Shift From Central to Kowloon

In Hong Kong, a Shift From Central to Kowloon

Hong Kong's "heart" is shifting...

With the XRL, and the extension of the Tung Chung Line

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For years, the epicenter of the city has been Central, where gleaming skyscrapers and luxury-goods stores mix with squealing double-decker trolleys and steep alleys packed with cobblers and dim sum shops.

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Companies in Hong Kong's tightly packed Central district have started to spread out --across Victoria Harbor to Kowloon, where two emerging central business districts have already attracted big names in finance.

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But increasingly, companies in this tightly packed district and surrounding area have started to spread out. The city is looking across Victoria Harbor to Kowloon, the peninsula at the tip of mainland China, at two emerging business districts that already have attracted some big names in finance.


The problem for Central is that the amount of top-quality office space has remained constant at about 13.7 million square feet for a decade

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"There used to be a psychological barrier, when everything used to be about Central," said Jonas Kan, a property analyst at Daiwa Capital Markets. "The barrier has been broken."

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+continues: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324678604578341253319118038.html

(Sorry, Lloyd, I couldn't resist - it was a front page story in the Asian WSJ.

I will try to keeps the cracks about ML becoming a "backwater" to a minimum.)


Don't you all think that if Kowloon keeps building new Office Buildings, and Central stays on "pause", then the heart of the SAR may shift away from HK Island towards Kowloon?


With the Express Train coming in 3 years, it seems inevitable.


Right now, I would say the Heart of HK is somewhere in Victoria Harbor. But add the Express Rail and the WK Cultural district, and it might be someplace like Tai Kok Tsui in Western Kowloon.

The EXtension of the Tung Chung Line will also help Kowloon's property prices, especially in the WK area, and along the line into HK Island:

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North Island Line (NIL)

6.3 The NIL "Swap” scheme links the Tung Chung Line (TCL) via the Central and

Wanchai reclamation areas through to the eastern section of the Island Line (ISL)

at Fortress. The Tseung Kwan O Line (TKOL) is then extended from North Point to

connect into the ISL at Tin Hau and run through to the western terminus at Sheung

Wan. It has a high priority for implementation as it relieves the ISL and TWL and

promotes the use of the TCL, WR and TKOL. It is common to all railway network

expansion options and its implementation needs to be co-ordinated with

reclamation and infrastructure development along the north foreshore of Hong

Kong Island.

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/source: http://www.hyd.gov.hk/eng/public/publications/srds_es/doc/RDS2_E.pdf