Transactions completed in the first months of this year in the Asian markets not only indicate a strong interest in investments, but they also point to strong movement in the markets.

Delhi, India: TechSpan bought an office building with roughly 13,000 square metres of space in Noida. Noida is an acronym of New Okhla Industrial Development Authority and is a Southeastern suburb of Delhi. It is also an industrial city with approximately 405,000 residents.

Hong Kong, China SAR: Macquarie Global Property Advisors (MGPA), a company of the Australian Macquarie Bank, has purchased the Vicwood Plaza in the centre of Hong Kong for its MGPA Asia Fund II. The office building, which was completed at the end of the 1980s, has 34 floors with roughly 37,000 square metres of space. MGPA purchased Vicwood Plaza from Morgan Stanley for around 2.6 billion Hong Kong Dollars (260 million Euros).

Macau, China SAR: Chinese Estates has bought five neighbouring properties on the Avenida Wai Long on Taipa near the Macau International Airport. The properties cost 1.61 billion Hong Kong Dollars (161 million Euros) for 78,700 square metres of space. Chinese Estates wants to invest 5.1 billion Hong Kong Dollars (510 million Euros) to develop 2,800 residential units.

Beijing, China: Goldman Sachs has purchased the office building The Exchange Beijing from GIC Government of Singapore Investment Corporation. The 21-story building in 118 Jianguo Road, in the district of Chaoyang, offers 35,150 square metres of grade A office space. Neither partners are divulging the transaction volume.

Beijing, China: In spring 2006, after two years of negotiations, the Bank of China in Beijing signed the sales contract with which the Kaiheng Real Estate Company bought the Metroworld Tower A, C and E. The transaction covers a gross floor space of roughly 53,000 square metres. The average price was 29,000 Renminbi Yuan (2,850 Euros) per square metre of retail space and 19,000 Renminbi Yuan (1,870 Euros) per square metre of office space.

Shanghai, China: On March 24, 2006, IKEA signed the contracts for another distribution centre in the district of Fengxian. On the 386,000 square metre property, roughly 300,000 cubic metres of warehouse space will be developed. The project development requires an investment volume of 1.2 billion Renminbi Yuan (118 million Euros). This will be IKEA’s second distribution centre in Shanghai – the first in Sonjiang began operations five months ago.

Singapore: Together, CapitaMall Trust and CapitaCommercial Trust bought a complex in the centre of Singapore from the Raffles Holding, ”Raffles City”, for roughly 2.085 billion Singapore Dollars (1.04 billion Euros). Two hotels belong to the complex – the 73-story Swissôtel The Stamford and the 28-story Raffles The Plaza – as well as an office tower with roughly 35,000 square metres of rental space. These buildings tower over a podium that includes a shopping mall with 27,700 square metres of retail space and a convention centre. CapitaMall Trust holds a 40-percent share and CapitaCommercial a 60- percent share in the complex.

Tokyo, Japan: CSK Holdings Corp has sold its headquarters in Aoyama for JPY 35 billion Japanese Yen (246.8 million Euros). The 12-story building was developed in 2003 on a 2,100 square metre leasehold, and has a gross office space of 23,733 square metres. CSK will continue to rent the building.