Savvy investors, including a buyer of a floor at Opus in Mid-Levels who is connected to the family of a Cambodian Chinese tycoon, are pouncing on Hong Kong’s slumping commercial property market to snap up bargains.
The 12th floor of 18 On Lan Street, a Ginza-style commercial building in Central, was handed over to Surplus Inc for HK$34 million (US$4.4 million) on Friday, according to Land Registry records. That represented a 65 per cent loss for the previous owner, Zhou Shubo, who bought the floor for HK$96 million in 2013.
Kanika Sam Ang was a director at Surplus, according to Companies Registry data. Sam Ang has been associated with the family of tycoon Tony Tandijono, who owns Cambodia-based President Airlines, Phnom Penh casino Holiday Palace and a travel agency in Hong Kong.
Sam Ang and Holik Tandijono bought the second floor of Opus Hong Kong – a luxury residential building in Mid-Levels designed by architect Frank Gehry – for HK$369 million in 2015, according to Land Registry records.
Other family members of the tycoon have been active in the city’s property market. In 2021, Homan Sentoni Tandijono bought a 1,424 sq ft unit at Epworth Lodge at 51 Barker Road for HK$78 million, Land Registry records showed. Tony Tandijono himself owned five of the six homes at Epworth Lodge, according to media reports.
Meanwhile, another heavily discounted commercial property has been put up for sale. The landlord of Golden Scene Cinema, the only cinema in the Western District of Hong Kong Island, was asking for HK$130 million for 14,000 sq ft of retail space at 2 Catchick Street in Kennedy Town, according to CBRE, the sole agent.
