While Hong Kong investors refuse to pour money into the property sector, overseas companies are launching a buying spree in the SAR. In recent months, investors from Britain, Australia and Singapore have made forays into the local property market to cash in on prices that have fallen 55 per cent from their peak in 1997. Their investments include buying properties and taking stakes in local property firms. Investment fund GRA, in which insurance and finance company Prudential Group and the Singaporeans had some interest, spent more than $800 million on three luxury properties. British firm Grosvenor Estate Holdings last month bought a 15 per cent stake in medium-sized listed developer Asia Standard International for about $380 million. Australian Lend Lease Group's Asia property investment arm Asia Pacific Investment paid more than $500 million for five floors of prime offices and a block of a luxury building. The most recent transaction is the Singaporean government-funded firm Pidemco Land's purchase of a residential block of Hong Kong Parkview in Tai Tam. The developer bought the property from the family of Hong Kong Parkview Group chairman George Wong Kin-wah for $962 million. The deal is believed to be the largest for upmarket residential projects this year. A source close to Pidemco said the company believed the prospects for Hong Kong's property market would be promising. The company would continue to seek investment opportunities in the market, with its possible targets being luxury and office properties as well as development projects, the source said. The Block 15 of Hong Kong Parkview was Pidemco's first property investment here. According to the source, the company chose it because the property is the best tower in the estate and even the ground-level flats command sea views. The existing tenancies also offer rents at more than $30 per square foot. Pidemco owns the prime Temasek Tower in Shenton Way and the uncompleted Capital Tower in Singapore. Its overseas investments include the Canary Riverside in Britain and the Sheraton Suzhou Hotel and Towers in the mainland. Colliers Jardine research manager Simon Lo said the series of purchases indicated that overseas investors' confidence in the local property sector had been restored. Those investors believed it was the right time to invest because the market, especially the residential sector, had bottomed out. They expected to see a recovery in about two to three years, he said. Mr Lo said local investors remained reluctant to buy as they did not see any gains in the short term. 'Local investors are looking at short-term prospects but global funds usually eye the medium-term and long-term outlook,' he said. The market could see an improvement in investment activities in view of a growing buying sentiment from global investors, but the pace would depend on the interest-rate performance and the economic outlook in Hong Kong, Mr Lo said. Landscope Surveyors managing director Koh Keng-shing said overseas investors were looking at capital appreciation in the Hong Kong property market. Prices in other regional countries such as Singapore had rebounded, leaving Hong Kong property prices lagging behind. Hamptons International Group vice-chairman Chris Palmer said the residential market in Hong Kong was attractive and expected a recovery next year. Chaired by former Jardines taipan Nigel Rich, Hamptons made its first acquisition into the Hong Kong real-estate sector by taking over medium-sized estate agent Victoria Properties. Analysts said overseas investors usually eyed properties such as grade-A office space, hotels and luxury residential units. However, as the outlook for offices and hotels was not promising, they turned to luxury housing instead. Global funds usually eye the medium-term and long-term outlook
