Singapore office rents might overtake those of Hong Kong for the first time since 2009, a sign that the Southeast Asian city-state is gaining an edge over its rival financial hub.
Average office spot rents in Singapore could rise 5 to 10 percent next year on the back of a limited new supply, according to a Bloomberg Intelligence report.
Hong Kong’s prime office vacancy rate might exceed 12 percent by the end of next year following a supply boom in decentralized districts, analysts Patrick Wong and Kristy Hung wrote.
The contrasting office market outlook reflects the impact of different pandemic management strategies adopted by the cities.
While Singapore is cautiously reopening and work from home remains the default arrangement, it has stopped targeting zero COVID-19 cases and begun easing border controls.
Hong Kong remains closed off to the rest of the world and has strict quarantine rules due to its elimination strategy, which has garnered criticism from global companies.
Singapore’s office market is also benefiting from the “stay-at-home” sectors given the shift in tenant profile in the past few years from financial services to technology, said Christine Li (李敏雯), head of research for Asia Pacific at Knight Frank in Singapore.
Hong Kong has been less competitive in attracting new tenants due to its perceived high costs, she said.
“With the COVID-zero approach on Hong Kong’s part, multinational companies might continue to find challenges in hiring cross-border talent to its shores,” Li said. “That could have weakened the potential recovery trajectory in the occupier market.”
HANDOVER POLICY: Approving the probe means that the new US administration of Donald Trump is likely to have the option to impose trade restrictions on China US President Joe Biden’s administration is set to initiate a trade investigation into Chinese semiconductors in the coming days as part of a push to reduce reliance on a technology that US officials believe poses national security risks. The probe could result in tariffs or other measures to restrict imports on older-model semiconductors and the products containing them, including medical devices, vehicles, smartphones and weaponry, people familiar with the matter said. The investigation examining so-called foundational chips could take months to conclude, meaning that any reaction to the findings would be left to the discretion of US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming team. Biden
INVESTMENT: Jun Seki, chief strategy officer for Hon Hai’s EV arm, and his team are currently in talks in France with Renault, Nissan’s 36 percent shareholder Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the iPhone maker known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, is in talks with Nissan Motor Co’s biggest shareholder Renault SA about its willingness to sell its shares in the Japanese automaker, the Central News Agency (CNA) said, citing people it did not identify. Nissan and fellow Japanese automaker, Honda Motor Co, are exploring a merger that would create a rival to Toyota Motor Corp in Japan and better position the combined company to face competitive challenges around the world, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. However, one potential spanner in the works is
SEMICONDUCTORS: Samsung and Texas Instruments would receive US$4.75 billion and US$1.6 billion respectively to build one chip factory in Utah and two in Texas Samsung Electronics Co and Texas Instruments Inc completed final agreements to get billions of US dollars of government support for new semiconductor plants in the US, cementing a major piece of US President Joe Biden administration’s CHIPS and Science Act initiative. Under binding agreements unveiled Friday, Samsung would get as much as US$4.75 billion in funding, while Texas Instruments stands to receive US$1.6 billion — money that would help them build facilities in Texas and Utah. The final deals mean the chipmakers can begin collecting the funding when their projects hit certain benchmarks. Though the terms of Texas Instruments’ final agreement is
Call it an antidote to fast fashion: Japanese jeans hand-dyed with natural indigo and weaved on a clackety vintage loom, then sold at a premium to global denim connoisseurs. Unlike their mass-produced cousins, the tough garments crafted at the small Momotaro Jeans factory in southwest Japan are designed to be worn for decades, and come with a lifetime repair warranty. On site, Yoshiharu Okamoto gently dips cotton strings into a tub of deep blue liquid, which stains his hands and nails as he repeats the process. The cotton is imported from Zimbabwe, but the natural indigo they use is harvested in Japan —
RSS