〈Asian Post, April 8, 2017〉Homebuying demand in Hong Kong was showing no signs of abating late yesterday as eager buyers crammed into the sales office of Sun Hung Kai Properties' Cullinan West project, seemingly undeterred by a price increase of almost 40 per cent in the space of under a month.

Agents expected SHKP would sell about 90 per cent of the latest batch of 152 units on offer at the development atop Nam Cheong MTR Station yesterday despite the enormous price rise since the project was launched under a month ago.

"I don't have a budget but the price [for the latest batch] is very high. Whether I can buy one depends on whether I like the view of the flats," said Charlotte Chan, one of the more than 1,000 registered buyers for the latest batch that went on sale yesterday.

SHKP is the latest major developer in the city to have drastically raised the offer price for apartments in new projects within weeks, or sometimes days, of their launch.

In the fourth round of sales, the firm released 152 units of 257 to 1,854 square feet, priced from HK$7.62 million to HK$65.06 million, or HK$26,700 to HK$43,290 per square foot. Their average price will come down to HK$25,988 per square foot after factoring in a discount of as much as 23 per cent. But the average discounted price is still 38.9 per cent higher than the launch price last month.Prices for four-bedroom flats soared to HK$28,360 per square foot from HK$18,919 when the project was first launched.

〈China Daily, April 1, 2017〉Even the most ardent admirer of Hong Kong must concede there’s much for this city to learn from its rival Singapore in managing the property market.

Both the SAR and the Lion City had enacted a series of measures to rein in their respective red-hot property sectors. In Singapore, they worked but not in Hong Kong.Homes prices in Singapore had soared more than 60 percent within a four-year span — from the second quarter of 2009 to the second quarter of 2013 — prompting the authorities there to act. Since then, average real-estate prices have come down continuously. But, the Singapore government, worried about a possible fallout of the prolonged downtrend in property values, is moving to rescind some of the measures in place.

In contrast, Hong Kong’s property market seems completely impervious to the tough measures imposed to curb runaway prices. Industry experts have blamed abnormally low bank interest rates for fueling demand. Whatever the reason, the surge in homes prices appears to be unstoppable.

It’s easy to see why those government measures to influence the prices of either assets or commodities seldom work. In the case of property, the much more relaxed economic environment has allowed developers, backed by their vast financial resources, to neutralize government efforts with various counter measures.

For instance, some major builders are offering 100-percent mortgage financing to buyers of their properties, while banks have to abide by the 60-percent ceiling. Earlier this year, the government drastically raised the property sales tax to discourage people from buying second homes for investment purposes. But, many property agents have offered to absorb part of the increased tax to boost sales.

Much of the government’s efforts to solve the problem arising from escalating housing prices focus on increasing land supply. But, there’s little guarantee that more land will lead to a corresponding increase in the supply of properties for sale to the public.

〈The Standard, April 7, 2017〉Demand for office premises for rent in Hong Kong remains robust and availability is tightest in the eastern part of Hong Kong Island at only 3.5 percent and greater Central at only 3.6 percent.

Cushman & Wakefield, a global real estate services firm, said very limited office premises are available for rent in both districts because of solid leasing demand.

The average rent of Grade A offices rose by 0.8 percent to HK$79.29 per square foot a month, up 1.5 percent year on year.

Rents in Hong Kong south rose by 2.3 percent, followed by greater Central (1.7 percent) and Wan Chai/Causeway Bay (1.5 percent). John Siu, Cushman & Wakefield's managing director in Hong Kong, said rising rents indicated an accelerated pace of decentralization among multinational firms in the first quarter this year.

"After the banking and finance sector, traditional occupiers in greater central, such as law firms, are also seriously considering options in sub-markets such as Hong Kong east. The decentralization trend is expected to continue this year," he said. Meanwhile, a 3,202-sq-ft Grade A office unit at 9 Queen's Road Central was sold for HK$112 million, or HK$35,000 psf.

〈The Standard, April 6, 2017〉Sale price for a 3,060 sq ft unit at 39 Conduit Road soars HK$33m in two weeks as developers become aggressive in raising prices for their projects

Major developers in Hong Kong are cashing in on the seemingly insatiable demand for the city's residential property, aggressively raising the prices of apartments in their new projects.

Henderson Land Development, Cheung Kong Property Holdings and Sun Hung Kai Properties have all ramped up their prices in the past few days despite the government's best efforts to cool the market.

The most eye-watering increase was for a Mid-Levels flat whose sale price shot up by HK$33 million in the space of just a fortnight.Today, making home purchases may require the joint effort of three generations in a family as property prices soar to sky high Vincent Cheung, Colliers International The four-bedroom, 3,060 sq ft unit is on the 40th floor of 39 Conduit Road, Henderson's super-deluxe residential project on the Mid-Levels. The developer raised prices for the remaining units by 15 per cent yesterday.

The offer price for the 40th-floor flat went up to HK$255.92 million, or HK$83,633 per square foot, from HK$222.84 million, or HK$72,824 per square foot, just two weeks ago.

On the same day, CK Property increased the price of the second batch of 76 units at Harbour Glory in North Point by as much as 8.9 per cent from three days earlier.

A 1,595 sq ft unit on the 25th floor of Tower One is being offered for HK$105.98 million, or HK$66,447 per square foot, about HK$9 million more than a flat of the same size on the 20th floor released on Monday.

〈China Daily, April 6, 2017〉The Chinese mainland overtook the United States as the No 1 investment destination in financial technology or fintech, according to Citi GPS, a research team under Citi Group.

According to a Citi GPS research report, in the first three quarters of 2016 the mainland accounted for over 50 percent of the world’s total fintech investments.

In fact, the Chinese mainland was the only major place where fintech investments showed a major increase last year — doubling in the first nine months versus the same period in 2015, whilst investments in the US and Europe declined 38 percent and 27 percent respectively.

In a separate report by consultancy firm Accenture, global fintech business venture firms grew 10 percent last year to $23.2 billion, fueled by huge investor appetite in the Chinese mainland and Japan.

Experts attributed the skyrocketing Chinese fintech investments to a unique combination of factors including a rapid spread in digital technologies with a simultaneous rise in its mass middle classes, along with the fact that the old banking industry was poorly prepared for the new technologies.

“To push the development of fintech, you need entrepreneurs and funding,” said Ronit Ghose, head of the Citi GPS research team.

The Chinese mainland has a much larger base of entrepreneurism than Hong Kong, Singapore or Europe, even though its venture capital system is yet to become well-developed, he noted. For years, mainland banks focused only on large corporate clients, such as Stateowned enterprises and property developers, with the growing digitally-enabled middle classes being underserved. Fintech has now grabbed that client base, he said.