Telecom Digital Holdings forks out $30m for shop

Telecom Digital Holdings, which runs a chain of mobile-phone retail outlets in Hong Kong and Macau, has paid HK$30 million (US$3.8 million) for a shop in the industrial neighbourhood of Kwun Tong, topping the market price in the city’s Causeway Bay shopping district.

The 301 sqft (28 sqm) shop at the Kwun Tong Plaza sold for $100,000 a square foot, a record that is double the current commercial property price in Causeway Bay. The seller made a 130 per cent return from an initial purchase made in 2011, says manager Celeste Liu Ching-ping of Sheraton Valuers, the agent for the transaction.

Rents and sales prices of arcade shops in Causeway Bay are among the highest in Asia.

Telecom Digital’s Kwun Tong shop space combines two subdivided lots, which currently generate a combined rental income of more than $90,000 a month. The first lot is occupied by a money changer, and the second by a vendor of durian desserts.

Kwun Tong, located on the eastern side of the Kowloon Peninsula, was the city’s manufacturing industrial hub during the 1950s. It has been redeveloped into a residential area, with industrial buildings increasingly making way for commercial space.

Built in 1986, Kwun Tong Plaza is a 15-floor commercial building that features tech shops on its first five floors. There are also fashion boutiques and eateries. The is adjacent to a subway station and the APM shopping mall owned by Sun Hung Kai Properties.

Telecom Digital plans to take over the shop when the existing leases expire in September and July next year.

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