JD.com’s HK$10bn Investment in Hong Kong Logistics and Property Challenges Traditional Rent Models

JD.com has spent more than HK$10 billion (US$1.3 billion) on Hong Kong property over the past two years, assembling a network of stores, warehouses and logistics sites that analysts say could weaken the link between rent and foot traffic — the formula that has priced the city's shopping streets for decades.

The Nasdaq- and Hong Kong-listed (HKEX: 9618) e-commerce group disclosed in June that it had invested HK$35 billion in the city in total, spanning retail, logistics and technology, according to the company's own figures.

The property push includes a HK$3.5 billion stake in the China Construction Bank Tower in Central, bought from developer Lai Sun Development in December, the acquisition of the Kai Bo supermarket chain, and a stake, alongside five other developers, in a logistics-designated land plot in the Northern Metropolis area in Yuen Long, where JD Logistics plans a warehouse hub.

The Central tower purchase mirrored a similar move by rival Alibaba Group Holding and its affiliate Ant Group, which bought the top floors of One Causeway Bay for HK$7.2 billion in October, Hong Kong's largest property deal since 2021.

Hong Kong commercial property has traditionally been valued on footfall: the more people passing a shopfront, the higher the rent it commands. Francis Neoton Cheung of the Chief Executive's Policy Unit Expert Group said JD.com's sites are valued differently — for their place in a supply chain moving goods to customers, not the crowds walking past them.

That logic, analysts said, could raise the value of well-located logistics hubs even where footfall is thin, while reducing how much some retailers depend on a prime address to justify rent.

JD.com has also opened its first JD Mall store, a 30,000 sq ft site in Wan Chai, and continues expanding JD Health's presence in the city. It has not disclosed a timeline for further Hong Kong acquisitions.