Central

Hong Kong’s office vacancy rates are expected to plateau at 14% as Central’s vacancy rate hit a 43-month low in June. JLL reported the overall vacancy rate fell to 13.1% in the first half, but an upcoming supply pipeline will likely push it back to 14%.

Hong Kong’s roast meat restaurant chains are expanding in tourist districts like Mong Kok, Tsim Sha Tsui, Central, and Causeway Bay, while the broader retail property market shows uneven recovery and elevated vacancy rates. The number of siu mei restaurants specializing in Cantonese roasted meats has increased in these core shopping areas.

Hong Kong’s prime office vacancy rate fell to a seven-month low in May, driven by spillover demand from Central, where premium offices were nearly full. Tenants shifted to neighboring areas like Wan Chai and Causeway Bay, reducing vacancy there to 9.8%, the lowest in 10 months.

Hong Kong’s prime office vacancy rate fell to a seven-month low in May, driven by spillover demand from Central. Tenants in Central, where premium offices are near full occupancy, shifted to neighboring areas like Wan Chai and Causeway Bay, reducing vacancy rates there to a 10-month low.

Central pastor Tony Spell was arrested Tuesday on a second-degree battery charge, according to the Advocate report.

Hong Kong police arrested a 14-year-old boy after a 13cm box cutter with an extendable blade was found on a Citybus double-decker on route 37A. The item was discovered between two seats on a bus traveling from Pok Fu Lam’s Chi Fu Fa Yuen to Central at approximately 5:20pm on Wednesday.

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) will revamp its US$812 million headquarters in June next year to enhance its competitiveness as a leading IPO market and fixed-income and commodities trading hub. The project includes a new entrance, a finance museum, and aims to create a 'future-ready' hub in Hong Kong’s Central district.

Hong Kong authorities have ordered a licensed mobile ice cream vendor in Central to stop selling soft ice cream after samples were found to contain coliform bacteria levels exceeding legal limits by more than three times. The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department's Centre for Food Safety found 310 coliform bacteria per gram in the sample, surpassing the regulatory limit of 100 per gram.

A Hong Kong migrant workers' group is calling on authorities to expand pedestrian areas in Central on Sundays as Statue Square Gardens will temporarily close for construction of a pedestrian underpass. The underpass project, part of developer Henderson Land Development's requirements for a Central harbourfront site, will connect the Central MTR station to other areas.

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission has facilitated a record HK$1.5 billion settlement for wronged independent shareholders of Giordano International. Hundreds of investors queued at Edinburgh Tower in Central to claim their share of the largest settlement on record by the city's market regulator.

Progress Software has released updates to address two security flaws in MOVEit Automation, including a critical bug that could result in an authentication bypass. The patches address security issues in the managed file transfer solution used in enterprise environments. This update is crucial for securing file movement workflows.