6000 square feet

Tokyo-based real estate firm Nomura has announced a 24 percent acquisition of the Sun Wah Tower on Nguyen Hue Street in Ho Chi Minh City. The Nomura Real Estate Development Co. Ltd. said it is looking to cash in on opportunities created by the rising demand for office space. The company did not reveal the value of the deal but it said that the tower, invested in by Hong Kong’s Sun Wah Group, is the very first A-listed office tower in the Asia-Pacific region that it has invested in. Standing in the heart of HCMC’s District 1, the tower rises 23 floors with a total area of 20,800 square meters (224 square feet). Sun Wah Tower building on Nguyen Hue Street in Ho Chi Minh City's District 1. Photo by VnExpress/Minh Nga According to Nomura, HCMC lacks A-listed office space, demand for which is expected to increase in the future. Investing in Sun Wah Tower was a sound move given its prime location, the company said. Up to 85 percent of the building’s current tenants are … [Read more...] about Japan’s Nomura invests in HCMC’s Sun Wah Tower

As housing prices spiral in Hong Kong, young professionals are living in ever-shrinking spaces, with box-like "nano-flats" and co-shares touted as fashionable solutions. Blocks of sleek miniature apartments packed with mod cons are springing up around the densely packed city, pitched as an attractive and more affordable lifestyle choice, but still at an eye-watering cost. Finance worker Adrian Law, 25, paid more than HK$6 million ($765,000) two years ago for his tiny studio apartment in a new development in the gentrified Sai Ying Pun neighborhood. The slim glass building squeezes four apartments onto each floor and includes "nano-flats", a new term for homes of under 215 square feet (20 square meters). Law's studio is a fraction bigger at 292 square feet, with a price per square foot of nearly HK$20,000. He has adapted to the limited space by buying transformable furniture - his bed folds away against the wall to reveal a desk tucked underneath - and he keeps most of his belongings at … [Read more...] about Tight squeeze for Hong Kong’s young professionals

A draft law requiring all supermarkets in Vietnam to open through holidays and provide online sales and delivery services has angered retailers. They say rules cannot set for marketing strategies that are decided by businesses based on their own assessment of market conditions. The provision in the Decree of Development and Distribution Management, proposed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, will apply to retail outlets that have an area of at least 250 square meters (2,690 square feet), and malls with more than 10,000 square meters (over 107,600 square feet). The new rules also say supermarkets and malls can only have a maximum of three discount events a year, with 30 days at the most for each event, and 70 percent of all items must be discounted at such events. Supermarkets and malls also need to open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, including holidays. They must offer delivery service and online shopping to customers, the bill says. Whether a supermarket offers delivery … [Read more...] about Vietnam retailers bristle at coercive rules

A new day starts at 2:30 a.m. for Hiep and her four housemates who rent a small apartment tucked away down a Saigon alley. They need to make tofu pudding in time for 6 a.m., when they loads pots full of the hot dessert onto their bicycles and off they go to the inner city to find customers. At the same time, around 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) north, Quyen loads duck embryos and chicken eggs onto the back of a motorbike and travels from the outskirts of Hanoi to the Old Quarter in the downtown district of Hoan Kiem. Everyday, tens of thousands of vendors leave their rented apartments in big cities for busy streets to pay off debts and keep their families in the countryside afloat. They are the faces behind telling statistics that have been troubling policymakers for years: migrants and unofficial workers. Official government data from 2015 showed that migrants aged between 15 and 59 made up 17.3 percent of the country’s population of 90 million. The majority of them work in the … [Read more...] about To street vendors in Vietnam’s biggest cities, sidewalk is a lifeline

Cheung Muk-gun's home is an illegal, wooden shack under a highway in one of the poorest areas of Hong Kong, where sky-high property prices and a yawning wealth gap have helped fuel a surge in homelessness. The 72-year-old earns about HK$10,000 ($1,279) a month working seven days a week at a frozen meat store in the working-class district of Mong Kok, a short trip across Victoria Harbour from the city's opulent financial centre. With property prices up 200 percent in the past decade, and a bed in a tiny, windowless apartment - often shared with other tenants - going for about HK$2,000 a month, Cheung said he preferred to live in his shack. An apartment of around 250 square feet (23 square meters) in a new building with windows and a bathroom near Mong Kok would rent for about HK$12,000. "Why would I want to spend so much on rent, not to mention other related miscellaneous expenses. After paying all that, my salary could hardly cover my daily expenses," he said. Since Cheung became … [Read more...] about Homeless in Hong Kong: soaring costs fuel housing crisis in Asian financial hub