九记牛腩斥550万 购中环中心车位

车位造价跟随楼价回落，吸引投资者入市。例如深投资者「磁带大王」陈秉志减价逾2成促销中环中心车位，便吸引到米芝莲星级推介的九记牛腩以550万入市。

陈秉志减价放售 连录3成交

土地註册处资料显示，中环中心昨日连录3宗车位登记，其中B1层双号车位，以550万元成交。登记买家为九记有限公司，董事包括潘国兴，即九记牛腩负责人。

资料显示，九记牛腩 (简称九记) 是香港一间以牛腩著名的食肆，多年来均获米芝莲星级推介，座上客包括陈奕迅、梁朝伟、何超莲等等，前任香港特区行政长官曾荫权3代皆有光顾，九记现由潘国兴经营。

方润华家族 购两相连车位

其次，中环中心B2层2个相连车位，以每个468万元成交，新买家为方润华兴盛有限公司，公司董事包括方文雄，即协成行方润华家族。

资料显示，深投资者「磁带大王」陈秉志持有35个中环中心车位，本月初减价促销，售价由438万至550万元。翻查近期成交，中环中心地库2楼及3楼各一个车位分别以600万及538万元成交，今批车位较市价低约20%。

另外，太古地产 (01972) 劈价3成促销鰂鱼涌太古城车位，其中有投资者斥资近2,559万元扫14个车位，而恒地 (00012) 执行董事叶盈枝据悉亦有入市。

另一方面，土地註册处资料显示，长沙湾泓景臺2楼停车场单号车位，本月初以154万元易手。据悉，原业主为前长实地产投资董事黄思聪，其于2006年以约16万元购入，持货17年帐面升值约9倍。

(经济日报)

更多中环中心写字楼出售楼盘资讯请参阅：中环中心写字楼出售

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Hong Kong office landlords grapple with ‘irreversible’ hybrid work trend amid high vacancy rates, supply glut

Flex space provider IWG says it is adding locations rapidly in the Greater Bay Area as property owners seek to capitalise on the trend

IWG works with Hysan Development, and major landlords Hongkong Land and Swire Properties also have their fingers in the co-working pie

Hybrid work arrangements are likely to persist and become irreversible in the foreseeable future, a trend that is spurring landlords and asset owners to convert traditional office spaces into flexible offices, according to the CEO of IWG, one of the world’s largest flex desk service providers.

Globally, companies and organisations are allowing as much as half of their staff to adopt flexible work arrangements, including some combination of working from home, working at a desk in a remote co-working space and coming into a traditional office, said IWG CEO Mark Dixon.

The trend is driving IWG to add new flex space in Hong Kong, across the Greater Bay Area and beyond, Dixon said.

“IWG is growing its network both in Hong Kong and globally at a rapid rate as the demand for hybrid working accelerates,” he said. “Property owners are seeking to capitalise as businesses of all sizes embrace the model, and we can see this trend in our network growth numbers. In the first half of this year, we added more than 400 locations globally.”

In Hong Kong IWG operates 21 locations under the brands Regus, Spaces, Signature, HQ and OpenOffice, with four new locations added so far this year.

The Switzerland-headquartered company reported revenue of £1.7 billion (US$2.1 billion) in the first half of the year, a record-high in its 30-year history and a 14 per cent improvement from £1.4 billion in the same period in 2022. Profit, meanwhile, grew 2.5 times to £94 million, according to its interim results.

In the next two years, 21 per cent of office tenants in Hong Kong are likely to downsize their footprint, according to a property agency’s poll, and the increasing adoption of hybrid work schemes comes at a challenging time for the city’s office property market.

The vacancy rate in Hong Kong’s prime office space hit a record high of 15.1 per cent towards the end of August, according to the agency. Monthly office rental rates have declined 30.3 per cent to HK$54.70 (US$6.98) per square foot from the high struck in January 2019, when office vacancies were at a record low of 3.5 per cent, according to the property agency.

Meanwhile, another 3 million sq ft of office space is expected to become available in the second half of 2023, the agency said.

In co-working spaces, tenants typically share facilities such as pantries, washrooms and meeting rooms with other tenants. Organisations and individuals can subscribe for memberships or lease space, typically with more flexibility than traditional leases, such as shorter duration of tenancy.

Demand is strong across the Greater Bay Area, Dixon said. IWG partnered with Hysan Development in 2022 to set up more co-working spaces in cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Foshan, in addition to Hong Kong.

Hongkong Land and Swire Properties, two of the largest commercial landlords in Hong Kong, also run their own co-working businesses.

“There are many reasons why [the hybrid trend] is sort of irreversible,” Dixon said. “It’s what people want, and it’s what companies want at the same time.”

Co-working spaces let companies provide collegial spaces for workers at locations that are closer to home or more accessible than the typical central business district. “It’s much more convenient, and people genuinely want to go and work in an office,” he said. “They want to work with other people. But what they don’t want to do is to spend two hours a day commuting.”

In Hong Kong for example, situating the entire staff in Central would be expensive, so providing another location option, or splitting the workforce among multiple locations, could cut real estate expenses by as much as half, he said.

“For companies, they can hire people over a wider area and they can get more loyalty from many members of a team if they can work in a more flexible way,” Dixon said.

However, Hong Kong’s office property market may see less of an impact from the hybrid trend than other cities, according to another property agent.

“Hybrid caters to the needs of workers who may also have typically longer commutes and more expansive living conditions than those in Hong Kong,” the agent said.

“We expect demand for flexible office space to continue in Hong Kong, albeit at a slowing pace in the medium term. A form of hybrid exists for many companies in Hong Kong, but the extent of the direct impact on office space is considerably smaller than that of other global markets.”

Moreover, while lower costs and higher flexibility are attractive, hybrid arrangements have pitfalls, the agent said. These include concerns about productivity and the nurturing of company culture, as well as the junior staff lacking direct support and guidance from their supervisors.

(South China Morning Post)