Randy Lynch, founder and seasoned traveller of U.S. based luxury travel firm Kipling & Clark has compiled a list of his favourite hotels in the Asian region which has now been released by the guide.

The list features the top ten luxury hotels in all of Asia where wary travellers can rest their bodies after a hard day of sightseeing or shopping. We have listed them in order of rank below:
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^{Lewis Hamilton @ Shanghai GP [Credits: Emilgh]}

With the world seemingly against him, Lewis Hamilton proved them all wrong and raced to a fantastic win in Shanghai’s Formula 1 on Sunday. He was labeled arrogant by the press and some of his rival drivers even pledged to help his title rivals in order to pay him a lesson, but regardless of all the talk and chatter, the Brit is now in a sweet position to become the youngest world champion ever if he manages to finish in the top five on Nov. 2^nd in Brazil’s end of season race.

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The fourth quarter of 2007 saw the end of Beijing and Shanghai’s housing boom. As transaction volumes plummeted by as much as 25 and 40 percent from July to August 2008 and by 67 and 70 percent year on year in Beijing and Shanghai respectively, developers’ are having to offer buyers’ massive discounts to boost sales of new units. According to CCTV, last month’s (August), average daily turnover in Beijing was a meagre 150 units which in Beijing standards is a new all time low.

Secondhand properties are also not doing well with a year-on-year decline of 10-15 percent in August, sellers have having to make price cuts by as much as 5 percent.

The situation at the moment is that it is a buyers’ market in housing in 1st tier Chinese cities with more and more potential buyers waiting to see if there would be further price drops to pick up properties at bargain prices.
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Shanghai’s real estate market is anticipated to slow down drastically in 2008, becoming more vulnerable to government policy shifts and attract less investment. This is according to several of the larger real estate analysts.

According to a Jones Lang LaSalle report released recently, after the government implemented the land appreciation tax and imposed additional restrictions on foreign investment in the sector, real estate investment saw a slowdown in the fourth quarter of 2007 and there was only one sizable sale completed in the city.

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While the continued upward path of the Shanghai stock market has featured regularly in the world’s media, the city’s real estate market has not received so much attention. Nevertheless, property in China’s largest city is undoubtedly part of the boom and the web of economic dilemmas facing the Chinese authorities.

The latest efforts to curb real estate speculation have resulted in the introduction of a 20% tax on second-hand property sales. One explanation given for the increase is the authorities’ desire to prevent a speculative bubble in real estate fuelled by profits from the stock market. Another, more plausible reason is that the lure of the stock market is so great that people are selling property in order to finance speculative investments. This tax hike should certainly be seen in the context of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s general efforts to decelerate the juggernaut of the Chinese economy.

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SHANGHAI and Beijing office properties are on top of the world – and that’s official.

The two cities led the way with an average eight percent return on investment ratio among the world’s top 12 real estate markets last year, according to a definitive report by a respected international property adviser.

In its inaugural edition of Global Investment View, CB Richard Ellis also said investment in office buildings continued to surge, with Asia and Europe recording the most significant increases in activity.

In particular, Beijing attracted 29.8 billion yuan (US$3.8 billion) in office investment in 2006, as compared to 16.7 billion yuan in 2005.

Shanghai secured 22.6 billion yuan (US$2.8 billion), an increase of 3.2 percent from a year earlier.

A substantial rise in cross-border investment activity was also recorded, as competition among investors, yield compression, and a limited pool of desirable assets have led investors to broaden their geographic search for opportunities.

According to the report, Shanghai led the Asian market with nearly 6.4 billion yuan last year, more than twice the three billion yuan recorded in 2005. American investors were responsible for 2.5 billion yuan, up from two billion yuan a year earlier.

“The increasing volume of global office investment activity over the past five years reflects the abundant institutional and private-investor capital that has been allocated to real estate and the migration of this capital across borders in pursuit of opportunity,” Gregory S. Vorwaller, president of CBRE’s investment properties group, said in the report.

“Diversification across both geography and property types will continue to drive investment portfolio decisions around the world.”

Generally, China’s mainland real estate market, which includes residential, office, hotel, retail and industrial properties, continued to be in the global investment spotlight last year.

Market Office investment Return on volume in 2006 investment rate

Beijing                  US$3.7b      8%

Shanghai              US$2.8b      8%

Toronto                US$1.4b      6.5%

New York              US$23.3b     6.3%

Chicago                US$8.1b       6.3%

Los Angeles          US$8.3b       6%

Sydney                 US$1.8b       5.5%

Singapore             US$2.7b        4.9%

Hong Kong*          US$1.9b        4.5%

Madrid                  US$2.7b        4.25%

Paris                    US$21.2b       4%

London                US$27.6b       3.75%

*Hong Kong investment totals are for the 12-month period December 1, 2005 through November 30, 2006.

Source: Shanghai Daily

PROPERTY transaction centres in Shanghai now require foreigners to show immigration records when buying homes to prove that they have lived on the Chinese mainland for more than a year, the Oriental Morning Post reported today.

China unveiled a string of new policies in July to restrict overseas property investment on concerns of that an influx of foreign capital would aggravate speculation in the domestic housing market.

Under the new policies, foreigners can’t buy homes or apartments on the mainland until they’ve been here at least a year. Those who meet the residency rules must purchase property only for their own use and cannot lease it to others.

Shanghai property transaction centers can make up own rules on trading on the basis of these policies, according to Shanghai Municipal Housing, Land and Resource Administration Bureau.

Four Shanghai districts, Jing’an, Xuhui, Baoshan and Pudong New Area, have banned foreigners and overseas Chinese from buying second homes within their jurisdictions since October.

Among other measures, overseas institutions and individuals that want to purchase property for purposes other than their own use must set up a company in China, according to a joint circular issued by six government agencies.

Source: Shanghai Daily

Dubai: Emaar Properties has opened a full-fledged office in Shanghai, marking its entry into China with a plan to roll out a number of real estate projects including residential, commercial, hotels and hospitals, a company statement said.

The move comes following the Dubai-based real estate developer’s major foray in key growth markets including Saudi Arabia, India, Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Turkey and Pakistan with projects value combinedly exceeding Dh230 billion, including Dh100 billion in Saudi Arabia, Dh78 billion in Pakistan, Dh25 billion in Morocco, Dh10 billion in Turkey and a further Dh20 billion in India.

Earlier, it acquired US-based John Laing Homes for Dh3.856 billion ($1.050 billion), a strategic move that has firmly perched Emaar in the international spotlight.

Emaar is the third UAE entity to have made major foray into China, the world’s second largest economy following DP World and Damac Propertieswho have already pledged sizeable investment in the People’s Republic.

“Emaar’s multi-pronged approach to tap into the Chinese economy, which gained a 9.9 per cent growth in 2005, will flag off with the development of modern, community-centric lifestyle developments in Beijing and Shanghai. These residential projects will feature the entire spectrum of amenities including fitness centres, retail malls, schools as well as hotels,” the company said in a statement.

Mohammad Ali Al Abbar, Emaar chairman, said the premises in the Jiushi office building in Shanghai will open this month. The office will steer Emaar’s ambitious investment plans for the world’s second largest economy.

“Emaar’s entry into China completes a strategic leg of our international expansion programme that focused on three booming markets the Middle East, the India Subcontinent and now China,” Al Abbar said.

“Following its entry into the WTO in 2001 and market reforms gaining pace, the Chinese economy has been growing at an impressive rate. Its contribution to the global GDP growth is more than that of America as well as that of the three next-largest emerging economies India, Brazil and Russia. Underpinning this growth momentum is the property sector.”

Beijing and Shanghai are two focal points for Emaar’s entry into this mega market. In particular, Beijing will be the venue for the 2008 Olympics and Shanghai will host the 2010 World Expo.

Source: Gulfnews
Related links:

• DP World to invest in new terminal at Tianjin, China (News Article)
• Chinese Government and DAMAC sign Landmark MOU (News Article)
• Press release from Emaar Properties on its entry into the Chinese market

Source: ShanghaiDaily.com