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SCMP Reporter

Sales of prominent commercial buildings helped push last month's office transactions to their highest dollar value since  the handover.

Office space deals registered  last month amounted to $6.33 billion,  the highest since July 1997, according to the  figures  from the Land Registry and Ricacorp Properties.

This compared with a peak of $9.15 billion recorded in June 1997.

Among the 283 office transactions recorded  last month, against 236  recorded in December,  25 properties were worth more than $20 million.

The largest dollar deal last year was November's sale of the 43-storey PCCW Tower in Taikoo Place, Quarry Bay,  for $2.8 billion  to Richly Leader.  Taikoo Place landlord Swire Properties later acquired a 20 per cent  stake in Richly Leader to maintain a 'strategic stake' in the property.

Other prominent transactions registered in the period included two Central office buildings: Luk Hoi Tung Building for $1.01 billion  and China State Bank Building for $306 million.

The number of  office space transactions worth less than $2 million increased 32 per cent  to 150,   totalling $13.51 billion,  up 38.3  per cent from December, Ricacorp said.

The growing number of office transactions was accompanied by an increase in office rents and prices.

Property consultant Knight Frank said grade-A office rents in Hong Kong rose 11 per cent  last month.  Net effective monthly rents in core Central climbed 9.6 per cent   to $38.8 per square foot  while those in fringe Central jumped 13.7 per cent to $27.31 per square foot.

The uptrend in office prices also continued. A 1,400 sqft unit on the 16th floor of 9 Queen's Road Central, one of the few grade-A offices in Central available for strata-title sale, was sold at $12,000  per square foot last month.

Knight Frank said the price marked the highest unit price traded in the building since 1998.

Among the latest strata-title office transactions in a prime area was an upper floor in World Trade Centre, Causeway Bay. The 12,770 sqft floor,  which was bought for $79.17 million  in August,  was sold for $99.6 million  recently, Centaline Property Agency said.



Office sales soar on large dollar deals