Hong Kong Regulator Starts Savings Plan to Buy Own Office

Hong Kong’s securities regulator aims to save enough money so it can afford to own its office in the future.

Hong Kong’s Securities and Regulator Commission (SFC) has a plan to raise up to HK$8 billion ($1.02 billion) over the next eight years so it can eventually own its office, underscoring how the city's property prices have risen to stratospheric levels that are beyond even the city's regulatory agencies. 

The SFC had been paying about HK$200 million every year since 2013 for its current premises in Cheung Kong Center, or close to HK$120/ft² per month in rent. It has planned to relocate its offices in Cheung Kong Center upon lease expiry, to Swire Properties' One Island East tower. 

However, it discovered that its HK$3 billion budget was not enough to buy a 180,000 ft² office to house its staff, said SFC Chairman Tim Lui Tim-Leung, who was quoted in the «South China Morning Post».

Savings

«We have not given up the plan to buy our property... we signed an eight-year lease (in Quarry Bay) which will be 50 percent cheaper than in Central. The relocation plan will save us HK$1 billion in total rental expenses over eight years,» Lui said in his annual report to the Financial Affairs Panel of the Legislative Council (Legco).

Using a mortgage on up to 50 per cent of the property’s value, the SFC can afford an HK$8 billion building (or HK$44,000/ft²) property agents said.