Belgian-Based Finasucre Looking to Expand Bundaberg Land Holding

FINASUCRE, from Belgium, is looking to expand its Queensland land bank.

The company has been operating in Queensland for 10 years and has amassed 11,000 hectares of land.

“There are properties of around 200 hectares that we’d like to buy in the next few months,” Finasucre Investments Australia managing director Jerome Lippens told the AFR. It’s looking around the Bundaberg area.

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Boom in Korean Based Investors

Seoul, South KoreaKOREAN-based investors have emerged as one of the biggest buyers of Australian commercial real estate since the 2008 economic downturn.

In one of the most recent moves, Ikogest Asia, a Luxembourg-based, Korean-backed pension fund, reportedly made an offer to pay about $200 million for the industrial holdings, and part of a float being offloaded by Melbourne-based developer Salta Properties.

Singapore’s GIC is now reportedly investigating that portfolio.

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South African’s Redefine Properties in Talks to Buy a Share of Cromwell

SOUTH African property group Redefine Properties is reported to be in discussions to buy a 25 per cent stake in the Brisbane-based Cromwell Group property trust.

Cromwell revealed it was in talks with the South African company in statements to the market.

“Cromwell is discussing corporate opportunities with a number of parties, includign some potential institutional investors,” the trust said in a market announcement reported by the AFR.

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Japan’s Sumitomo Forestry Buys Half Share of Henley Homes

A HALF share of Australia’s fourth largest home builder – Henley Homes – has been sold to Japanese industrial business Sumitomo Forestry for an undisclosed sum.

The deal comes after a four year negotiation, but the developers have worked together on two projects in Melbourne.

Sumitomo builds about 10,000 houses a year in Japan, and is also involved in projects at Wangaratta, in Victoria, Nelson in New Zealand, China, Korea and the United States.

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PRC, Russell Crowe, Tipped to Bid For $15 Million Bellevue Hill Mansion, Sydney

THE People’s Republic of China is expected to take on New Zealand actor Russell Crowe, in bidding for a $15 million Sydney mansion, once used by the French government as a consulate.

The Victoria Road estate, Le Manoir, will be auctioned this evening at an invitation-only event in which prospective buyers have to make a refundable $50,000 deposit, just to make a bid.

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China Based Developers Flood Melbourne

CHINA-based developers are swarming to redevelop Melbourne residential projects, with 11 projects, yielding some 3000 flats on the cards.

Last month the Jiangxi-based Lyz Group paid the Deague family about $23 million for a major residential development site in Daly Street, South Yarra.

North of the city, Chinese developers are also behind a controversial redevelopment of the Northcote AMF Bowl Centre.

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Asia Based Investor Buys Second Victorian Golf Course in a Month, Major Redevelopments Planned

FOR the second time this month, an Asia-based developer has purchased a prominent Victorian golf course, and is proposing to build a $55 million hotel, apartment-based complex and new 18-hole golf course, next door.

An as-yet-undisclosed syndicate, which will be part controlled locally, is understood to have paid more than $7 million for the massive St Andrews Beach Golf Course and Resort, on the Mornington Peninsula.

As well as the Gunnamatta course, a temporary club room and 20 apartments, the purchase includes an adjoining development site, which will yield another 18-hole course, club room, 40-room hotel, licensed commercial premises, and about 120 apartments.

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Wadhawan Group’s Construction Company, DEC, Arrives in Melbourne

VICTORIAN planning minister Justin Madden will exit a parliamentary sitting later this month to welcome Indian billionaire Rakesh Wadhawan’s property development business to Melbourne.
 
Mr Madden is one of several special guests confirmed to attend the lavish company launch at Crown Palladium on November 11, joining former sporting great Steve Waugh, who is rumoured to be attending, and members of the Victorian Bushrangers and New Zealand cricket teams, which Mr Wadhawan’s construction company, DEC, now sponsors.

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Indonesian Timber Merchant Pays $24.3 Million For Major Box Hill Office, Melbourne

AN Indonesian timber merchant is understood to have paid $24.3 million for one of Box Hill’s most prominent office buildings.
 
The government leased 883 Whitehorse Road office was quietly sold this week, reflecting a yield of about 8 per cent, based on the suburban office’s annual income of just over $1.98 million.

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