〈Asian Post, March 4, 2017〉A real estate company controlled by Chinese tycoon Cheung Chung-kiu agreed to buy the Leadenhall Building in London, the Square Mile's tallest tower known as the "Cheesegrater", for £1.135 billion (HK$10.8 billion). The deal marks the largest ever Chinese purchase of British real estate.

Chongqin-based, Hong Kong-listed CC Land Holdings will pay cash to buy 100 per cent of the building shares owned separately by British Land and Canada's Oxford Properties, it said in a stock exchange filing Wednesday.

"The Leadenhall Building is a world class skyscraper and office tower boasting an impressive lease portfolio, commanding strong recurring rentals and will be held by the group as an investment property for long term capital growth," said Peter Lam How-mun, deputy chairman and managing director of CC Land.

The developer, with a market capitalisation of 6 billion yuan (US$873 million), also expects the purchase will affirm its presence in international property markets.

"China has a growing number of companies with a global vision," said David Ji, the head of research for China at property consultancy Knight Frank.

Given Britain has good relations with China, London's unique position as a financial centre and a cheap pound after the Brexit vote, the city's office buildings look very attractive for Chinese investors, Ji said.

The nation's second largest property developer China Vanke, bought its first office building - Ryder Court in London's Mayfair - for £115 million last September.

In the same month, China Minsheng Investment Corp purchased Societe Generale's London headquarters for £84.5 million.China has a growing number of companies with a global visionDavid Ji, Knight FrankOther deals include Hong Kong's Kingboard Chemical Holdings' acquisition of Moor Place in the City of London for £271 million, which is the European headquarters of co-working space start-up WeWork.

Knight Frank estimates Chinese capital (including Hong Kong), accounted for 31.2 per cent of overseas investment in London central office space in 2016.

As China has tightened controls on Chinese companies seeking to invest overseas to stem capital flight, including the calling off of state-owned enterprises entering into real estate transactions valued at more than US$1 billion, privately owned firms backed by strong offshore financing channels have become the major force in overseas buying.

〈China Daily, March 4, 2017〉Outbound merger-and-acquisition (M&A) activities by Chinese mainland enterprises should not be discouraged by recent policies restricting capital outflow as they have a concrete need to take their businesses abroad, legal and auditing advisory firms believe.

Faced with a depreciating yuan and declining foreign-exchange (FX) reserves, the central government has acted to stem capital flight. Standard Chartered estimated that capital outflows for last year reached $728 billion, Bloomberg reports.

The People’s Bank of China spent $778 billion over the past two years to slow the yuan’s depreciation against the US dollar, cutting FX reserves from $3.8 trillion at the end of 2013 to below $3 trillion early this year, raising concerns over the sustainability of that policy, global think-tank Oxford Economics said.

Recent measures included restrictions on buying insurance products in Hong Kong, limiting overseas acquisitions and investments, and demanding more details from citizens when converting their annual quota of funds into foreign exchange.

The Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission said they would be stricter on M&A deals involving outbound investment of more than $10 billion.

Reports said purchases of more than $1 billion would be scrutinized if they were outside the investor’s core business, unless the mainland government had agreed to the acquisitions.

Reports also said State-owned enterprises would not be allowed to invest more than $1 billion in a single overseas real-estate transaction unless permitted by the mainland authorities.

The State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) was reportedly vetting cross-border money transfers worth $5 million or more. The previous threshold was $50 million.

“When bidding for coveted assets abroad, the capital control measures may potentially put mainland enterprises going abroad at a disadvantage,” said Betty Louie, Partner (Italy) at global international law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

〈China Daily, March 3, 2017〉BEIJING — Cindat Capital Management Ltd, a Chinese investment firm focusing on overseas property, is seeking to spend $2 billion this year on elderly homes in the United States to capitalize on an ageing population.

The Beijing-based company, backed by bad-loan manager China Cinda Asset Management Co, is evaluating two investments of about $1 billion each into senior housing properties in the US, Co-Founder and CEO Greg Peng said.

“This is probably the only sector in the US where the supply has not met the fundamental demand,” Peng said in an interview Wednesday in Hong Kong. “When the baby boomersturn70inthenextfiveto10 years, there’ll be a huge increase in the old-age population, driving demand for senior health-care real estate.”

The US population over 65 is projected to increase 18 percent in the five years through 2020 to reach 56 million, according to the US Census Bureau. Other Chinese investors have also been making acquisitions of senior housing and nursing homes in the country, with Taikang Insurance Group agreeing in November to buy a $1 billion stake in NorthStar Realty Finance Corp’s health-care real estate portfolio.

Cindat teamed up with Beijing-based Union Life Insurance Co for a $930 million deal announced the same month to buy a 75 percent stake in a portfolio of US elderly homes owned by Welltower Inc. The assets include 11 senior housing properties leased to Brookdale Senior Living Inc and 28 post-acute care and nursing homes leased to Genesis Healthcare Inc.

The Chinese firm targets an annual nominal return of at least 10 percent from its senior housing portfolio, Cindat Managing Director Allan He said in the same interview.

〈The Standard, March 2, 2017〉Sales transactions of residential units surged 126 percent in February over the previous year, while total dollar volume soared 210 percent, according to the latest data released by the Land Registry.

There were 4,079 sale and purchase agreements registered last month, with dollar volume of HK$36.5 billion. On a month-on-month basis, the increases over January were 24 percent and 33 percent, respectively.

The heated market caused local home prices to reach another peak last month. Meanwhile, property firm Knight Frank disclosed the number of wealthy individuals with net worth of at least US$30 million (HK$234 million) rose 6 percent in 2016 from 2015 to a total of 4,080 in Hong Kong, topping other cities in Asia.

In the office market, Henderson Land (0012) plans to sell units at its revitalized commercial tower in Kowloon Bay this month.

The developer said it intends to keep the retail space of "Mega Cube" for long term leasing, while seeking buyers for office units.

K Wah International (0173) is selling 68 units at its Kai Tak project, K City, on Tuesday, at prices ranging from HK$6.239 million to HK$13.71 million.

〈China Daily, March 2, 2017〉Hong Kong has the largest concentration of wealthy population in Asia and is the world's third most popular place to buy a property and live for ultra-wealthy individuals, says a report from Knight Frank.

The company's Wealth Report, now in its eleventh year, has re-evaluated its criteria and this year created its own City Wealth Index.

However, Hong Kong - the only Asian city in the top three - might have to work hard to hold on to its position, said Knight Frank, as competition grows from cities in the Chinese mainland.

"The third and fourth largest concentrations of wealth today - Hong Kong and San Francisco - are likely to be eclipsed by the rising fortunes of Singapore, Shanghai and Beijing, which are all expected to see their wealthy populations grow rapidly over the next decade," according to the report.

New York ranked top in terms of individuals with US$30 million or more in net assets, defined as ultra-high-net-worth individuals, followed by London. Beijing was sixth and Shanghai seventh, according to the survey.

Ultra-high-net-worth individuals in Hong Kong own 3.3 homes on average, compared with 4.3 in Saudi Arabia, four in Taiwan and 3.2 in Singapore, it said.

The four critical criteria to identify the cities that matter to the wealthy are current wealth, or population of ultra-high-net-worth individuals; total investment in US dollars of private property investment during 2016; connectivity, or the number of inbound and outbound first and business class flights last year; and estimated future wealth in 2026.

London emerges just ahead of New York overall with top scores on both investment and connectivity, while New York leads on current and future wealth.

As one of the world's top cities with a high number of wealthy individuals, Hong Kong home prices also ranked the second most expensive after Monaco.

For US$1 million, homebuyers would get only a 20 square metre flat in a prime Hong Kong location, while Monaco provides just 17 sq metres.