First Group director Wei Shenyi shakes hands with CSIC CEO Meng Xiangkai after Centaline helped the developer sell a Kowloon office to the mainland firm
Property consultants in the Hong Kong market enjoyed another encouraging month in April as brokers both local and global signed some record deals. In one of the biggest investment transactions brokered during the month, a local brokerage helped ink a deal that set a new high price in West Kowloon. And in the rental sector, a deal at Jardine House raised the bar for Hongkong’s already famously steep office rents. Read on for all the details on who notched which deals in April.
Investment Brokerage and Sole Agency Appointments
Centaline Property is said to have represented First Group Holdings in the sale of the 23rd and 25th floors of 650 Cheung Sha Wan Road to Mainland conglomerate China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC) for HK$259 million ($33.3 million). The deal set a record for the up and coming West Kowloon area.
Local Hong Kong brokerage Midland Realty announced that it had successfully represented Bright Crown Group in the sale of the 23rd floor of Sunshine Plaza on Lockhart Road in Wan Chai to a mainland Chinese investor. The 5,130 square foot (476 square metre) top floor space sold for HK$92 million, or around HK$31,450 per square foot.
In late April, JLL announced via its corporate website that it had been appointed as the sole agent for the tender sale of a set of strata-title assets within the Hong Kong Trade Centre in Central. The portfolio includes a set of retail shops with a total GFA of 6,500 square feet and 13,960 square feet of office space. Accounts in the Hong Kong media this month indicated that the portfolio had been sold for approximately HK$500 million on behalf of a local family. The buyer for the property was not specified.
In early April, Midland Realty announced on its corporate website that it has been appointed as the sole agent for the sale of a high-floor in the United Centre in Aberdeen with a GFA of 20,489 square feet.
Centaline Property announced in early April that its industrial and commercial division was representing an ownership consortium led by investors Hugo Lam (林子峰) and Raymond Choy (蔡志忠) in launching a tender process for the sale of the Jing Wah Industrial Building in Kowloon East. The ownership group, which purchased the nine-storey San Po Kong area building for a reported HK$310 million in late 2015, is now asking HK$399 million for the 87,300 square foot property. Market reports indicate that CBRE has already found a mainland buyer for the Sam Chuk Street building.
Leasing Brokerage
Jonathan Wright’s flexible office team at Colliers scored another leasing victory
Colliers International secured a 12,787 square foot space in the Universal Building on New Street in Sheung Wan for naked Hub. The location will be home to the flexible office startup’s second centre in Hong Kong, as co-working operators expand to meet demand for shared office space in the city. The deal was signed during the same month that Colliers introduced Flexible Workspace Services as a new business line in APAC, with Hong Kong-based executive Jonathan Wright taking charge of the unit for the region. The New Street deal was the second time that Colliers had assisted naked Hub in finding a location, after matching the Shanghai-based firm with its first home in Hong Kong in Pamfleet’s Bonham Circus (formerly the EIB Centre) on Bonham Strand in Sheung Wan.
Also in April, US ecommerce giant Amazon reportedly leased three full floors in Phoenix Property Investors’ Tower 535 in Causeway Bay for approximately HK$70 per square foot per month. No agent was named for the deal in the upper zone of the redeveloped building, which also is home to a WeWork centre.
In another landmark office leasing deal, an unnamed tenant leased an 8,000 square foot space in the upper zone of Jardine House in Central during April with a record price of HK$143 per square foot per month. This transaction also was not claimed by any of the major agencies.
Nearby in the Prince Edward Building, a 1,250 square foot space was leased in April, for a total of HK$170,000 per month, indicating a rent of HK$136 per square foot per month.
About Mingtiandi’s Big Brokerage Deals
The information in this report is gathered from Mingtiandi’s direct survey of the top commercial brokerages operating in Hong Kong, and supplemented with reports from the local press and social media. Watch out in the coming days for our review of the biggest May deals.
If you or your company have recently scored a major investment, financial advisory or leasing win, or have landed a new appointment, we invite you to share the details with us, and you may see your name here in Mingtiandi.
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