Tang Shing Bor Buys Ho Choi Shops in Hong Kong

Uncle Bor has been shopping on Nathan Road again

Leading today’s Hong Kong real estate news, “Shop King” Tang Shing-bor has braved the property market downturn to buy a trio of retail properties for $HK1 billion ($130 million), while an investor consortium is said to have backed out of a HK$570 million redevelopment scheme in Wong Tai Sin amid the city’s ongoing market uncertainty.

Also in the headlines, a luxury duplex in Poly Property sold a unit in a Kai Tak project for the highest price per square foot ever in the four tower development, and a third-generation family of tea shop owners have sold the premises of their caffeinated heritage at a ten percent discount.

Tang Shing-bor Said Buying 3 Shops for HK$1B

Hong Kong’s “Shop King”, Tang Shing-bor, has agreed to acquire three retail units across the city from local restaurant chain Ho Choi Group for a combined HK$1 billion ($130 million), according to a local media report.

Tang Shing-bor may be seeing some bargains

The first of the trio of units is located in the Wing Kiu Building at 530 Nathan Road in Yau Ma Tei, while the second is in the Yat Chau International Plaza at 118 Connaught Road West in Sai Ying Pun and the third is at 43 Heung Wo Street in Tsuen Wan. Uncle Bor, as he is known in the city’s property investment community, is said to have paid a HK$100 million deposit for the set of shops, with the transaction expected to complete next year. Read More>>

Consortium Bails on HK$570M Wong Tai Sin Redevelopment

An investment consortium may have forfeited a 10 percent deposit after backing out of a HK$570 million acquisition of four tenement buildings in Kowloon East’s Wong Tai Sin area, according to a local news report.

With the unnamed group having been scheduled to make final payment for the properties on Fung Tak Road on 28 April, but apparently had second thoughts as the city’s property market continues to slide, The project near Kowloon’s Lion Rock occupies a site area of 8,790 square feet (817 square metres) and with the plot approved for a maximum gross floor area of 24,177 square feet.

At those specifications, the erstwhile buyer’s deal would have allowed it to acquire the residential component of the properties at HK$13,000 per square foot and the eight street-front retail units at an average price of HK$28 million. Read More>>

Poly Sells Kai Tak Unit for Record HK$123.5M

A private investor has splashed out HK$123.5 million for a luxury duplex flat located in Poly Property’s Vibe Centro in Kai Tak, according to a local news report. The buyer acquired the 3,708 square foot upper floor property at the equivalent of HK$45,741 per square foot – the highest price per square foot transacted in the project since its opening in 2017.

Located at 9 Muk Ning Street, the most recent transaction in Vibe Centro prior to this top end deal took place on 24 April when a 504 square foot lower floor flat sold for HK$26,671 per square foot – 42 percent less per square foot than the latest transaction. Read More>>

Wan Chai Tea Shop Sold at 10% Discount

A street front shop in Wan Chai, which formerly housed a long-running Chinese herbal tea shop, has changed hands for HK$50 million — nearly five decades after the family selling the property at 29 Spring Garden Lane had acquired it, according to a local media report. The historic shop had shut down in January, according to a local media account.

Yeung Man Kai, the third-generation owner of the Yeung Chun Lui brand of tea, sold the shop for HK$71,429 per square foot, or around 10 less than the earlier asking price. The Yeung family had acquired the property in 1972 for HK$180,000, earning the family a book value gain of HK$49.82 million over 48 years. Read More>>

Developers Postpone Hotel Openings

Some of Hong Kong’s biggest developers have postponed the opening of new hotels in the city, as visitor arrivals in the Asian financial hub dropped to fewer than 100 persons per day in April, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

In Hong Kong Island’s Fortress Hill area CK Asset Holdings has pushed back the opening of its 840-room Hotel Alexandria, which had originally been slated to open before the end of March.

A joint venture between Swire Properties, Henderson Land Development, Sun Hung Kai Properties, New World Development and Hang Lung Properties has also delayed by six months its plans to open the 206-room The Silveri Hong Kong MGallery in Lantau Island’s Tung Chung area, after that property had originally been scheduled to open in the first quarter. Read More>>

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