Macquarie cuts price for high-end China property

Shanghai

An investment arm of Australia's Macquarie Group has slashed prices by about a third from levels quoted nine months ago for one of its top-end Shanghai properties, underlining the difficulties investors face exiting China's cooling real estate market.

The residential development, City Apartments, a 16,000 square-meter residential development in downtown Shanghai, is up for sale for around RMB300 million ($44 million).

Macquarie decided to sell the project more than half a year ago for around RMB26,000 per square meter, but it failed to find a buyer at that price.Macquarie cut its price to less than RMB20,000 per square metre. It hopes to attract an institutional buyer who will purchase the entire block in cash.

One source noted that the price could be as low as RMB18,000 per square meter.

One of the sources, a potential buyer who had reviewed the project, said, 'Given the market has been down so much and it is going to fall further as most people believe, it is very tough to sell any properties at a good price these days.'
Source: Reuters