Pebblestone Signs US$363M Deal for Seoul's Hyde Park Myeongdong
South Korea's Pebblestone Asset Management has signed a preliminary agreement to acquire Hyde Park Myeongdong, a mixed-use complex housing Apple's flagship Korea store, for about KRW 500 billion (US$363.4 million). The deal follows the firm's selection as preferred bidder for the 19-storey complex l
South Korea's Pebblestone Asset Management has signed a preliminary agreement to pay about KRW 500 billion (US$363.4 million) for Hyde Park Myeongdong, a mixed-use complex in Seoul's Myeongdong shopping district that houses Apple's flagship Korea store, Chosunbiz reported, citing investment banking industry sources.
The deal follows Pebblestone's selection last month as preferred bidder for the 19-storey complex, which South Korea's Mastern Investment Management and US-based TPG Angelo Gordon developed and completed in 2021. Pebblestone is also the preferred bidder for T Tower, a Seoul Station-area office building.
In other Asia-Pacific real estate news, Japan's Daiwa House Industry has agreed to acquire a roughly 30 per cent minority stake in UK homebuilder Miller Homes from funds managed by US alternative asset manager Apollo, which will remain the controlling shareholder, according to a joint statement. Bloomberg reported that the deal values Miller Homes, founded in 1934 and targeting about 7,000 homes a year, at roughly £2 billion (US$2.7 billion) including debt, with Daiwa's stake worth about £400 million (US$536 million), citing people familiar with the matter.
Tokyo-listed East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and Itochu Corporation will launch a jointly owned real estate developer on 1 October, combining their property businesses into a single company capitalised at ¥10.698 billion (US$66.8 million), JR East said. The new company, JR East Itochu Real Estate Development, will be based in Tokyo's Shinjuku district and owned 60 per cent by JR East and 40 per cent by Itochu, with Tanabe Shigeru as president. It also absorbs Itochu's housing unit and follows an April integration agreement.
In Australia, CPPIB and Dexus have agreed to sell 101 George Street in Sydney to private Australian buyer Sandran Property Group for A$145 million (US$103 million) in the latest in a flurry of Sydney office deals, according to an account in the Australian. Local player Acure Asset Management is also active, acquiring a pair of office buildings on Sydney's North Shore for a combined A$278 million, on behalf of a new, unlisted fund. The company acquired 67 Albert Avenue in Chatswood from Singapore's Mapletree Investments for US$108 million, and picked up 558 Pacific Highway in St Leonards from Chinese-backed developer JQZ for US$170 million.
US advertising and marketing giant Omnicom is said to have leased nearly 50,000 square feet of office space at 51 Merchant Road in Singapore, about three-quarters of the building, Business Times reported. JLL brokered the five-year lease, which lets Omnicom consolidate its Singapore offices around MacDonald House while exiting Mediapolis and Alexandra Road. Singapore's Elevate Capital and US-based LaSalle Investment Management bought the building from Singapore's Raffles Education for S$121.8 million (US$95.5 million) in February and are refurbishing it for completion in early 2027.
Malaysian developer Eco World Development has topped a Singapore government land tender with a S$208.1 million (US$163.2 million) bid for a condo site in Bishan town's Sin Ming area, beating six rival bids, The Business Times reported. The S$1,612 per square foot per plot ratio bid sets a new record for a 99-year leasehold private residential site in Singapore's urban fringe area, surpassing August's Berlayar Drive benchmark by 6.4 per cent and beating the second-highest bid, from a Hong Leong Group-Mitsui Fudosan joint venture, by 11 per cent.
China's new home prices fell 0.1 per cent in August from July, matching June and July's declines, while the annual drop narrowed to 3.0 per cent from 3.2 per cent in July, according to Reuters calculations based on National Bureau of Statistics data. Tier-one cities bucked the trend with prices rising 0.1 per cent, while smaller cities continued to decline, and household loans, including mortgages, shrank by RMB 202.9 billion (US$30.2 billion) in August, Reuters reported.
China's US$33 billion market for listed real estate investment trusts is showing signs of fatigue as a pipeline of more than US$13 billion in new offerings threatens to overwhelm investor demand, Bloomberg reported. Roughly 30 REIT products are awaiting approval to raise a combined RMB 90.4 billion (US$13.5 billion), about 40 per cent of the market's listed value, Bloomberg reported. Listed REITs have fallen 10.4 per cent over six months, with the sector in a "deep correction," said Zhao Yunjiao of China's CSCI Pengyuan Credit Ratings.
