〈The Standard, Apr 29, 2023〉Commercial property in Hong Kong is gaining momentum with a shop on Russell Street in Causeway Bay being leased for HK$800,000 per month, which is back to the prepandemic level.

The deal involves shops B1 to B3 on the ground floor of 59 Russell Street and covers about 1,408 square feet of buildable area.

The property is now being occupied by an Upstairs Shop operated by Hing Kee Java Edible Bird's Nest.

The shop will become a cosmetic store as it was recently leased to a new long-term tenant with the HK$800,000 figure equivalent to HK$568 per sq ft, according to local media.

〈Asian Post, Apr 28, 2023〉Singapore-headquartered Endowus said its digital wealth management services, Endowus Fund Smart, is now available in Hong Kong.

The digital solution offers more than 140 funds from asset classes with cash and money market, fixed income, equity, multi-asset and commodities.

Clients of Endowus Private Wealth also have access to hedge funds, private equity, private credit and private real estate.

Hong Kong is Endowus’ first international expansion market prior to Singapore.

〈Hong Kong Business, Apr 27, 2023〉Analysts are foreseeing a further increase in the housing prices in the northern and north-western parts of the New Territories as it undergoes residential and commercial development through the government’s Northern Metropolis plan.

Prior to the planned development for New Territories, housing prices in the area have already grown 28.6% from 2016 to 2020. It also recorded a price uptick of 45.8% between 2011 and 2015, according to JLL Research.

Analysts attributed these increases to “enhanced infrastructure and amenities;” and with the Northern Metropolis plan in place, they sad property prices in New Territories will likely “be subject to more upward pressure.”

〈Bloomberg, Apr 26, 2023〉China’s government has shrugged off concerns about the plunge in land sales. What gives? A deeper look at the issue offers insights into the Chinese financial system, and explains why land prices—despite the downturn—have largely held up.

If you look at land sales, Chinese real estate is in dire shape. As a result, there was a two trillion yuan ($290 billion) decline in income from land sales last year. And that drop continued into the first two months of 2023. As Alicia Garcia Herrero, chief Asia Pacific economist at Natixis, puts it: Land sales are “one of the most important components of China’s local government revenue.”

“Given the challenges faced by China’s property market are largely structural, i.e., slower income growth, population aging, we expect the land sales revenue to continue being under stress down the road,” she wrote in a note this week.

〈Hong Kong Business, Apr 25, 2023〉House 12 at the Mount Nicholson project on The Peak was sold for $577.4m or $82,000 per square foot (sq ft).

According to data from Savills, House 12 spans 7,042 square feet (sq ft) with a 2,751 sq ft garden and a 1,970 sq ft terrace.

Publicly available data showed that the unnamed buyer of the property paid 5% of the purchase price on the signing of the Preliminary Agreement for Sale and Purchase (PASP).