Investment in Hong Kong commercial real estate up 27% to US$3.1b in Q3

Year-to-date investment is already 9% higher than in 2016.

Investors are channelling their capital into Asia Pacific, according to new figures released by JLL. Inter-regional investors remained active as they target India, China and Australia, with continued appetite from international funds for real estate in the region. In Hong Kong, a flurry of activity from offshore capital helped boost third quarter volumes to US$3.1 billion, up 27 per cent year-on-year and bringing year-to-date investment up nine per cent compared to 2016.

Cathie Chung, Regional Director of Research at JLL in Hong Kong, said: “In 3Q17, a number of mega deals were recorded in the retail sector, which is close to bottoming out, and industrial sector in anticipation of the Government’s review of the revitalisation scheme. Investors’ interest in the mega office deal however is not muted. We understand that a number of PRC investors are reportedly in the final stages of negotiating large en-bloc purchases and we expect some of these to complete. In most cases, however, the buyers are listed offshore, hence the weight of the capital controls is unlikely to be as strong.”

Global transaction volumes for Q3 came in at US$166 billion, with no change compared to the same time last year. Meanwhile, transaction volumes in Asia Pacific rose by six per cent compared to the third quarter last year, at US$35 billion. This brought Asia Pacific’s year-to-date volumes to US$95.8 billion, 11 per cent higher than this time last year.