Sunac China Misses $30M Bond Payment and More Asia Real Estate Headlines

China’s growing group of defaulting developers leads Mingtiandi’s headline roundup again today, with top-five builder Sunac having reportedly missed a coupon payment on an offshore bond.

The saga of Singapore co-living operator Hmlet also makes our roundup as it starts a new act with the once-high-flying startup being absorbed by a European competitor through a share swap. There are still more stories as SGX-listed heavyweight City Developments Ltd makes another try at winning approval for a London residential project and the auditors of a China retail REIT questioning the trust’s ongoing viability.

Sunac Could Join China’s Defaulting Developer Club with Missed Bond Payment

Sunac China has not paid a coupon worth $29.5 million due Monday for a dollar bond, a person with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday, marking the first missed offshore payment for the country’s third largest property developer by sales.

The payment for the 7.96 percent bond maturing in October 2023 has a 30-day grace period before triggering a default. Another source close to the company said Sunac is trying to find a funding solution to meet the payment deadline. The developer declined to comment. Read more>>

Co-Living Startup Hmlet Merges with European Operator

Co-living start-up Hmlet will merge with European co-living start-up Habyt via an equity share swap, with Habyt founder and chief executive Luca Bovone leading the combined entity.

This comes after Habyt acquired two other co-living players – Milan-based Roomie last month and Frankfurt-based homefully in June last year – making it one of the largest operators in the sector in Europe. Read more>>

CDL Unit Submits Revised Plans for $1.43B London Project

City Developments’ Reselton Properties arm has lodged revised proposals for its £1.1 billion ($1.43 billion) development at the historic Stag Brewery site in Richmond upon Thames, southwest London, which involves shrinking the residential element to 1,085 homes.

Plans for the site, which previously proposed 1,250 homes, were refused by mayor of London Sadiq Khan last year. His decision was partly based on a lack of affordable housing. The developer, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore-listed City Developments, said the amount of allocated affordable housing would be determined by the financial viability analysis in accordance with guidelines. Read more>>

SGX-Listed Dasin Retail Drops After Auditor Questions Trust’s Viability

DASIN Retail Trust units closed 3.23 per cent or S$0.01 lower at S$0.30 on turnover of 872,700 units on Tuesday (Apr 12), a day after the trustee-manager of the real estate investment trust (Reit) said that the Reit’s auditor had raised concerns about the Reit’s ability to continue as a going concern.

Deloitte & Touche, in its report on the financial statements of Dasin Retail Trust for the financial year ended December 2021, noted that the Reit and its subsidiaries were in a negative working capital position as at end-December 2021. Read more>>

Singapore’s Central Bank Expected to Tighten Monetary Policy

Singapore’s central bank is expected to tighten monetary policy as global inflation sweeps into the city-state, fueled by geopolitical and supply-chain tensions and as Federal Reserve officials remove Covid-era support.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore, which uses the exchange rate rather than interest rates to stabilize prices, will signal Thursday that it’s seeking a stronger local dollar to buffer imported inflation, according to all 16 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Read more>>

Hong Kong Developers Roll Out Discounts After Q1 Slump

Hong Kong’s developers are offering discounts, longer payment terms, cash rebates and other goodies to drum up buying interest, as the residential property market is poised to rebound from its first-quarter slump after the city’s Covid-19 outbreak abates.

Henderson Land Development is offering up to HK$100,000 (US$12,757) of cash rebates to spur buyers to pay within 120 days for their purchases of leftover flats at The Richmond development at West Mid-Levels. Chevalier International Holdings is waiving the management fee for up to 24 months for the first 10 buyers to book its Sablier project in Tai Kok Tsui, with an extra 3 per cent discount on some units. Read more>>

Site of Singapore’s Keppel Club to Yield 9,000 Homes

A new housing development comprising 9,000 residential units – about 6,000 public housing flats and some 3,000 private residential units – will come up on the 48-hectare site of Keppel Club on Singapore’s southern waterfront.

The first build-to-order (BTO) HDB flats on the site, expected to be highly sought-after, are slated to launch within 3 years; the remaining units are scheduled for launch in the next 3 to 5 years, said the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). Read more>>

Singapore Experienced Cross-Sector Recovery in Q1: CBRE

The first quarter of the year has seen recovery across Singapore’s property segments as Covid-19 restrictions were eased, said CBRE in its Q1 2022 report.

The real estate services firm said positive momentum in the office market from end-2021 carried over into the first quarter of this year, with the islandwide office market registering a healthy net absorption of 307,282 square feet (sq ft) – the third consecutive quarter of positive net demand. Read more>>

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