Yet another Asian investor staking their claim in post-Brexit London
Yet another Asian investor staking their claim in post-Brexit London
London development receives £500 million in backing
Asian investors continue to take advantage of the weakened sterling in the wake of Brexit.
The latest to wade into a post-referendum Britain is China’s Dalian Wanda Group, which has secured a GBP500 million (USD654 million) facility from Ping An Bank to build two skyscrapers in London’s dynamic Nine Elms area.
With an initial drawdown of GBP100 million (USD131 million), the project will be adding 437 units to the London luxury residential supply. It will also feature a five-star Wanda Vista hotel, the first outside China.
Called One Nine Elms, the hotel and residential project will require 42- and 58-storey towers reaching as high as 200 metres. Target date for completion is 2019.
Balfour Beatty will be taking over contractor duties, replacing the abortive joint venture between Interserve and China State Construction Engineering Corporation.
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Nine Elms is currently at the centre of an ambitious residential regeneration scheme in London, with at least 19 developers in various stages of construction within the area. It is home to another project of Asian origin: the Battersea Power Station redevelopment from Malaysian partners Sime Darby and SP Setia.
According to Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), Nine Elms residences moved comparatively meagre sales of only 1,100 units in 2015, compared with 1,313 units in 2013. Still, the average price per square foot for properties listed in the area jumped almost twice between 2011 and 2015.
JLL head of residential research Adam Challis told the Financial Times that the 2016 market has been weak so far, with many not-yet-built homes already up for resale.
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Source: Property Report