Staff reporter and Reuters

Shui On Land (0272), chaired by Vincent Lo Hong-shui, acquired a site for 2.38 billion yuan (HK$2.6 billion) in Shanghai, partnering with a state-owned enterprise, as its cash-strapped counterparts offload projects.

By setting up a joint venture with Shanghai Yangshupu, the Hong Kong-based Shui On Land won the bid (at the reserve price) for the land-use rights of a land parcel at Pingliang community, Yangpu District, Shanghai, with a site area of 16,993.8 square meters and a gross floor area of 23,791.32 sq m.

Shui On Land has 60 percent control of the joint venture through its wholly owned subsidiary and Shanghai Yangshupu has 40 percent.

The Hong Kong developer plans to build a high-end, low-density residential community while preserving the heritage of the area.

Shui On Land expects the project to be attractive to high-net-worth individuals as the Yangpu district is home to the headquarters of several key players in the internet industry, including China's video platform Bilibili (9626).

The purchase by Hong Kong's developer is in contrast to the embattled real-estate companies in the mainland which used to dominate the local market.

Sunac (1918), for example, might reportedly sell a project in Huangpu District of Shanghai for over 12 billion yuan to mainland financial institutions, while China Evergrande (3333) has sold last month a site for its headquarters in Shenzhen for 7.54 billion yuan to one of its creditors

Even the state-backed property companies cannot escape the sluggish market. China Overseas Land & Development (0688) said its total contracted property sales for the first 10 months of this year dropped 23.1 percent from one year ago.

However, home prices in the mainland might not have hit the bottom yet.

New-home prices fell for a fifth month by 0.06 percent to 16,190 yuan a square meter on average in November, more than the decrease of 0.01 percent in October, said China Index Academy, one of the largest independent real-estate research firms.

Pandemic-control lockdowns were hampering sales, real-estate industry managers said.

CIA said it would still take time for the property market to become stable, even after Beijing intensified a series of measures to ease the industry's liquidity crunch in November.

Shui On snaps up site in Shanghai for 2.3b yuan