Retail deals drive commercial property investment to HK$12.5b in first quarter

Investment in commercial properties worth more than HK$20 million increased by 22.6 percent from the year before to HK$12.5 billion in the first quarter, Jones Lang LaSalle, announced.

About 57 percent of investment in commercial properties worth HK$100 million or above was attributed to retail properties.

The proportion of retail related transactions increased to about 61.2 percent, if the sales of commercial properties worth HK$20 million or above is includes, JLL said.

Investment in retail properties worth HK$100 million or more grew by 15.4 percent from the year before. The growth is even more obvious if sales of retail properties worth HK$20 million or above, are included, which grew by 33.7 percent on-year.

As for industrial property, more overseas institutional investors engaged in the sector.

Goodman Asia purchased two properties from Samson Paper Company for more than HK$750 million. Silkroad Property Partners also purchased Smile Centre in Fanling for HK$321 million.

In the office investment market, office transaction volume significantly contracted quarter-on-quarter by 89.1 percent, in terms of transactions worth HK$100 million or more.

The drop was mainly due to the lack of major transactions.

Oscar Chan, head of Capital Markets at JLL in Hong Kong, said the investment market was driven by the sales of retail properties, in particular the retail properties in non-shopping districts.