Rental Indices (Rating & Valuation Department)

Source

Rating and Valuation Department (RVD)

• Department URL: https://www.rvd.gov.hk/en/
• Publication: Property Market Statistics
• Download: https://www.rvd.gov.hk/en/publications/pro-review.html

Format

XLSX Quarterly. Published ~6 weeks after quarter end. Free download.

Quarterly

Update Frequency

18

Districts

4 Classes

Property Types

Schema / Fields

Field	Type	Example	Description
YEAR	integer	2023	Year
QUARTER	integer	3	Quarter (1-4)
DISTRICT	string	"Central & Western"	Administrative district
CLASS	string	"Shops"	Property class
INDEX	float	186.4	Rental index (base year = 1999)
YOY_CHANGE_PCT	float	-2.3	Year-on-year change
QOQ_CHANGE_PCT	float	-0.8	Quarter-on-quarter change

Property Class Reference

Class	Description
Shops	Retail shops (ground floor commercial)
Offices Grade A	Prime office space
Offices Grade B/C	Secondary office space
Flatted Factories	Industrial units
Private Domestic	Residential flats

Example API Call

# RVD website — download quarterly report
curl -L -o rvd_quarterly.xlsx \
  "https://www.rvd.gov.hk/doc/en/statistics/rental_index_all.xlsx"

# CKAN search
curl "https://data.gov.hk/en-data/api/3/action/package_search?q=rental+index+rating+valuation"

Example Response

YEAR | Q | DISTRICT          | CLASS | INDEX | YOY   | QOQ
2023 | 3 | Central & Western | Shops | 186.4 | -2.3% | -0.8%
2023 | 3 | Wan Chai          | Shops | 171.2 | -1.8% | -0.4%
2023 | 3 | Yau Tsim Mong     | Shops | 154.8 | -3.1% | -1.2%
2023 | 3 | Central & Western | Gr.A  | 142.3 | -4.2% | -1.1%

Used By

Model	How
Regression Model	Rent cost variable — site rent as key cost input for profitability threshold
Site Rating	Rent efficiency ratio: revenue potential vs. rental cost
Constraints	Maximum affordable rent given target revenue — hard constraint

Notes / Gotchas

Tip

Shops index for Central & Western is consistently the highest in HK. A site in Sheung Wan pays ~20% premium over Wan Chai for equivalent floor area.

Caution

RVD indices are averages across the district — actual rents on Queen’s Road Central can be 3-5x higher than on a side street 200m away. Street-level variation is not captured.

• Index base year is 1999 = 100; current values around 150-200 reflect post-handover appreciation
• Retail rents peaked around 2014, fell during protest period (2019), COVID (2020-22), and are recovering slowly
• Ground floor vs upper floor shops have very different rent levels — indices blend these
• For actual rent estimation, supplement with commercial property listings (Midland, CBRE, JLL)