of owning is relatively unchanged, it said.
-By Neil Callanan and Scott Hamilton
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/archive/saturday/premium/wealth/others/britons-struggling-save-home-down-payments-20140419
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-17/britons-struggle-to-save-for-home-down-payments-as-prices-surge.html