SHKP rent income to hit HK$300m at apm mall
Sun Hung Kai Properties expects annual rental income at its flagship apm shopping centre in East Kowloon will increase 10 per cent to HK$300 million this year.
Maureen Fung Sau-yim (right), the general manager for leasing at Sun Hung Kai Real Estate, said rents for 10 new leases at apm had been renewed at rates 30 per cent higher than the previous terms.
In the first half of next year, she said a third of the leases at apm would be due for renewal. Leases are renewed every three years.
'We will raise rents by that time,' Fung said without disclosing by how much.
Rental prices at apm range from HK$90 to HK$300 per square foot. Although apm has only been open for five years, she said the firm would spend HK$50 million renovating the shopping centre next year.
Fung said sales at apm reached HK$2.23 billion in the first nine months, up about 11 per cent from a year ago.
'We have confidence that sales will exceed HK$3 billion this year in anticipation of a bumper Christmas,' she said.
Fung expects as much as HK$280 million in sales revenue could be generated next month, or 15 per cent more than a year ago. From Christmas Eve to Boxing Day, more than 1.1 million shoppers would visit the shopping centre, Fung said.
The firm had set aside HK$16 million on promotions to draw shoppers at home and from the mainland next month, she said.
Given that tourists, largely from the mainland, would spend more when they visit Hong Kong, she said the firm would widen its promotional campaigns to attract more travellers.
Average spending among mainland tourists was HK$2,500 to HK$3,500 per trip at apm, compared with HK$800 to HK$1,500 for local shoppers, Fung said.
This year, she hopes to bus in 5,500 mainland tourists and pull in HK$20 million in sales.
Promotional activities running from December 1 to January 3 next year include the chance to win a HK$160,000 Honda car.
