〈The Standard, Feb 24, 2024〉It's been a bad start to the year for London's luxury homes.

Prices for properties in prime areas of London - defined as 34 exclusive neighborhoods including Belgravia, Mayfair and Kensington - were down 7.1 percent in January compared with a year earlier. That's the largest decline in almost five years, according to data compiled by researcher LonRes.

Sales slipped 16 percent as higher interest rates affected demand and more supply came to the market.

At the top end of the market, mansions are struggling to sell. The number of homes sold for more than 5 million (HK$49.29 million) in January was down 17 perc.

〈The Standard, Feb 23, 2024〉Cameron Road in Tsim Sha Tsui has become Hong Kong's latest food street that specializes in Cantonese barbecue, with at least four roast goose restaurants opening recently, as changes in tourists' spending habits make these traditional eateries become increasingly popular.

About 60 percent of shop premises along the road are rented by the catering industry. Excluding restaurants that sell roast dishes, several teahouses sell Hong Kong-style staples such as pineapple buns and egg tarts.

An agent said shoplots on Cameron Road usually have bigger areas, making them more suitable for restaurants.

〈Hong Kong Business, Feb 22, 2024〉The Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) revealed that consumer prices rose by 1.7% year-on-year (YoY) in January, a slight moderation from December 2023 growth.

After factoring out the impact of the government's one-off relief measures, the underlying inflation rate stood at 0.8%, also lower than December 2023’s record.

C&SD attributed the moderation to the timing of the Lunar New Year last year, which particularly affected food prices.

Compared with January 2022, Hong Kong observed price hikes in categories such as alcoholic drinks and tobacco, clothing and footwear, meals out and takeaway food, housing, miscellaneous services, miscellaneous goods, and transport.

〈Asian Post, Feb 21, 2024〉The number of buyer's stamp duty (BSD) home sales between November 2023 and January 2024 moderately increased to 16 after the government's relaxation of cooling measures, data from JLL's latest Residential Market Monitor showed.

With minimal increase, expansion of new housing supply, and interest rate movement, JLL expects housing prices to continue to decline.

Historical analysis suggests that for prices to stabilise, monthly secondary residential transaction volumes need to consistently surpass 3,500; however, volumes have remained at or below 3,000 since April 2023.

〈Asian Post, Feb 20, 2024〉The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence (AI) is driving an unprecedented surge in demand for data centres in Hong Kong.

According to JLL's Data Centres 2024 Global Outlook, global data creation is expected to double in the next five years compared to the past decade.

The growth of data centre storage capacity is anticipated to increase from 10.1 zettabytes (ZB) in 2023 to 21 ZB in 2027, representing a five-year compound annual growth rate of 18.5%.

The data also revealed specialized AI-focused data centres require customized designs and power allocations to accommodate AI processing demands. Moreover, liquid cooling technologies are increasingly favored to manage heat generation, offering up to 90% energy savings compared to traditional air-based cooling methods.