强拍申请1日批3宗值逾21亿

新冠肺炎疫情肆虐，使今季强拍审批进展缓慢。法庭昨日连环批出3宗强拍申请，共值逾21亿元，其中由老牌发展商协成行申请强拍的筲箕湾东大街义德大厦，强拍底价为8.04亿元。

由老牌发展商协成行申请强拍的筲箕湾东大街义德大厦，属于8层高商住大厦，于1966年落成，项目佔地约7,680平方呎，属于「住宅(甲类)」用途，可建住宅楼面约6.9万平方呎。法庭批出强拍底价为8.04亿元。

筲箕湾义德大厦底价8亿

另外，由深圳南瑞投资徐凯祥等相关人士提出强拍的尖沙咀金巴利道49至51号金兴大厦，亦获以底价6.525亿元批出强拍令，预计可重建作商厦，以可建楼面约8.64万平方呎计，每呎楼面地价约7,550元。

大鸿辉收购及申请强拍的上环德辅道西及西安里安庆楼，获法庭颁下强制拍卖令，可建楼面约5.37万平方呎，以拍卖底价7亿元，每呎楼面约1.3万元。

位于上环德辅道西326至332号及西安里11A至11D的安庆楼，现为1幢9层高商住旧楼，于1959年落成，佔地约6,172平方呎，发展商大鸿辉于多年前展开收购，并于2018年申请强拍，今获法庭审议，最终以底价7亿元颁下拍卖令。

地盘现划为「住宅甲类」用途，若以8.7倍商住地积比计算，可建楼面约5.37万平方呎，以拍卖底价计，每呎楼面地价约1.3万元，预计可重建成1幢27至32层高商住楼宇，而发展商在项目周边尚有多个收购地盘，估计有机会连同一併发展。

(经济日报)

World’s costliest offices are poised to enter tenants’ market as Hong Kong businesses reel from coronavirus, protest movement

Hong Kong’s notoriously pricey office rental sector is fast becoming a tenants’ market as last year’s protest movement and the current coronavirus pandemic have prompted struggling companies to bail on their leases.

A huge increase in firms, from co-working space providers to finance companies and retailers, abandoning their offices before the contracts expire has helped free up space and contributed to a fall in rental rates.

“Given that real estate is one of the single largest costs in operating a business, particularly in Hong Kong, lease surrender cases are becoming more prevalent as a means to generate savings,” said Chris Cohen, a data analyst at Savvi, a Hong Kong-based data driven real estate platform founded in 2018 that specialises in office, off-market and lease surrender opportunities.

Office rents across the city have been falling hard this year, with vacancy rates in areas like Admiralty and Central soaring as the health crisis further saps demand already dented by months of social unrest. Many analysts see the situation worsening this year.

Companies that surrender space have typically overextended themselves through expansion or “are currently paying market-peak rentals in what is one of the world’s most expensive office markets,” said Cohen.

Firms that gave up office space this year were predominantly mainland Chinese ones and those whose businesses were hit particularly hard by the virus and last year’s social unrest, such as retailers, according to a real estate agent.

Sometimes the rental contract can be broken legally if tenant and landlord reach agreement on terms, which might include compensation.

“If their business or operation is affected, they will consider cost-saving exercises more seriously”, which may include surrendering some office space, the agent added.

“They either cut the size or move to cheaper places. Surrender means they would seek replacement [tenants] during the lease,” the agent added.

The number of so-called surrendered listings for Hong Kong office space in the first three months of 2020 was double that for the whole of last year, according to Savvi, which cooperates with landlords, agents and tenants to deliver property services in cities including New York, Singapore and Shanghai. Savvi says it has a network of more than 10,000 tenants, giving it access to a large amount of listing data.

Hong Kong Island alone has recorded 500,000 to 600,000 square feet of surrendered listings so far this year, almost twice the 250,000 to 350,000 sq ft during the whole of 2019, the company said. The 600,000 sq ft is equivalent to the size of 9.3 standard football pitches measuring 6,000 sq m each.

The amount of space vacated in the first three months has been almost 10 times the quantity in the same period last year by square footage, said Cohen.

“We anticipate a month-on-month increase of 20 to 30 per cent in surrender and upcoming lease listings ... for at least the next three months,” he added.

Reasons for surrender, which can release tenants from their existing lease obligations, include restructuring, downsizing, insolvency, merger and acquisition, or even expansion.

“It is also in pressing times, due in part to the months of social unrest and the current Covid-19, that businesses are forced to think outside the box,” Cohen said. “Landlords’ sentiment is also changing, and some are facilitating surrender cases within their portfolio, as a last resort.”

Since many surrender listings are also handled off-market or on a confidential basis, the jump may actually be greater than the figures suggest.

Recent cases of surrendered office space have been seen in some of Hong Kong’s busiest commercial zones, including Central, Admiralty, Tsim Sha Tsui and Causeway Bay.

Co-working operator WeWork last month surrendered 30,000 square feet on two floors at Hysan Place, Causeway Bay, and 120,000 square feet at The Gateway in Tsim Sha Tsui, according to market sources. WeWork was paying a monthly rate of about HK$100 (US$12.89) per sq ft at Hysan Place and about HK$60 per sq ft at The Gateway. The leases were only signed last year.

“At the moment, we are focusing on our top priority of ensuring members across the world have a safe workplace environment,” WeWork told the Post in an email last week, referring to the Covid-19 pandemic.

CreditEase, a fintech company from mainland China, surrendered its office in the International Financial Centre, measuring about 5,000 sq ft last month. It was leased at about HK$170 per sq ft, according to market sources. The lease was supposed to expire in the third quarter of 2021. CreditEase did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

“As the Covid-19 outbreak has been declared a pandemic, this will inevitably exacerbate market volatility and negative sentiment,” another agent. “The office market will be significantly dampened in the near term.”

The vacancy rate was the most serious in Admiralty at 6.1 per cent in February, the highest since April 2014, with almost one in five floors of Bank of America Tower empty, according to another real estate agency.

Average rents for offices in Admiralty sank 22.6 per cent on the year to HK$90.1 per sq ft in February, according to the real estate agency.

The average Hong Kong office rent will slide to HK$60.6 per sq ft in 2021, down 16.8 per cent from last year, as the market “transitions to a tenant-friendly” one, according to a report by an agency firm.

Rents in Central contracted by 3.2 per cent month-on-month to HK$116.1 per sq ft in February, the sharpest monthly decline since the financial crisis of 2008, agent said.

(South China Morning Post)