Building leased to exhibit UK projects

A building in Causeway Bay, vacant for nearly a year, has been leased by British developer Berkeley Group to exhibit its UK residential projects - for one month.

The rent for the property at 22-24 Russell Street, which has a total area of approximately 8,740 square feet, is about HK$800,000 or HK$92 per square foot.

According to records the location was previously rented by La Perla in 2015 for HK$7.5 million per month.

After its lease expired in October 2020, the building was briefly utilized by Cantopop singer Hins Cheung King-hin for a bridal shop.

In May and August of last year, it was temporarily rented by Adidas x Gucci and Esprit respectively.

Esprit's rent was reportedly around HK$250,000 for a three-month lease, concluding in October.

Berkeley will use the property to hold its "Berkeley on the Square" exhibit, offering potential customers the opportunity to explore and gain insight into its UK real estate projects.

Meanwhile, "King of Cassettes" David Chan Ping-chi has entrusted Ricacorp Properties to sell parking spaces on levels B1 and B2 of The Center in Central, with each lot priced at HK$4.68 million.

Ricacorp highlighted that the scarcity of parking spaces in Central and limited availability of parking spaces for sale in The Center, situated in the core of the traditional business district, presents a unique opportunity for both drivers and investors.

According to a report by JLL, after four consecutive months of rising vacancy rates in grade-A Hong Kong offices since April, some stability has been observed at the end of August, when the same rate as July was maintained at 12.8 percent. In Central the vacancy rate rose by 0.3 percentage points to 9.9 percent.