Link REIT to add more property

The Link Real Estate Investment Trust, Hong Kong's biggest property trust, said prices of office towers and shopping malls in the city will remain stable as the company is looking to expand its commercial real estate portfolio.

The REIT, which has about HK$5.7 billion ($735 million) of cash and bank credit it can use for acquisitions, is looking to expand its current portfolio of 153 shopping malls in the city, Chief Executive Officer George Hongchoy said in an interview on Thursday. The company's shareholders in July passed a mandate allowing management to acquire other commercial assets including industrial and office buildings.

Hong Kong's government is stepping up measures, including tightening mortgage lending and imposing extra transaction taxes, to curb home prices that have doubled in the past three years. That has pushed some investors to commercial properties, with the value of retail property deals in October reaching the highest since Centaline Property Agency Ltd began collecting data in 1995.

Bloomberg - Reuters