Shanghai apartments

To An Wei, a white-collar migrant worker in Shanghai, China’s tax exemption on house purchase and mortgage deposits reduction are a real stimulus for home buying.

The newly-wed IT worker said, ‘The new policy would not only save me more than RMB4,400 ($644) from the tax reduction in purchasing a 90-square-meter flat in Shanghai and make it earlier to obtain a bank loan to pay for the mortgage, but also give me confidence in the stability of the housing market.’

The Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation and the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, made the synchronous move on Wednesday to announce a series of new measures to boost the domestic real estate market, which had shown signs of slowing amid the global financial turmoil.

‘The policy is concentrated on tax reduction and relaxing restrictions on financial institutes to give loans to private homebuyers,’ said Nie Meisheng, the Chamber of Real Estate of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce director.

The chamber was one of the advisors prompting the promulgation of the policy.

The Ministry of Finance announced on Wednesday to exempt the stamp tax on property purchase and the value-added tax of land on property sales, starting from Nov. 1, to boost the slowing real estate sector.

More HERE.
Source: China View

Yvonne Hue

Plunging property and share prices knocked a third off the average wealth of China’s billionaires in the first fall for seven years.

Zhang Yin, director of Nine Dragons Paper lost $8.4 billion after shares of her scrap paper company dropped by 86%.

The 50 richest people in China were worth $2.43 billion on average, down from $3.63 billion in 2007, according to an annual list from Hurun.

Amongst the big losers was, seen here, the delectable Yvonne Xue, 44, board chairman general manager of Shanghai Si Tong Cable Industry and vice board chairman of Shanghai Huiyang Industry.

Gome Chief Executive Officer Huang Guangyu [left] has topped the rich topped the list three times in the last five years Photo: REUTERS

Zhang Yin, director of Nine Dragons Paper lost $8.4 billion after shares of her scrap paper company dropped by 86% Photo: GETTY

The 50 richest people in China were worth $2.43 billion on average, down from $3.63 billion in 2007.

Back in first place, with a personal fortune of USD6.3 billion, was 39-year-old Huang Guangyu, nicknamed the Price Butcher because of the discounts available at Gome, his electrical retail empire. Mr Huang has topped the list three times in the last five years.

His elevation knocked Yang Huiyan, the 27-year-old heiress who was given a controlling stake in Country Garden, an enormous property developer, into third place.

Miss Yang saw her personal wealth plummet from $17.5billion to $4.9 billion as the share price of Country Garden nose-dived and jitters derailed the Chinese property boom.

Zhang Yin, the chairwoman of Nine Dragons Paper, who was the first woman to top the rich list in 2006, lost $8.4 billion after shares of her scrap paper company dropped by 86 per cent.

Two more property tycoons also suffered badly. Xu Rongmao, chairman of Shimao, lost $4.4 billion and Zhang Li, co-chairman of Guangzhou R&F properties, lost $3.6 billion.

China was home to 101 people with $1 billion or more of personal wealth, declining from 106 last year.

Canton Properties

London-listed Canton Property Investment, which develops malls in China, has said its executive chairman had disappeared and its shares had been suspended while the firm sought extra funding.

The Hong Kong-based company, incorporated in early 2007, said in a statement that the executive chairperson, Keng Wong had ‘recently been absent from the company and uncontactable.’

Wong’s secretary told Reuters she had not seen him since August, while executives at the company were unavailable for comment.

Canton Property is investing in projects in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, where property prices have dropped by as much as 30% in the last year after booming for years.

In March, the company said it had bought from Keng Wong and a business partner, Ye Zhuansong, a 100% stake in a mixed-use property project in Guangzhou for about $350 million.

The project, called Canton Finance Center and including shopping space, offices, serviced apartments and a hotel, would be worth about $1.2 billion when completed, the firm said at the time. But in its statement yesterday, Canton Property said it was seeking funding for the project.

Canton’s non-executive director David Brewer, who held the largely ceremonial post of the Lord Mayor of London in 2005 and 2006, resigned after a board meeting on Wednesday failed to agree on the appointment of an interim chairman.
Source: Reuters

Lanson Place, Shanghai

US-based investment bank Morgan Stanley, one of the biggest foreign investors in China’s real estate sector, is looking to sell two high-profile blocks of Shanghai luxury residences (Chateau Pinnacle and Lanson Place) for several billion yuan. In addition to putting the more than 100 service apartments in the city’s Xintiandi area up for sale,

Two other foreign property investors —  Australia’s Macquarie and HKR International of Hong Kong —  also have Shanghai residential apartment buildings on the market.

Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund is also selling Chateau Pinnacle in the former French concession.

Local property brokers estimate the value of Lanson Place at no less than RMB1 billion ($145 million) at present market prices. Morgan Stanley purchased Chateau Pinnacle for about RMB800 million in 2006.

Source: Reuters

Kardan has won an auction with a local partner to acquire land with construction rights of about 109,000 square meters in the city of Hangzhou in China.

Kardan will pay $62 million for the 10,400 square meters of land together with partners.

Of the partners Geely Group will hold 40% of the project.

Kardan’s subsidiary GTC Real Estate China will hold 50% of the project and a third party will hold 10%.

Total construction costs of the residential, retail and office development will amount to $241 million, including the price paid for the land.

Construction is expected to start in 2009 and will take about three years.
Source: Interactive Investor