* Scape is among the final bidders for the Urbanest student accommodation business which is expected to sell for more than A$2 billion, The Australian Financial Review's Street Talk reported, citing unnamed sources. The news came in less than a week after Scape agreed to buy the Atira student accommodation platform from a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. joint venture for A$700 million.
* A Macquarie Infrastructure & Real Assets Inc.-led consortium is buying a portion of the Western Australian land registry business for A$1.41 billion, IPE Real Assets reported. The Land Services WA consortium will provide, maintain and improve the systems and processes that facilitate Landgate's automated land titling services for 40 years.
Australia
* PropertyGuru Pte. Ltd. is aiming to raise up to A$400 million from a planned IPO in Australia this year, Reuters reported, citing sources with knowledge of the deal. The market value of the KKR & Co.-backed Singapore-based online property portal is expected to be about A$1.2 billion, according to the sources.
* The Lowy family, a shareholder of Scentre Group, has teamed up with Michael Gutman and Alceon to establish an up to A$450 million property fund, The Australian reported. The fund, Assembly Funds Management, will invest in properties from various sectors including apartments and shopping centers.
* Suntec Real Estate Investment Trust completed the roughly A$150 million purchase of a freehold office building at 55 Currie St. in Adelaide, according to a news release. The property, known as Allianz Centre, has a net leasable area of 26,200 square meters with 12 stories and has tenants including the South Australian government, Allianz Australia and Data Action.
Greater China
* Yuexiu Property Co. Ltd. exercised its options to acquire a 51% stake in each of two development sites in Guangzhou, China, for a total of 8.91 billion yuan. The transaction, which is subject to the approval of the company's shareholders, will boost the group's gross floor area in metro-related developments to 3.2 million square meters, according to a filing.
* Beijing Capital Land Ltd. is auctioning its 50% stake in Beijing Tiancheng Yongyuan Investment Management Co. Ltd. with a base price of 3.03 billion yuan. Beijing Tiancheng Yongyuan holds all the construction projects and office buildings of the group in the Lize Financial Business District of Beijing.
* Lujiazui Group is buying an integrated development site in Shanghai's Zhangjiang High Tech Park for 9.1 billion yuan, Mingtiandi reported, citing a Shanghai Land Exchange announcement. The state-owned developer secured the property after its Shanghai Dongyi Real Estate subsidiary made the only offer for the 89,900-square-meter site.
* BBMG Corp. paid 2.01 billion yuan to acquire a 41,760-square-meter residential land parcel in Hangzhou, China, Guandian reported. As part of the deal, about 10% of the property's 83,522 square meters of gross floor area must be used for public housing, and private homes built on the site must not be sold for more than 36,800 yuan per square meter.
* Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. cut the prices by 9% for the 235 flats at its Cullinan West III development atop the Nam Cheong MTR Station, as property transactions are slowing amid local protests, The (Hong Kong) Standard reported. The average price of the residential units is HK$21,722 per square foot after the cut.
* Wheelock Properties Ltd. received 5,600 deposits for 318 flats on offer at its Marini and Grand Marini developments in Tseung Kwan O, Hong Kong, Apple Daily reported. The submissions represent an oversubscription of 30 times for the Marini project and 7 times for the Grand Marini development.
* Major developers in Hong Kong are converting farmlands and urban sites into residential projects as the government is selling fewer land parcels for private housing development, the South China Morning Post reported, citing Vincent Cheung, managing director of Vincorn Consulting and Appraisal. Sun Hung Kai and Henderson Land Development Co. Ltd. are among the most active in converting land uses, the publication noted.
* Longfor Group Holdings Ltd.'s aggregate contracted sales for the first eight months of 2019 increased to 147.62 billion yuan from 131.66 billion yuan in the prior-year period. The unaudited contracted gross floor sales area for the January-August period was 8,987,000 square meters.
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Aries Poon and Emily Lai contributed to this report.
