Purchase by the Japanese skincare brand’s distributor marks a 60 per cent cut from 2017 price as cash-rich local investors hunt for bargains
The couple behind the Asia distributor of Japanese skincare brand Fancl has bought prime office and retail space in Hong Kong’s Admiralty district, highlighting selective bargain hunting by cash-rich local investors as commercial property prices remain under pressure.
Gourmet Dining Group, owned by Christopher Chan and wife Michelle Ma-chan, agreed on January 5 to buy a shop and a unit on the first floor as well as part of the mezzanine on the second floor at Lippo Centre for HK$299 million (US$38.3 million), Land Registry records showed. The property has a total gross floor area of about 28,700 sq ft.
The transaction implies a 60 per cent decline from its previous sale in 2017, when Winland Group bought the property for HK$729 million.
The deal stands out in a market where transaction activity has increasingly been driven by mainland Chinese investors, while many local developers and families have retreated amid high borrowing costs and weak office demand.
Chan is the managing director of Fantastic Natural Cosmetics, better known as Fancl, and has been the Japanese skincare brand’s exclusive distributor in Asia outside Japan since the mid-1990s. The couple also has investments in Hong Kong’s food and beverage sector through Gourmet Dining Group.
The sale follows other recent office disposals by Winland Group, which has been selling its properties amid weak market conditions. Last month, the group sold the top floor of Bank of America Tower in Central to US-based technology firm Vobile for HK$198 million, which also translated to a discount of about 60 per cent.
Chan and Ma-chan, meanwhile, have been among the more active local buyers taking advantage of the downturn. Last year, entities linked to the couple bought a full-floor office unit in Central for HK$310 million. They also acquired a second-floor retail unit at a shopping arcade on Queen’s Road Central for HK$110 million.
While cash-rich local buyers remain selective, mainland Chinese capital has increasingly supported transaction volumes. Investment from the mainland rose to a five-year high in the final quarter of 2025 and accounted for about 60 per cent of big-ticket commercial property deals, defined as transactions above HK$100 million, according to a property consultancy.
Still, brokers cautioned that any recovery in the office sector was likely to be gradual. Office prices were expected to remain flat or fall by low single digits this year as vacancy remained elevated and new supply continued to come to market, with older buildings lagging behind newer grade A stock, analysts said.
Grade A office rents last year were 41 per cent lower compared with their peak in the first quarter of 2019, according to another property consultancy.
The property consultancy expected office rents to fall by about 3 per cent this year, narrower than the 5.8 per cent drop in 2025, even as more than 2.8 million sq ft of new office space is set to be completed.
