〈The Standard, Nov 19, 2022〉Some hoteliers have transitioned toward redeveloping their establishments into residential properties with the heavy toll inflicted on the financial hub's tourism and hotel industry by the stringent border restrictions between the mainland and Hong Kong.

There have been at least seven hotel projects with about 4,823 units that have been repurposed into residential properties since 2020 - some of which have been successfully approved by the Town Planning Board - according to The Standard's sister publication Sing Tao Daily.

Three of them belong to Li Ka-shing's CK Asset Holdings (1113), involving about 3,363 units.

One of the three is the Tin Shui Wai-based Harbour Plaza Resort City, which submitted a new development proposal in June to convert the building to 1,102 residential units.

〈The Standard, Nov 18, 2022〉The umemployment fell by 0.1 percentage points to 3.8% between August and October when compared to the July to September period.

Based on the data from the Census & Statistics Department (C&SD), the total number of unemployed people between August and October was 147,400, a drop of around 7,900 from the preceding three-month period.

The number of underemployed individuals likewise dropped by 5,600 to 63,400, translating to a rate of 1.7%.

The decreases in the unemployment and underemployment rates were seen across the decoration, buildings, retail, and food and beverage service activities sectors.

〈Hong Kong Business, Nov 16, 2022〉Transaction volumes for major deals went up 93% quarter-on-quarter to $34.2b in the third quarter of 2022, Colliers said in its recent study.

Colliers said there were high transaction volumes even as investors were cautious since their decisions were impacted by rising interest rates.

Apparently, industrial assets helped boost the growth of deals, which were over 25. The number of deals, however, decreased 19% QoQ and 51% year-on-year.

〈Asian Post, Nov 15, 2022〉Despite an improvement in its OFFICE segment Hong Kong's overall commercial investment volume still fell 19% YoY to US$1.7b in Q3, data from MSCI showed.

The report, however, underscored that Hong Kong "was coming off an already-low base in 2021."

MSCI also explained that the reason for the 60% YoY increase in investment volume in the office sector was largely due to the US$879m sale of the Goldin Financial Center, which it said was "a troubled asset that was finally sold at less than half the price offered by the original buyer two years ago"

On the other segments, MSCI said: "The retail sector, which is dominated by domestic private players, has suffered amid rate hikes. Industrial investment, which had proven resilient for most of the pandemic, sank to the lowest quarterly tally since 2014."

Despite a 19% YoY decline, Hong Kong managed to rank as the 5th APAC market with the highest investment volume for Q3.

〈Asian Post, Nov 14, 2022〉The Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) and the Zhuhai Municipal Government have signed a memorandum of understanding to deepen cooperation in developing their respective airport operations.

“Hong Kong and Zhuhai will strive to commission 'Fly-Via-Zhuhai-HK', develop international air cargo business of Hong Kong and Zhuhai,” Secretary for Transport & Logistics Lam Sai-hung said.

“Take forward the development of a high-end aviation industrial cluster, proactively discuss the acquisition of the equity of Zhuhai Airport by the AAHK, and more.”