Offices in Central now command the highest rents globally. Even if they seem full of holes.
Hong Kong’s bubbly property market set a new mark this month, with a major property consultancy saying downtown office rents have hit their highest level in over a decade. Also in the news, CapitaLand’s Ascott buys up an Aussie partner just days after its REIT sold off two properties in China. Read on for all these stories and more.
Mainland Tenants Help Drive HK Office Rents to New High
Robust demand from mainland Chinese companies is driving office rents in Hong Kong’s central business districts to surpass the 2008 market peak before the global financial crisis hit the territory, said property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield.
Monthly office rents in the greater Central district, comprising Admiralty, Central and Sheung Wan, rose 4.9% to reach 126 Hong Kong dollars per sq. ft, or $174 per sq. meter, in the first half of this year, representing an 88% jump from the 1997 levels. Read more>>
Ascott REIT Sells Off Two Mainland Assets for RMB 980M
Ascott Residence Trust announced on Monday it has entered into two conditional sale-and-purchase agreements through its two wholly owned subsidiaries, Biyun Investments (Hong Kong) and Gaoxin Investments (Hong Kong), to divest two serviced residence properties in China for 980 million yuan (S$199 million) to an unrelated third party.
The agreed aggregate value of the two properties – Citadines Biyun Shanghai and Citadines Gaoxin Xi’an – was adjusted for bank loans and entrustment loans owed by the properties’ holding companies, as well as their net current asset value at the completion date of the sale. Read more>>
Ascott Pays A$180M for Majority Stake in Aussie Serviced Living Provider
CapitaLand’s wholly owned serviced residence unit, The Ascott Ltd, said on Wednesday (July 5) it is acquiring an additional 60 per cent stake in Quest Apartment Hotels (Quest) for A$180 million (S$191 million).
The move will increase Ascott’s stake in Quest from its current 20 per cent to 80 per cent, making it the largest serviced residence provider in Australasia. Read more>>
Top 10 Developers Sold 27% of China’s Homes in 2017 1H
China’s real estate industry continued to consolidate in the first six months of this year with top players keeping extending their leadership and market share as competition intensified, latest industry data suggest.
In terms of half-year sales by value, developers making into the top 10 list jointly contributed 26.6 percent of the country’s total during the period, an increase of 8 percentage points from last year, according to latest data compiled by CRIC, a subsidiary of E-House China Holdings Ltd, one of the largest real estate services companies in China. Read more>>
Hong Kong Developers Sold 10,000 New Homes From Jan to June
Hong Kong developers’ aggressive home financing scheme and bigger mortgage loans have pushed sales of new flats to surpass the 10,000 mark in the first half of this year, the highest six-month figure since 2005, according to property agents.
The first-half figure from agents came as the Land Registry announced on Tuesday that the number of residential property transactions, in both the primary and secondary markets, jumped 6.4 per cent to 6,100 last month from May. Read more>>
Citi Says Moving 3200 Staff From Central to Kowloon Was Natural
The Hong Kong head of US giant lender Citi, Weber Lo has led the bank’s 3,200 strong team in the city to exit Central and other offices for a new hotspot office in Kowloon East, in a trend that its peers may follow as rising rents in the financial district show no signs of abating.
“I believe it would be a trend for other banks or financial firms to consider to move away from Central to Kowloon East or other new commercial areas to achieve a cheaper cost and for a better working environment for staff,” Lo told the South China Morning Post in his spacious office with a 270-degree seaview in Citi Tower in East Kowloon. Read more>>
CapitaLand Self-Storage Unit Struck From Companies List in SG
Singapore developer CapitaLand announced on Tuesday that its wholly owned subsidiary, StorHub (Songjiang) Holding Pte Ltd, has been struck off from the Register of Companies.
It said the striking-off of the unit is not expected to have any material impact on the net tangible assets or earnings per share of the CapitaLand Group for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2017. Read more>>
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