Hong Kong Cold Storage Demand Increasing (Colliers)

We see Hong Kong’s cold storage market having strong demand and limited supply over the next five years. For example, the retained imports of frozen food has grown ata CAGR of 11%1 from 2016 to 2020, despite cold storage space (by sq ft GFA) growing at a CAGR of a mere4%2 over the same period.Kwai Chung stands out as one of the most promising sub-markets, accounting for 44% of the licensed cold stores space that is well connected via the highway network.We recommend investors consider three strategies to enter this sector:

• Built-to-suit, either on bare industrial land or redeveloping existing industrial buildings.

• Sale-and-leaseback, purchasing an existing asset and leasing it back to the original owner.

• Conversion from existing industrial assets, by adding state of the art technology to capture greater investment returns.