Hong Kong's high-speed rail terminus is host to a prime commercial site which could be sold for HK$100 billion. According to SCMP, the location--a 5.99 hectare (14.5 acres) site at West Kowloon Station--is only one of the 22 lots, both residential and commercial, that is listed in 2019's official land sale list that was unveiled by the government.
The piece of land is up for grabs, with developers expected to pass their bids in the first half of the year. This year, the sale of the property will start off the 'largest supply' of commercial and office space to be sold in the region for two decades. The government is also looking to sell the site as a whole instead of creating partitions, looking at a bigger profit from sales.
The yield from these profits, however, were still expected to be the 'lowest' in ten years, according to analysts. The government believes, however, that it is still 'beneficial' to continue with the sale of the site 'as a whole' instead of splitting it up when the considerations for design, management, and profit are taken into the picture.
The sale of the Kowloon West property shadows that of the Kowloon East office property deal, which was completed last year. The plot where the office project was located was sold to Pollyana Chu, one of Hong Kong's richest. Mingtiandi reported that Swire Properties managed to sell the 25-story tower for HK$6.5 billion.
The sale of the 555,000 sq ft (51,561 sq meter) project was completed by Pollyanna Chu's Kingston Financial Group. The 'grade A' commercial property is located at 19 Wang Chiu Road in Kowloon Bay. The sale was first revealed in 2016 when the property was still being developed, breaking existing records for office property sales at that time.
The office now stands as Kingston International Center, so-named after Chu's holdings company. The address is also known as New Kowloon Inland Lot No 6312. Rents at the property were initially pegged at HK$32 at a floor area of approximately 28,462 sq ft (2,645 sq meter).
The property, according to Hannah Jeong, the head of the valuation and advisory at Colliers Internation in the HK region, said that estimates for rent stood at HK$62.3 billion to HK$79.1 billion. This is good for HK$20,000 to HK$25,000 per sq ft.
