Hong Kong watchdog SFC acquires 12 floors in Swire Properties’ One Island East for US$691 million in ‘cost-saving’ deal
- Deal is also ‘in line with the best practice of an environmentally conscious organisation’, CEO Julie Leung says
- Deal represents the largest end-user office transaction in Hong Kong since 2019: JLL
The SFC has signed a sale-and-purchase agreement with the property developer to acquire 12 floors of the grade-A office building, according to a statement on Friday. The acquisition of the nine floors the SFC currently occupies will take effect from December, while the acquisition of three additional floors will be completed by 2028, the regulator said.
“This acquisition is cost saving in the long run as the SFC invests in its own assets and eliminates rental expenses,” Julia Leung, the regulator’s CEO, said in the statement. “Becoming the owner of the leased office space will spare us the hassle of further office relocations, minimise disruptions to our operations and [is] in line with the best practice of an environmentally conscious organisation.”
The SFC currently occupies the 45th to 54th floors, excluding the 49th floor, of One Island East, and its tenancy agreement will be terminated upon completion of the deal, Swire Properties said in a statement on Friday.
The 12 floors were independently valued at HK$5.28 billion as of June 30, the developer said. Last year, total net rental income before and after taxation attributable to these floors stood at HK$178.07 million and HK$148.69 million, respectively.
The SFC’s acquisition represents the largest end-user office transaction in Hong Kong since 2019, according to consultancy JLL, which was an adviser on the deal.
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“Hong Kong’s office market is one of the most resilient asset classes globally, with strong and sustained demand in both the leasing and investment markets,” said Alex Barnes, managing director and head of office leasing advisory at JLL in Hong Kong. “We will see demand improve further after the global and mainland China economies stabilise.”
Transaction volumes in the region sank 37 per cent year on year for a sixth consecutive quarter of annual declines, according to the report. The US$25.7 billion worth of deals recorded in the third quarter represent the lowest tally since 2012, and was about 28 per cent lower than second-quarter activity.
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“The narrative of higher for longer interest rates that emerged recently has quashed any hopes of an early recovery,” said Benjamin Chow, head of Asia real assets research at MSCI.
“Coming into this downturn, Asia-Pacific lagged the rest of the world in terms of price discovery, but the gloomier third-quarter outlook appears to have given price expectations a nudge, with further corrections in many key sectors across the region.”
