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Property News Weekly Digest
2022/12/3
〈The Standard, Dec 03, 2022〉A private hospital in Central, Your Health Specialists Medical, suddenly announced it would close this month after a high-profile opening in February that immediately ran into a market rendered sluggish by the fifth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The hospital, which targets middle-class patients, had intended to use Central as a testing ground and expand beyond Hong Kong to the Greater Bay Area. Its founders had signed a 10-year lease for the building.

YHSM's signboard was still at 35 Queen's RoadCentral, Kingston International Centre, late last month but the hospital is no longer in operation and the main entrance has been closed, reported Sing Tao Daily, sister publication of The Standard.

Kingston International Centre's owner is Pollyanna Chu Lee Yuet-wah, the cofounder of Kingston Financial (1031). Her son, Kingston Chu Chun-ho, an executive director of Kingston Financial, is responsible for leasing matters.

〈The Standard, Dec 02, 2022〉The Housing Authority confirmed on Friday that it has recovered the public rental housing unit allocated to Kwok Cheuk-kin, also known as the "king of judicial reviews," after he was said to have failed to retain regular residence at the unit.

Kwok made his name for his frequent legal challenges against authorities’ policymaking. He last won a legal bid barring the government from voiding more than 20,000 Covid-19 vaccination exemptions. Authorities then amended the law to follow through with the move.

It is understood that Kwok’s public housing flat is located in Yau Lai Estate, Yau Tong. Reports have noted that Kwok currently stays in his Cheung Chau home instead of the Yau Tong flat.

〈Hong Kong Business, Dec 01, 2022〉The total loans and advances declined by 1.2% in October and fell 1.9% in the year to end-October,Hong Kong central bank revealed.

Amongst the percentage, loans for use in the market went down by 1% in October, and loans utilized outside Hong Kong were down by 1.7%.

Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said the Hong Kong dollar loan-to-deposit ratio went up 90.8% in October from 901% month-on-month as dollar deposits decreased by a larger extent than dollar loans.

The total deposits with authorized institutions went down by 0.3% in October 2022. Amongst the total, Hong Kong dollar deposits declined by 1.4% whilst foreign currency deposits grew by 0.8%, which reflected the fund flows of corporates.

〈Asian Post, Nov 30, 2022〉The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) revealed that foreign currency assets declined by $25.5b whilst the Hong Kong dollar went down by $21.2b.

HKMA said the foreign currency assets were impacted by US dollars sale under the currency board arrangements whilst the Hong Kong dollar assets decline was due to mark-to-market revaluation on Hong Kong equities.

The overall assets of the exchange fund were at $3.9t, which is $46.7b lower than in September 2022.

Monetary Base at $1.3t in October, which was down 1.5% from September.

"The decline was mainly due to the purchase of HK dollars under the Currency Board arrangements and a decrease in the outstanding amount of Certificates of Indebtedness," it said.

〈Asian Post, Nov 29, 2022〉The government recorded a deficit of $275.75b in the first seven months of the current financial year, after taking into account the proceeds of $20 billion received from the issuance of green bonds.

The government said it recorded a deficit mainly because some major types of revenue, including salaries and profits taxes, are mostly received towards the end of a financial year.

In the first seven months, the government also posted an expenditure of $476.6b and revenue of $171.9b.

Meanwhile, fiscal reserves stood at $681.4b by the end of October.