〈Asian Post, May 13, 2017〉The Kwok family, controlling shareholders in Sun Hung Kai Properties, will build a joint venture residential-commercial project on the banks of the Thames river in East London costing £500 million - the largest development by the Hong Kong company in the UK since Brexit.

The investment comes as a rising number of Hong Kong-listed companies are snapping up properties in London amid investment yields compressed by soaring asset prices in Hong Kong.

Kwok Family Interests and Ballymore, the 35-year old Irish developer, have formed a 50-50 partnership and plan to build an 804-unit residential project called Goodluck Hope on a 2.7 hectare site. Due for completion in 2020, it will also provide 21,528 square feet of commercial space.

The joint plan was first submitted in January 2015 and approved by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in September 2016, according to a statement provided to the South China Morning Post.

Thomas Lam Ho-man, senior director at property consultancy Knight Frank, said investors are flocking to London because the entry level is now too high in Hong Kong.

"Prime properties in Hong Kong are much more costly than London where they achieve a better yield. More importantly, the British pound lost at least 20 per cent and will make property more affordable for Hong Kong investors," he said.

Lam believes more investors from Hong Kong and the mainland will continue their buying spree once the country's economic prospect become clearer after Brexit.

Last week, Chinese Estates Holdings announced it would purchase a mixed use building in London for HK$1.76 billion. Located at 11 and 12 St James's Square and 14 to 17 Ormond Yard, London, the building provides 80,000 square feet of grade A office space and is fully let with a current rental income of HK$79.35 million per year.

In March, a privately company owned by Henry Cheng Kar-shun, chairman of Hong Kong's New World Development, committed to invest £1 billion to develop a mixed property project in the British capital.

〈The Standard, May 12, 2017〉Tycoon Li Ka-shing says he will not reduce his stakes in his companies - and will even increase them - as he vows to continue doing business in Hong Kong.

"I have been living in Hong Kong since 1940 until today, and I believe I will live my entire life in this city," Li told shareholders at yesterday's annual general meeting of CK Hutchison Holdings.

He also pledged to increase the dividends that his companies are paying shareholders, but noted that the chance of issuing scrip dividend is slim.

Asked about the impact of Brexit on his group's businesses in Britain, Li said his retail and telecommunication operations in that country are doing well.

He said he remains prudently optimistic about Britain's business environment, adding the impact of Brexit may not be as bad as feared.

Li also said that while crude oil prices have fallen by nearly half from their peak, CK Hutchison's Canadian unit - Husky Energy - is doing well as it had significantly reduced its operational costs. He said he is optimistic about Husky's near-term prospects.

Commenting on aggressive bids by mainland developers for sites in Hong Kong, Li said his companies will not chase after overpriced plots.

He noted though that Cheung Kong Property will still bid for available plots if it thinks prices are reasonable.

"So do not think I am giving up on the property business,'' he said. Li said he expects his group to make tens of billions of dollars this year and next from its property business. The group is currently constructing some hotels, he added.

The tycoon said his conglomerate will not focus on property and will instead continue expanding across the globe, especially in the power and telecommunication sectors.

〈The Standard, May 12, 2017〉Hong Kong has overtaken London as the world's top market for luxury homes after seeing a record number of deals worth at least US$100 million (HK$780 million).

Four out of the record 10 homes that sold for this amount last year were in Hong Kong, according to a Christie's International Real Estate survey.

London, which notched two US$100 million deals, dropped to second place in the ranking for the first time in its five- year lifespan. New York retained third place.

Los Angeles took fourth spot and Singapore came fifth, followed by Sydney, San Francisco and Paris.

The survey said the biggest deal in Hong Kong was worth US$270 million. Peaks in markets like Hong Kong have been set against "more turbulent waters witnessed in deep markets like [Britain], which has had to deal with an election, new taxes from a Conservative government, Brexit, and yet another election," Dan Conn, chief of Christie's property division, said.

While the very top of the real estate market is thriving, sales of more modestly priced luxury properties are starting to slow. Sales of homes costing at least US$1 million grew 1 percent worldwide last year, down from 8 percent growth in 2015 and a 16 percent increase in 2014, according to the report.

The average price per square foot for luxury sales for the top three cities were also among the top. Square foot prices for luxury homes in Hong Kong, London and New York averaged US$4,895, US$2,710 and US$1,942 respectively. The survey also said the SAR topped the surveyed cities with an eye-popping US$29,000 price per square foot for an ultra-prime HK$2.1 billion residence on The Peak.

"Luxury sales prices trended upward slightly, with 2016 showing a 2 percent increase in home-sale prices worldwide, a trend continuing in 2017," said Conn.

〈The National, May 11, 2017〉Some 200,000 of Hong Kong’s 7.3 million residents live in “subdivided units”. That is up 18 per cent from four years ago and includes 35,500 children 15 and under, government figures show.

The figure does not include many thousands more living in other inadequate housing such as rooftop shacks, metal cages resembling rabbit hutches and “coffin homes” made of stacked wooden bunks.

Li Suet-wen and her son, 6, and daughter, 8, are among an estimated 200,000 people in Hong Kong living in ‘subdivided units’. A man walks in front of a residential and commercial building where the ‘coffin homes’ are located in Hong Kong.

In wealthy Hong Kong, there’s a dark side to a housing boom, with hundreds of thousands of people forced to live in partitioned shoebox apartments, coffin homes and other inadequate housing. A resident walks outside his illegal rooftop hut, which is located next to a public housing estate.

The US-based consultancy Demographia has ranked Hong Kong the world’s least affordable housing market for seven straight years. Li Suet-wen with her son and daughter in their 11-square metre room. Crammed with a bunk bed, small couch, fridge, washing machine and small table in an aging walkup in Hong Kong. She pays HK$4,500 (Dh2,200) a month in rent and utilities – nearly half her salary working in a bakery.

Wong Tat-ming, 63, sits in his ‘coffin home’. It’s crammed with all his meagre possessions, including a sleeping bag, small colour TV and electric fan. Simon Wong, an unemployed man, watches TV in his tiny home in Hong Kong. Tse Chu, a retired waiter, sleeps in his little cubicle home in Hong Kong where rents and home prices have steadily risen and are now at or near all-time highs.

Residential and commercial buildings in Yau Tsim Mong district, which is a popular location for ‘subdivided units’ in Hong Kong. As the territory’s next chief executive Carrie Lam prepares to take office, the unaffordability of housing remains one of the Asian financial centre’s biggest social problems. An illegal rooftop hut is seen in Hong Kong. Copyrights ? 2017 Abu Dhabi Media Company, All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc.

〈Macau Daily, May 10, 2017〉In 2008 Q4, the average purchase price of residential units was MOP$1,678.00 per square feet of usable area. Just within a period of two and a half years before the administrative measure to be imposed by the government, the same amount had more than doubled (at MOP$4,112 in the year of 2011 Q2).

To curb the sudden rise of housing prices and to maintain Macau’s housing affordability, in 2011 the Macau government introduced Law No. 6/2011, creating a special stamp duty of 20% payable upon sale of residential properties if the property is transferred within the first year, and a special stamp of 10% if ownership is assigned within the second year.

Supplemented by Law No. 15/2012, this aforementioned special stamp duty was extended to commercial properties, offices and parking space, plus an additional stamp duty of 10% for buyers of residential properties that are legal entities, sole proprietors and non-residents.

This stream of measures had the effect of shifting the focus of some investors and foreign buyers for a brief period of time, thus slowing the market. However, with the monthly increase in gaming revenue, the housing market has started to regain its old momentum since the second quarter of 2016, with an increase of 20% in house prices compared to the same time last year.

As such, and not surprisingly, the Macau government has once again seen fit to devise new ways to combat speculation and regulate the real estate market.

With the aim of controlling excessive investment, promoting stable development of the housing market and supporting local banks in their risk management, the Macau government has decided to apply “adjudgment measures” for foreign buyers, non-first-time buyers of residential properties and purchasers of properties off the plan.

For the purposes of these measures, starting from 5 May 2017, a Macau resident is considered a first-time buyer when they do not own more than 50% of any residential property during the application of financial credits with banks. Properties obtained in the form of donation or inheritance are excluded from the criteria.