The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.
Bloomberg
Hong Kong’s government fetched a record HK$42 billion ($5 billion) for a plot of land, a sale coming in at the lower end of estimates as the financial hub has been rocked by six months of pro-democracy protests.
A tender for the site, which sits atop the high-speed railway station in Kowloon that connects to mainland Chinese cities, was won by Sun Hung Kai Properties Lt, the city government said. The plot is expected to yield 294,000 square metres (3.2 million square feet) of floor area with offices, luxury hotels as well as retail space.
The price is 56% higher than the previous record of $3.2 billion that was paid for a residential site in the Kai Tak area in 2018. Analysts had valued the Kowloon plot at a range of $4 billion to $12 billion ahead of the auction.
The deal marks a partial vote of confidence in one of the world’s most expensive real estate markets amid an unprecedented upheaval, providing authorities with a welcomed financial injection. Demonstrations have crippled the financial hub, driving tourists away, damaging retail trade and hotel occupancy and hurtling the economy into a recession.
The city’s office market suffered its worst decline in more than a decade last month.
But turmoil subsided in the days up to announcement, which also follows a district election over the weekend where pro-democracy candidates scored a landslide
victory.