Tang Shing-bor has scrapped a plan to acquire a Mong Kok hotel originally agreed to last year despite forfeiting a HK$32.8 million deposit.
Leading today’s Hong Kong real estate news, evidence of a downturn continues to dominate as “Shop King” Tang Shing-bor is said to have forfeited a HK$32.8 million ($4.23 million) initial payment in order to back out of Kowloon hotel purchase.
The office market in Central is also showing signs of weak demand as an investor sells a unit on Arbuthnot Road for just 5 percent more than what they paid to acquire the property 27 years ago.
Also in the headlines, a CK Hutchison-controlled company has applied for the HK$650 million compulsory sale of a project in Tsim Sha Tsui, and sales of the city’s most exclusive homes are drying up as buyer confidence ebbs away.
Tang Shing-bor Forfeits HK$33M to Scrap Hotel Buy
Hong Kong’s “Shop King” Tang Shing-bor has scrapped a plan to acquire a Mong Kok hotel originally agreed to last year despite forfeiting a HK$32.8 million deposit, according to a local news report this week. Tang had agreed in July last year to purchase the H1 Hotel at 423 – 425 Reclamation Street from a locally registered firm owned by “Shoe King” Frank Leung Yat Cheong and Lam Chun Kei for HK$328 million.
The local investment pair have reportedly decided to put the 17,497 square foot, 50-room hotel back on the market. Read More>>
Jordan Retail Unit Sells for HK$28M
A street front shop in Kowloon’s Jordan area has changed hands for HK$28 million after the seller lowered the price 40 percent from their original target of HK$48 million, according to a local media report this week.
Private investors Chow Ka Pik Amy and Sin Yuk Ling sold the 650 square foot ground floor unit at 40 – 44 Jordan Road for the equivalent of HK$43,000 per square foot, after originally acquiring the shop in the Luen Tak Building in 2005 for HK$5.25 million.
The retail space is currently leased to a restaurant for HK$80,000 per month, which indicates a 3.4 percent rental yield. Read More>>
Central Office Unit Sells at 20% Discount for HK$21M
A mid-floor office unit in the Universal Trade Centre in Central has sold for HK$21 million – a 20 percent discount on the most recent sale in the building, according to a local news report. The registered buyers, Yu Chi Ming Gabriel and Chan Lai Ngor, who share the same names with the founder of education technology venture capital firm iTVentures Limited and his wife, purchased the 1,670 square foot (155 square metre) office unit at 3 Arbuthnot Road in Central for approximately HK$12,575 per square foot.
The seller had originally acquired the mid-level office unit for HK$19.86 million in 1993, indicating a capital gain of only HK$1.14 million over twenty seven years, according to Land Registry records. The most recent sale of in the building prior to this transaction — of an upper level unit — took place in August 2019 at a price of HK$16,168 per square foot – 20 percent more than this most recent deal. Read More>>
Happy Valley Flat Triples In Value after 15 Years
An undisclosed buyer has splashed out HK$37.5 million for a luxury flat in one of the most prestigious addresses on Hong Kong Island, according to a local news report.
Despite knocking HK$2 million off the asking price, the seller, a Hong Kong-registered company named Lead Rise (Hong Kong) Limited sold the lower-floor flat in Block B of Henderson Land’s Beverly Hill development in Happy Valley for more than three times the HK$11.8 million they had paid to acquire the home in 2005. Based on the transaction price, the buyer paid HK$26,615 per square foot for the 1,409 square foot unit. Read More>>
CK Hutchison Seeks Compulsory Sale of HK$650M TST Property
Excel Castle International (HK) Limited – a company controlled by conglomerate CK Hutchison – has applied for the compulsory sale of a 56-year-old property at 49 to 51 Kimberley Road in Kowloon at a reserve price of HK$652 million, according to a local news report. If successful, CK Hutchison is expected to demolish the existing Kim Hing Mansion and develop a commercial building on the site with a potential gross floor area of 86,400 square feet. The firm already owns 99.21 percent of the building.
The property is slated to go under the hammer on May 4 via a public auction managed by property agency JLL. The registered directors behind Excel Castle are Xu Kaixiang, Cai Xiaoya and Yang Weicheng who are also board members of a Shenzhen-registered company called Shenzhen Nanrui Technology Limited (深圳南瑞投資有限公司), according to China’s company registry data.The Shenzhen-registered company is backed by the Shanghai-listed Changyuan Group, which is supported by the CK Hutchison. Read More>>
Luxury Home Sales Halve in Kowloon, New Territories
Luxury home sales in Kowloon and the New Territories halved in the first three months of the year compared with the final quarter of 2019, according to a report published this week by Savills, as buyer confidence ebbed away amid the ongoing COVID-10 pandemic. Savills said that luxury home sales on Hong Kong Island fell by 44 percent for the same period.
According to a report released this week by RICS and Hong Kong-based online listings portal Spacious, buyer confidence is at its lowest level in four years. The RICS–Spacious confidence index dropped from -66 in February to -73 in March, while Kowloon saw the most drastic fall from -57 to -80. Read More>>
Tutor Centre Closures Latest Blow to Landlords
Hong Kong’s once-multimillion-dollar private tutoring business has been hit hard by school suspensions amid the coronavirus pandemic, as more than 400 units occupied by tutoring centres in shopping malls and commercial buildings across Hong Kong could go vacant, adding to the woes of retail landlords that are already suffering from the city’s retail shutdown, according to a survey released by industry body Education centres Union last week.
Daniel Wong, chief executive of commercial property agency Midland IC&I told the SCMP that the firm has seen more spaces being surrendered by small private tutoring business owners. As big tutoring centres usually pay an average rent of HK$150,000 for a 5,000 square feet space in Hong Kong’s more bustling areas, the shutdown of the centres will be a big hit to the landlords. Read More>>
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