Real Estate Services
GBA test bed for proptech
New fitness concept gains ground
Two of the many issues created by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting control measures were limited opportunities for exercise, especially indoors, and idle space in commercial buildings. Hong Kong entrepreneur Dinesh Nihalchand has come up with what he believes is a future-proof solution for the fitness business that offers contactless personal training while optimising under-utilised real-estate assets at the same time.
GBA boost for Kowloon office hubs
The development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) is helping businesses from Mainland China to enter the Hong Kong market and use the city as their launchpad for global expansion. In a report from global real estate consultancy Knight Frank, Patrick Mak, Executive Director Head of Kowloon Office Strategy & Solutions & Head of Tenant Representation, Greater China, discusses which sectors are most likely to leverage Hong Kong’s connector status and identifies three emerging office hubs in Kowloon that have the potential to reap benefits.
GBA draws property investors
The rapid development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) in recent years, coupled with a maturing transport network, has driven industrial transformation and shifts in real-estate investment in the region. Apart from Shenzhen and Guangzhou, investors have also set eyes on the second tier of cities in Guangdong Province.
Offices get flexible
A shift in the workplace paradigm is driving demand for what Hans Leijten, CEO of Compass Offices – a leading flexible office space provider in the Asia-Pacific with a presence in nine cities – calls the “business-ready office”. To meet this market need, Compass is opening four new locations in Hong Kong – the city where Compass was founded in 2009.
UK auction house expands HK footprint
United Kingdom-based auction house Christie’s has announced plans to enhance and expand its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong. The substantial investment will quadruple the size of its current premises in the city and provide new sales galleries and salesrooms in The Henderson, a high-end office tower designed by renowned London-based Zaha Hadid Architects for local developer Henderson Land Group.
High-end properties boom as COVID stabilises
Luxury residential properties in Hong Kong is seeing robust demand, as reflected in the surging revenue of real estate agencies such as Habitat Property, which is forecasting a 25% growth for 2021. Founder and Managing Director Victoria Allan outlines the drivers fuelling the market, and why she expects these to continue.
Commercial property rebounds
Commercial real estate investment into Hong Kong has rebounded remarkably, almost doubling in the first half of 2021 compared with the same six months last year. Oscar Chan, Head of Capital Markets at JLL Hong Kong, explains the numbers, and why Hong Kong’s result is a standout in the region.
Setting up means settling down
His relocation experiences as an expatriate led Indian-born Sachin Doshi to make a career leap from investment banking to entrepreneurship. He established Hong Kong rental accommodation firm Weave Living in 2017 and, in a space of just four years, the brand has grown from one property to a diversified portfolio of 579 units across five locations. Mr Doshi now actively seeks opportunities to meet diverse housing needs in other leading global cities.
Hong Kong builds CBD2.0
Visitors to Hong Kong in earlier times were often struck by the contrast between the towers of steel and concrete crowded in the central business districts (CBD) on the north side of the Island and Tsim Sha Tsui Peninsula, and the vast area of empty and flat land in East Kowloon, created by the 1998 closure of the former airport at Kai Tak.
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