Sun Hung Kai’s Adam Kwok Kai-fai has some ideas about mortgage policy
Heading today’s Hong Kong news roundup, a shop space in the Causeway Bay retail hub has changed hands for a bundle of money — more, in fact, than the asking price for another shop in the New Territories that’s 25 times as big. Top developer Sun Hung Kai makes a couple of appearances also, and the city’s second-largest housing provider has an interesting plan to pressure some deep-pocketed tenants to vacate its flats. Meanwhile, the Hong Kong Housing Authority is seeing less cash holdings in its future. Read on for all the details about these deals and policy moves.
Causeway Bay Shop Value Drops 14% in Two Years
A 1,300 square foot ground-floor shop at 66 Percival Street in Causeway Bay is being offered for lease at HK$450,000 ($57,513) per month after its recent purchase for around HK$300 million ($38.3 million). The sale price is 14 percent lower than it was sold for in 2015, while the rent per month is 12.5 percent higher than the previous contract.
The buyer was reported to be the senior investor Tong Chor Nam, who also purchased the shop at 64 Percival Street for HK$86 million ($11 million) in 2007. That unit has been leased to a jewelry store for HK$540,000 ($69,016) per month since 2014. The rent has dropped 29.6 percent to HK$380,000 ($48,566) per month since the contract was renewed last year. Read more>>
SHK Said to Add 57 Blocks of Townhouses in Wetland Buffer Area
Sun Hung Kai Properties plans to add 57 blocks of three-storey townhouses in the residential area at Nam Sang Wai, Yuen Long, by increasing 0.34 times of the plot ratio.
Located adjacent to Ho Chau Road, the 324,600 square foot site is in the Hong Kong Wetland Buffer Area. Sun Hung Kai has applied to be allowed to increase the plot ratio and develop 57 blocks of townhouses which will occupy a total gross floor area of 109,300 square feet. Read more>>
Housing Society to Push Out Wealthy Tenants by Doubling Rents
Hong Kong’s second-largest housing provider plans to double monthly rents to more than HK$14,000 ($1,789) with a new policy aimed at evicting wealthier tenants and freeing up space for the needy, but the results of such a move will only be seen a decade later.
On Wednesday, the Housing Society, a self-financing NGO, announced the new plan – to be launched in September – to release more public housing for low-income families. Read more>>
Housing Authority Faces Dwindling Cash Holdings
Rising construction costs and operating expenses are forecast to shrink the Hong Kong Housing Authority’s cash and investment balance to HK$36 billion ($4.6 billion) by 2022 from HK$49 billion ($6.3 billion) in April 2017, the authority said today.
The total construction expenditure during the five-year period is forecast at about HK$115 billion ($14.7 billion), while no rent adjustment for public rental housing is predicted, the authority said. Read more>>
Sun Hung Kai Challenges Mass Market Mortgage Rules
Sun Hung Kai Properties, Hong Kong’s largest developer by market value, has called on the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation to ease its lending scheme for mass market flats, two days after the city’s financial secretary indicated that a relaxation was being considered by the government.
Executive director Adam Kwok Kai-fai criticised the existing mortgage insurance scheme, which provided a maximum loan-to-value ratio of 90 per cent for homes costing HK$4 million ($511,330) or less, as “outdated”. Read more>>
New Territories Shop Put on Sale for HK$130M
A shop at the Wing Fok Centre shopping mall in Fanling which covers a total gross floor area of 32,500 square feet is being market for sale via tender with an asking price of around HK$130 million ($16.6 million).
Located at 1 Luen Chit Street, the property is currently leased to a kindergarten for around HK$420,000 ($53,678) per month. The contract will end in July, 2020. Wing Fok Centre, a private estate by Sui Cheong International Development, is the major retail centre in the neighbourhood of the New Territories. Read more>>
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