Chinese developer Fantasia Holdings Group has launched a vacation rental business similar to Airbnb Inc and HomeAway Inc to utilise the scores of homes left unsold as a property boom faded. Fantasia's Home ENE online platform, launched last month, will rival Tujia, the Chinese home rental firm that this week raised $300 million from investors including Singapore-based developer CapitaLand Ltd and Hong-Kong's All-Stars Investment Ltd to expand at home and abroad."There are more than 50 million vacant units in urban China, which have become a major source of properties for vacation use," Fantasia chairman and CEO Pan Jun said in a statement on Wednesday.He cited research by Chinese Internet consultants iResearch which showed the short-term lease market is set to grow more than double to 10.5 billion yuan ($1.69 billion) in 2015 from 4 billion yuan in 2014.
HomeAway, Inc. (HomeAway) operates an online marketplace for the vacation rental industry. Shares of AWAY traded higher by 9.09% or $2.59/share to $31.07. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $25.13 and as high as $36.19. On average, 1309290 shares of AWAY exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 5554423.
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