Hong Kong’s overall prime office vacancy rate fell to a seven-month low in May, driven by spillover demand from Central, where premium offices were close to full occupancy, according to JLL. With Central’s grade A office vacancy rate holding steady at 9.2 per cent, tenants appeared to have found their way to neighbouring Wan Chai…
Hong Kong’s wild yellow-crested cockatoos may hold genetic traits that could help save the critically endangered species in Indonesia, a study has found. The study, published in the Evolutionary Applications journal in May, underscored the importance of conserving the city’s cockatoo population. Lead author Astrid Andersson from the University of Hong Kong’s school of biological…
An Australian man, who claimed to be a lawyer, has been fined HK$2,000 (US$255) and given a suspended sentence by a Hong Kong court for repeatedly leaving restaurants without paying. Samuel Anthony Monkivitch, 50, was also ordered to pay HK$2,039 in compensation to two Shangri-La hotels in Admiralty and Tsim Sha Tsui, as well as…
On a recent stormy Sunday, domestic helpers on their weekly day off were seen hastily erecting tents and laying out plastic sheets under footbridges and inside transport hubs in Hong Kong’s Tsuen Wan district as they sought refuge from the downpour. Dozens of tents were pitched around the pillars of the footbridges, while other groups…
Hong Kong police are investigating after a blade was discovered between two seats on a Citybus double-decker, the second such case reported in recent days. A male passenger alerted the driver of the route 37A bus, which travels from Pok Fu Lam’s Chi Fu Fa Yuen to Central, at about 5.20pm on Wednesday that the…
Office rents in Hong Kong’s Central district are expected to rise faster in the second quarter of the year, according to analysts, a reversal of a multi-year slump that began in the second half of 2019. The latest forecast was made by US bank Citi, which said premium offices in the city’s main business zone…
An Australian man has been remanded in custody and hit with fresh charges in Hong Kong for fleeing restaurants without paying more than HK$2,000 (US$255) in bills, just a day after being fined for similar offences. Samuel Anthony Monkivitch, 50, was detained soon after pleading guilty at Eastern Court on Thursday to three charges –…
The leaders of Hong Kong and Uzbekistan met on Wednesday to strengthen trade ties, as China and the Central Asian country signed 15 bilateral agreements covering areas such as infrastructure, healthcare and metal production. At a meeting at Government House with Uzbek Prime Minister Abdullah Nigmatovich Aripov, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu pledged to expand…
At least two Hong Kong residents have been penalised for vaping in Admiralty as health authorities begin enforcing a new law banning the public use of alternative tobacco products, including e-cigarettes. “We will issue penalty tickets without warning, and step up publicity in high-traffic areas such as business districts,” Head of Tobacco and Alcohol Control…
About 20 per cent of the 50 places in the inaugural intake of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s new graduate medical school in 2028-29 may be reserved for non-local students, with most of them likely to be from mainland China, according to the institution. Applicants for the four-year graduate entry-level medicine programme must…