〈Asian Post, January 6, 2018〉Henderson Land Development has agreed to sell a grade A office building in non-core business district North Point for HK$9.95 billion to Shenzhen-listed financial institution China Create Capital, according to sources.

The new 22-storey office building, which has a gross floor area of 329,800 sq ft, is at 18 King Wah Road, close to Harbour Grand Hong Kong Hotel.

The price tag equates to about HK$30,169 per square foot. Henderson confirmed the sale on Thursday night but a spokesman said "nothing can be added at this moment".

"The building is new and commands a full sea view. It has attracted quite a number of suitors among mainland enterprises," said people familiar with the deal.

An agreement was signed in Macau by Henderson and Fans Group for the sale on Thursday night.

Fans Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of China Create Capital, which is involved in private equity funds, wealth management, securities investment, asset management and financial technology since it was founded in 2014.

China Creative Capital, chaired by Zhang Wei, has been active in the equity market - it paid HK$300 million for a 15.98 per cent stake in Hebei Construction Group Corp, which was listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange last month.

In 2012, the company took part in a 10 billion yuan (HK$12 billion) private equity fund with other mainland companies to nurture start-up companies.

But Zhang and his companies were also penalised and fined a total of 330,000 yuan by the China Securities Regulatory Commission in 2015 for breaching disclosure rules related to Shanghai New Huangpu Real Estate, an A-share developer.

〈Asian Post, January 6, 2018〉Rural authority head Kenneth Lau Ip-keung yesterday rebutted research findings that indicated many villagers had been abusing the Hong Kong government's small-house policy.

He called the study by the Liber Research Community unfair and unsubstantiated, and said officials should work on reforming the policy rather than pointing the finger at rural residents.

The small-house policy allows indigenous male residents of old villages in the New Territories to build a village house once they reach 18.

Entitled villagers can obtain land from the government for the house by paying a discounted or zero land premium. But the policy has drawn much criticism in recent years over cases in which it was being abused for profit.

The study found that close to a quarter of all small houses built over the last four decades were suspected to have been illegally sold to developers through secret contracts.

But Lau, chairman of the Heung Yee Kuk, a government-recognised advisory body on rural affairs, said the study "jumped to that conclusion from the land ownership and building designs".

He accused the community of making unsubstantiated claims. In many cases the houses were resold legitimately only after the required land premium had been paid to the government, he said. Since the small-house policy took effect in 1972, the total sum paid to the government in premiums was over HK$13 billion, he added.

Lau, a major landlord who has declared ownership of 14 pieces of land, urged the research organisation to spend more time studying abuses of public housing policy instead, arguing that many owners of government-subsidised flats in urban areas also resold their properties.

〈China Daily, January 5, 2018〉Although Hong Kong may be on track to record its most impressive economic growth for the past seven years, there’s no guarantee it’s going to be a bed of roses, or that the trend can be indefinitely sustained, economists have warned.

Experts have come up with a litany of concerns that could cast negative spillover effects on the local economy for 2018, topped by growing protectionist sentiment in the United States, an uncertain global trading climate, rising interest rates and the possible downward spiral of property prices in Hong Kong.Hong Kong’s economy grew 3.9 percent in the first three quarters of last year, underpinned by vibrant external demand supported by benign global economic conditions, and solid domestic demand growth led by brisk private consumption expansion amid the red-hot equity and home markets.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po will shed light on the city’s actual economic growth rate for 2017 when he unveils the 2018-19 Budget next month. He had estimated that the SAR’s economy would rise 3.7 percent for 2017 — higher than the mid-point of the 3 to 4 percent range forecast announced in August last year. If this materializes, it would be the city’s fastest economic expansion rate seen since 2011.

Economists project that although Hong Kong is very likely to post its strongest economic growth in 2017, the spectacular growth magnitude will moderate immediately in 2018 due to the high-base comparison, an uncertain global macroeconomic trade environment and the city’s over-heated property sector. “Economic growth may be sustained, albeit at a slower pace, due to the high-base effect. We’ll also continue to monitor external uncertainties, including the growing protectionist tide that will hit trade activities, and global monetary tightening which may curb private investment,” said Carie Li, an economist at OCBC Wing Hang Bank — a subsidiary of Singapore-based OCBC Bank.

〈Asian Post, January 4, 2018〉Public housing studio in Tai Po, smaller than an average car parking space, sells for HK$1.93 million

Tiny public housing apartments, dubbed "nano flats" and some smaller than a car parking space, are being snapped up at record high prices, as the city continues to struggle to create enough affordable housing.

And property agents warn prices are set to rise even higher, due to limited supply. Examples of crazy prices being paid for tiny spaces in the city include a 121 sq ft studio unit in the 29-year-old publicly owned Oi Wo House on Tai Po's Tai Wo Estate, which sold on Wednesday for HK$1.93 million, or about HK$15,950 per square foot.

A standard Hong Kong car parking slot is 135 sq ft. The price of the nano flat broke the previous record set by a transaction at the private Tak Tin Estate in Lam Tin, at HK$15,890 per square foot in September.

New flats at the luxury Double Cove in Ma On Shan, for example, are being offered by Henderson Land Development on the private market at roughly the same price - new prices per square foot start at HK$16,000.

Tycoon Li Ka-shing even entered the nano flat debate yesterday, during the annual dinner of the global conglomerate Cheung Kong Hutchsion Holdings and Cheung Kong Asset Holdings.

Li, 89, said that although there was demand for tiny flats, he would not be surprised if there was an eventual oversupply if they kept being churned out.

Midland Realty, one of the city's top agents, said Hong Kong's secondary, or used, public housing market was heating up fast, with total transaction values breaking records in every one of the first 11 months of last year, at HK$1.54 billion, of which 621 were sold.

"As home prices in the private sector rise beyond the affordability of the general public, those who cannot afford a private home are now flocking to buy public housing units, despite their often poor quality," said Thomas Lam, head of valuation and consultancy at Knight Frank.

〈Macau Post, January 4, 2018〉The Guernsey-registered Macau Property Opportunities Fund (MPO) saw average rentals at The Waterside property grow by 6.4 percent between the third and fourth quarters to HK$19.85 per square foot per month, the StockMarketWire online business news service reported yesterday.

Quoting an MPO statement, the report said the company was hopeful that Macau’s VIP gaming segment will recover further, which would facilitate the continued recovery of rental values and improve occupancy rates.

The impending opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge in 2018 was expected to create more business opportunities for Macau and an influx of non-local labour, the report quoted the statement as saying.

Another of MPO’s three remaining individual units at One Central Residences was divested during the quarter, taking the total number of units sold last year to two. The 2,288-square-foot apartment was disposed of for US$3.7 million (29.6 million patacas), about 2 percent above its latest valuation, the company said.

“Despite positive sentiment in Macau’s property market, sales performance at The Fountainside [in the Penha Hill district] has been impeded by the government’s imposition of lower loan limits,” the report quoted the company as saying, adding that at the end of last year 13 units including four villas and two duplexes remained available for sale.

The report said that the company was exploring the option of reconfiguring the four villas and two duplexes into smaller apartments.

“At Estrada da Penha [a villa on Penha Hill], marketing efforts continued during the quarter with a noticeable pick-up in sales enquiries,” the company said. However, it noted that “there are yet to be any firm offers”.