Hong Kong property investments to rise 50% to HKD90b this year
But reaching this target will depend on the opening up of borders.
Hong Kong's Covid-19 vaccination programme began at the beginning of the year, and the pandemic has slowly eased. Investors have regained confidence and market sentiment has improved. According to Knight Frank, in the second quarter of this year, the investment market recorded HKD 35.77 billion of transactions, which has reached 60% of last year’s total.
It is expected that this year’s entire year will reach 90 billion dollars of transactions, a sharp 50% increase from last year, but whether this can be achieved depends on the opening up of borders. If borders open in the fourth quarter of this year, Knight Frank says it will attract many Chinese investors into the market, and hopes that the investment transactions can be restored to the level before COVID-19.
“As for the performance of various types of properties, industrial buildings (especially data centres and warehouses) benefited from the pilot scheme for land premiums with standard rates and retail properties attracted by rents that have stable returns performed best. I believe the transaction value of these properties will be on a par with last year, or even surpass last year. As for office building investment, strata title properties with lower price tags will be more popular with investors than en-bloc properties,” says Antonio Wu, Knight Frank Head of Capital Markets, Greater China.