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甲厦空置楼面 1483万呎创新高

疫情改变企业运作模式,商厦空置率持续高企,差估署公布的《香港物业报告2024》显示,整体写字楼空置楼面创有纪录新高,单计甲级商厦空置楼面达1,483万平方呎,并以观塘区佔最多,涉约327.9万平方呎。

报告显示,截至去年底,整体写字楼空置楼面按年升约6%至约2,110万平方呎,空置率高达14.9%,创有纪录新高。而甲级商厦空置楼面达约1,483万平方呎,规模相当于8幢国际金融中心二期 (IFC2)。若以区分划分,观塘区甲厦空置楼面最高,涉约327.9万平方呎,佔约22%,其次为中西区,涉约210.2万平方呎,佔约14%,排名第3的为港岛东区,佔约163.5万平方呎或约11%。

料明年回落至146.5万呎

展望今、明两年,商厦供应仍然相当充足,预测今年整体商厦落成量约168.2万平方呎,而明年则回落至约146.5万平方呎,按年减少约13%,但值得留意的是,两年合计仍然有多达约314.7万平方呎楼面需要获市场消化,当中中西区将成为新落成甲级写字楼的主要供应地区,其次为湾仔区。

(经济日报)

更多国际金融中心写字楼出租楼盘资讯请参阅:国际金融中心写字楼出租

更多中环区甲级写字楼出租楼盘资讯请参阅:中环区甲级写字楼出租

 

Why rising demand for data centres will not rescue Hong Kong office buildings with high vacancy rates

Conversion of office buildings in Hong Kong into data centres for large tech firms is ‘quite rare and becoming rarer’, PGIM executive says

However, with data centres becoming their own investment segment, those who have allocated capital for such investments are likely to reap gains

Rising demand for data centres is unlikely to provide relief for Hong Kong landlords and asset owners looking to convert their empty office spaces into industrial property, according to US asset manager PGIM.

Investment in data centres has increased in recent years, spurred by exponential growth in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector and the likes of technology firms such as Alibaba Group Holding, which owns the Post, Microsoft Corp and Google racing to develop their own AI applications, said Morgan Laughlin, PGIM’s managing director and global head of data centre investments.

Almost all of the 90 institutional investors that Laughlin has met in the past three years expressed interest in data centres, but only 20 per cent have actual investment in the sector, a scenario that could lead to tremendous growth in investment in the segment, he said.

Locally, demand for AI tools is also likely to expand. Nearly three-quarters of Hong Kong’s businesses feel they are ready to incorporate new technologies including AI by the end of next year, rising to 90 per cent by the next decade, according to an HSBC survey released last month.

Moreover, by the end of March, Hong Kong’s prime office vacancy rates had risen to 13.1 per cent from 12.9 per cent in February, according to an international property agency.

And while a positive outlook for data centres has led to the redevelopment of office buildings around the world, Laughlin said this would not be practical for many office towers in Hong Kong.

“Historically, for retail data centres, there have been situations where office buildings have been converted over to be used for data centres for retail applications,” he said. “And on the hyperscale side, there are examples in Hong Kong, particularly, of industrial buildings being converted over for hyperscale data centres.”

Retail data centres are for businesses that need reliable data facilities but not a huge amount of space and power. Hyperscale centres can support the massive data requirements of technology firms.

Converting an office building into a hyperscale centre is not practical because the floor loading and size of floor plates are just not sufficient for it to make sense economically, Laughlin said.

“You’d have to spend too much money in order to do that conversion for it to make sense,” he said. “So it’s not that it hasn’t happened, or that there aren’t certain examples where you’d see a conversion to a data centre from other uses, but it’s quite rare and becoming rarer in the hyperscale space.”

At least 100 ageing office buildings in Hong Kong need to be refurbished to unlock their rental potential, after the Covid-19 pandemic changed market dynamics and tenant expectations, the agency said. More than half of the city’s grade A and B buildings are considered ageing as they were built more than 20 years ago, with rents 10 to 40 per cent lower than well-maintained and newer buildings, the property agency said.

More feasible for data centres would be the conversion of warehouses with higher specifications, another agent said.

Other analysts have also said that there are certain regulations in Hong Kong that would have to be complied with before an office building could be converted for other uses.

“The majority, if not all, of the office buildings in Hong Kong are not suitable for data centre conversion because of building characteristics and the higher specifications required to construct data centre facilities,” the agent said. “Moreover, data centres usually require industrial land zoning rather than office and commercial land zoning.”

On the other hand, with data centres gradually becoming their own investment segment, instead of being categorised as an alternative asset, those who have allocated capital for such investments are likely to reap gains, analysts said.

“In Hong Kong, the supply pipeline is still relatively constrained primarily due to the shortage of land dedicated for data centres and power supply – hence premises that are capable of accommodating large data centres remain highly sought after,” said Eugene Wong, partner at law firm Mayer Brown.

Investment allocation for data centres is not quite there yet, said PGIM’s Laughlin.

“But it’s going to be a significant one.”

(South China Morning Post)

 

Hong Kong homebuyers, enticed by big discounts, snap up all flats on offer at Great Eagle’s Onmantin project

All 260 flats on offer were sold on Saturday after the project received 7,500 orders from prospective buyers

Mainland Chinese homebuyers were also active during the weekend sale, according to a local property agency

Hong Kong developers’ low-price strategy for new flats continued to liven up the local market, as hundreds of buyers on Saturday flocked to Great Eagle Holdings’ Onmantin residential project in Ho Man Tin.

All 260 flats on offer were sold by 9pm, according to agents. The project recorded 7,500 orders from prospective buyers, or 28 times more than the initial number of flats on offer.

“The project received a warm market response with the high oversubscription rate,” a property agent said. “Mainland buyers have also actively joined this recent home-buying spree.”

The agent estimated that about three out of 10 Midland clients who registered to purchase flats at Onmantin come from mainland China.

The robust sales can be attributed to an improvement in sentiment following the government’s removal of all property curbs on February 28. Additionally, the developers’ discounted price strategy is attracting buyers from both Hong Kong and the mainland.

According to data published by another local property agency on Sunday, there were 3,065 transactions in the primary market between April 1 and 24. This represents a significant 106 per cent surge compared with the whole month of March. It is important to note that the April figure reflects the strong sales in March, considering the time lag for registration.

Furthermore, the total value of first-hand flats sold in the first 24 days of April reached HK$40 billion (US$5.1 billion), marking a substantial 191 per cent increase compared with the HK$13.71 billion recorded for the entire month of March, the agent said.

The Onmantin flats on offer were priced from HK$17,750 to HK$25,866 per square foot. The cheapest unit, measuring 388 sq ft, had a price tag of HK$6.89 million.

That price range was more than 25 per cent below those of the nearby In One Above residential project, which was launched by Chinachem Group in May last year.

Prices at the Onmantin project marked the lowest in the same neighbourhood since 2016, when Kerry Properties launched its Mantin Heights development at an average of HK$19,000.

The market appears to be responding to the government’s latest incentives. In February, Hong Kong scrapped many of its decades-old curbs to douse excessive speculation that drove up property prices to among the highest in the world. The removal of those measures came as home prices in the city hit a seven-year low.

About 70 per cent of Onmantin’s customers would buy units for their own use, while the remaining 30 per cent would purchase for investment purposes, according to the property agent.

The agent said he expected the first batch of homes to sell out.

Great Eagle’s Onmantin project, comprising 900 flats in five 24-storey towers, sits above the Ho Man Tin railway station in Kowloon. It is expected to be completed in two phases of 418 and 572 units, respectively.

The developer earlier this week said it was confident about the prospects of the first batch of flats on offer, given that it is made up of the last new units in the location.

Local developers are now making the most of the current positive market sentiment to boost home sales, following fresh incentives rolled out by the government in February.

Homebuyers have recorded more than 1,000 first-hand deals so far this month, according to the agent. Transactions involving flats valued at HK$10 million or above made up nearly 70 per cent of the volume, suggesting mid-priced and luxury properties are luring buyers again.

Sales of new and secondary homes in surged 67 per cent in March to 3,971 units, compared to February, reaching the highest level since May last year, according to data from the Land Registry. Those amounted to a total of HK$30.06 billion in value, the highest level since June last year.

(South China Morning Post)