Image source@Visual China
Text | Wise.com
Recently, Wang Guoan, the founder of the domestic beauty brand Hanhou, sold his house to repay his debts. It also once again pushed "Huiyue Terrace", one of the representatives of luxury real estate in Guangzhou, and its developer, Kingold Group, into the spotlight.
According to the information of Ali's legal auction platform, Wang Guoan wants to sell the "Lou Wang" of Guangzhou Kingold Huiyue Terrace, with a construction area of about 366 square meters, and a starting price of 70 million yuan, equivalent to a unit price of 191,700 yuan per square meter, equivalent to 63% off the market price. Wang Guoan hopes to make a deal for 80 million yuan and pay off all the money he owes before.
Will Wang Guoan finally get his wish? The answer will be known on 12 January next year.
However, there is no shortage of buyers for top luxury properties. On December 27, Huiyue Terrace recently completed the sale of a legal auction house, with a total transaction price of 87.4228 million yuan.
The "lai" residents in Huiyue Terrace
Kingold Huiyue Terrace has always been the benchmark of "top luxury houses" in Guangzhou. In the most lively years of real estate, the story of "a house sold for 100 million" was often staged. Its location is also worthy of the price - it is located in the CBD area on the new central axis of Guangzhou, with a first-line river view, and a first-class residential landscape when you look up to see Guangzhou's landmark "Xiaomanjiao".
It is also the residence of many well-known entrepreneurs, the most well-known is Evergrande Xu Jiayin. Previously, it was rumored that Xu Jiayin planned to sell the Guangzhou Huiyuetai property to pay off the debt, but it is not known whether the transaction will be completed in the end. Behind the transactions and transactions in Huiyue Terrace is also the history of the rise and fall of high-rise buildings.
Although Wang Guoan insisted that the sale of the house was only a personal repayment of debts, it also reflected that the business situation of Hanhou was not ideal. Wang Guoan also made it clear that the initiative to repay debts is to "start anew and find a second growth curve for the queen of Han".
In the video released by Wang Guoan for several days, he said that the property in this auction was purchased seven or eight years ago, when the purchase price was 40 million yuan, the down payment was 12 million yuan, and the bank loan was 28 million yuan, and he still owes the bank about 24 million yuan in loans.
Wang Guoan said that the property was auctioned off because of his personal arrears of 15 million yuan, but the relevant lawsuit was terminated a year or two ago.
Wang Guoan seems to have planned to sell the property, but he was unable to sell it due to seizure a few years ago, but it was a blessing in disguise, and now the value of the house has almost doubled. "This year, in order to sell this house, I took the initiative to find the court to apply for the resumption of execution. ”
Wang Guoan also said that the house has already been sold, and "the auction is just a process". However, as the property is still rented by a third party, there is a risk that it may not be cleared. Previously, Wang Guoan had also rented the house to a friend for 10 years and earned 20 million yuan in rent.
In addition to Wang Guoan's house being auctioned, there is another set of mansions of the same type and different floors in Huiyue Terrace that are also being put up for sale. The building area of the house is about 365 square meters, the starting price is 75.72 million yuan, equivalent to a unit price of 207,000 yuan / square meter, has been auctioned on December 26, a total of 3 people registered, 23 bids, and finally won by the user's name Pan Haizhu with the highest price of 87.4228 million yuan.
The owner of the property is Ke Ruida, the executive director and general manager of Guangzhou Shipping Huitong. Guangzhou Shipping Huitong is a small enterprise that does online settlement of international sea freight, and has had a number of outstanding loans since last year. In 2020, Keruida was recognized by the court as a dishonest person subject to execution, and the total amount involved was 178 million yuan. The mansion was auctioned mainly because it defaulted on the mortgage of Guangfa Bank.
In October last year, Gao Lin, a former star member of the Evergrande football team, sold his Huiyuetai mansion for 129 million yuan, which is equivalent to a unit price of about 297,000 yuan per square meter. The house has a construction area of about 437 square meters, and the initial asking price is 145 million, equivalent to a unit price of 330,000 yuan / square meter.
In addition to the above listings, in the hands of intermediaries, there are also many listings in Huiyue Terrace that are waiting for new buyers to "patronize". In the past two years, some football stars and real estate executives have moved out of Huiyuetai one after another, but bosses from emerging industries such as e-commerce and games are flocking to the company. Between people coming and going, Huiyue Terrace has also witnessed the ebb and flow of the times.
Low-key "luxury house professional" Kingold
The frequent transactions of Huiyuetai have also focused the attention of the market on the developer Kingold again.
This veteran Cantonese real estate company is often referred to as a "luxury professional household" by the industry. In addition to Huiyue Terrace, Huijing New Town and high-end office building Kingold International are all developed by Kingold.
While the project has become one of the most sought-after properties for the wealthy, Kingold and its founder, Chau Chak Wing, have kept a low profile. The latest incident that caused a splash in the market was a new personnel appointment at the beginning of this year.
In February this year, KINGOLD Group appointed Mao Wenbin as President of the Real Estate Division, responsible for the overall management of KINGOLD Real Estate, assuming responsibility for operation and management, and reporting to the Chairman of the Group. Mao Wenbin is a real estate veteran who has worked for China Overseas Real Estate, China Merchants, Jinmao Fangxing, Longfor, etc., and his last stop before joining Kingold was Hopson Development.
While the real estate market is in a period of adjustment, and everyone is tightening their clothes and food to raise money to save their lives, Kingold is investing heavily in the real estate field, and it seems that it has the intention of making efforts in the real estate field again.
Also at the beginning of this year, Kingold pledged its 27,505,300 shares in Guangzhou Tianhui Hui Real Estate to the Agricultural Bank of China Guangzhou Dongcheng Branch. Previously, it pledged the equity of its Guangzhou Dongqi Real Estate and Congdu International Enterprises to financial institutions such as Cedar Trust and Zhongrong Trust several times.
In May last year, Kingold Group increased its registered capital from US$165 million to US$212 million. All of the above behaviors are also seen by the market as adding more financial chips to re-open the real estate market.
Although the luxury residential project has successfully run out in the real estate industry, compared with the real estate business, Kingold's diversified business performance is more prominent. Today, Kingold has formed a diversified and cross-disciplinary "business kingdom" with the real estate industry as its core, covering real estate, education, media, culture, hotels, restaurants, health and many other fields, and is one of the largest consortia in South China.
However, not all diverse explorations have been successful. According to public information, as of the beginning of this year, 6 of the 24 companies invested by Kingold are in a state of cancellation, including Oriental Taizhi Asset Management, Guangdong Kingold Education Development, Guangdong Kingold Intelligent System Integration, etc., involving finance, education, artificial intelligence and other fields.
In addition, Huaxing Bank, which was invested and established by Kingold, has also been in the past two years. As early as 2020, the Shenzhen branch of Huaxing Bank was fined 1 million yuan and confiscated 186,700 yuan of illegal gains by the Shenzhen Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau for the use of working capital loans for real estate development, the issuance of credit loans to related parties, and the discrepancy in the quality and price of financial advisory services.
In 2021, Huaxing Bank was fined 300,000 yuan by the Shantou Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission for failing to timely and accurately disclose the investment in wealth management products to investors, and failing to provide accurate wealth management business data to the banking regulatory authority as required.
In July 2022, Huaxing Bank was also caught in the whirlpool of public opinion, and at that time, news about "Huaxing Bank was thunderous and could not withdraw money" and "90% of the funds flowed into real estate and could not be recovered".
The burden of diversified business may be the main reason why Kingold wants to return to the main real estate business.
Zhou Zerong wants to copy the myth of the past?
However, it seems that Kingold does not have much grain reserves in real estate. In its investment map, only 5 of the 24 foreign investment companies are related to real estate. Including Guangzhou Dongqi Real Estate, Guangzhou Kingold Real Estate, Guangzhou Tianhui Hui Real Estate, Guangzhou Kingold Property, etc., and one named Guangzhou Kingold Real Estate, which is in a state of cancellation.
In recent years, there has been no move by Kingold to increase its land reserves. The last time Kingold pair appeared in the local auction market was in 2020. At that time, it cooperated with Poly to win the E3 plot of Tianhe Huijing New Town in Guangzhou for 3.349 billion yuan to develop the luxury residential Kingold Poly Huijing Terrace project.
As for the development plan of the real estate business, Kingold also rarely discloses it to the outside world. The latest news also dates back to the beginning of this year. At that time, Zhong Weihe, Co-President of Kingold Group Co., Ltd., said that this year, Kingold will work together with the Guangzhou Municipal Government and the Conghua District Government to build a garden project, which will focus on the headquarters of strategic decision-making international enterprises.
However, "scale" has never been the main direction of Kingold's development in the real estate sector. On the contrary, Kingold's success in the real estate sector is due to its "bucking the market" during the trough several times.
In the early 90s of last century, China's real estate market also experienced a period of macroeconomic control and was at a low ebb, and real estate companies held on to the currency. Kingold's founder, Chow Chak Wing, invested 1 billion yuan to build the Guangzhou International Trade Center.
It was this incredible move at that time that made Zhou Zerong's value rise rapidly. With the rise of Tianhe District, Tianhe North Road gradually became the core area for commercial and well-known corporate offices, and the Guangzhou International Trade Center, together with the adjacent CITIC Plaza and the Mayor's Building, became an important landmark complex in Guangzhou at that time.
In 1995, Guangzhou's property market was also in a weak period, and Zhou Zerong still chose to invest 1.6 billion yuan to build Huiqiao New Town with a total construction area of 1.2 million square meters. After the project entered the market, it set a number of records in Guangzhou for three consecutive years in 1996, 1997 and 1998, such as the first sales volume and the first number of households.
Since then, Zhou Zerong has invested 8 billion yuan to build a three-star intelligent community covering an area of more than 1,300 acres "Huijing New Town" project, which has also been a great success.
It's just that I don't know if this time, Zhou Zerong can lead Kingold to successfully replicate the myth of that year.