A critical evaluation for the performance of REIT retails portfolio inHong Kong

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to access the development of The Link REIT as a kind of REITs in Hong Kong. By evaluating the performance of The Link REIT, its shopping centres and the customer satisfaction, implication of The Link's management to the REIT, the shopping centres and even the society were identified.

In this research, the evaluation for performance of The Link REIT would be divided into three scopes. Firstly, the performance of REIT would be evaluated by analyzing the indices. Secondly, the attributes of The Link's shopping centres would be evaluated by analyzing the determinants of rental income. Last but not least, customer satisfaction would be evaluated by measuring the service quality based on SERVQUAL instrument. The first two scopes of evaluation would be mainly based on the secondary data. Primary data obtained by questionnaire survey would be collected for the evaluation of customer satisfaction.

After collecting and analyzing all data, position impacts of The Link's management was identified to the performance of REIT and the attributes of its shopping centres. In contrary on the first two evaluations, customers including both of the visitors and tenants were found dissatisfied to the empathy attributes of The Link's shopping centres. The customer expectation valued greater than the customer perception. In other words, The Link failed to understanding or providing what customers need.

Upon conducting the regressive analysis of the secondary data, contradiction between the development of The Link and public expectation was finally concluded. The Link aimed at maximizing the interest or benefits for the shareholders while visitors or tenants requested The Link to ensure the low price of products and low rental charge. In considering the historical responsibility of HKHA, The Link was being over-expected in performing its social responsibility. To be a responsible asset manager and also a social company, recommendation or suggestions were made based on the analysis.