Daily Briefing: Strong interest for Marina One office spaces; Ascott continues Asia expansion

And Hong Kong-Singapore stars fade with boom-to-gloom in finance.

The joint venture (JV) between Malaysia’s Khazanah Nasional and Singapore’s Temasek, M+S Pte Ltd, on Tuesday (21 June) announced the topping out of Marina One—its flagship development in Singapore’s Marina Bay. The 3.67 million sq ft integrated development will comprise of Marina One East and West Towers—two prime Grade-A office towers of approximately 1.88 million sq ft, 1,042 units of luxury residences, a retail podium with 140,000 sq ft of retail space; and 65,000 sq ft of lush greenery. Read more here.

CapitaLand’s wholly-owned serviced residence business unit, The Ascott Limited, continued its expansion in Asia after it has secured seven new properties with 1,714 units across seven cities in the region, the company announced in an SGX filing Monday (20 June). These include Putrajaya in Malaysia, Karawang in Indonesia, Tokyo in Japan, Danang in Vietnam and Shanghai, Changsha and Shaoxing in China. Find out more here.

Asia’s financial-hub twins, Hong Kong and Singapore, are facing increasing brakes on growth even before potential turmoil from a Brexit vote in their ex-colonial master, with China’s slowdown and the continuing shrinkage of the financial industry striking both. Hong Kong’s economy unexpectedly contracted in the first quarter, weighed down by falling retail sales and the weakest property market in 25 years. Read more here.