page_title: Link REIT
section_title: Market management
hierarchical_section_title: Link REIT / Criticism / Market management
caption_attribution_description: Leung King Estate Roadblock against hawkers
context_page_description: Link Real Estate Investment Trust, managed by Link Asset Management Limited, is the first real estate investment trust in Hong Kong and currently the largest in Asia in terms of market capitalisation. It is wholly owned by private and institutional investors.
  Link REIT's portfolio consists of properties with about 8 million sq ft of retail space, around 56,000 car park spaces, and a project under development in Hong Kong, as well as properties with about 5 million sq ft of retail and office space in Mainland China.
context_section_description: In addition to indoor shopping centres, The Link also acquired many local estate markets in 2005. Such markets are covered facilities with small stalls and shops let out to local residents, generally offering fresh meat and vegetables as well as daily necessities and home wares. As with the shopping centres, The Link has raised rents and also renovated some properties, leading to increased food prices and financial hardship on low-income households.
  In Tin Shui Wai, where The Link exercises a near-monopoly on commercial space, the company was criticised by local residents and Legislative Councillors in 2015–16 for planning to convert the Tin Yiu Market into a conventional shopping centre. The market supplies fresh vegetables, meat, and fish to residents of the surrounding public housing estates. The next closest market is 5 to 10 minutes' walk away.
  Stall operators at Cheung Fat Estate on Tsing Yi have gone on strike, in 2010 and 2016, to protest rent increases. By the latter strike it was reported that rents had doubled in ten years. Some local residents stated that they visit a government-run market in Tsuen Wan instead owing to the higher prices at Cheung Fat. The Cheung Fat stall owners also protested the outsourcing of the market's management to Uni-China (Market) Management Limited, which they feared will lead to untenable rent increases.
  Uni-China (Market) Management also manages the market at Leung King Estate in Tuen Mun, which is also owned by The Link. In February 2016 a group of men dressed in dark jackets with "manager" (管理員) printed on the backs acted in an intimidating manner toward hawkers in the area of the shopping centre since 2 February. More than 200 showed up to protest against the men combating hawkers on the night of 8 February. Some minor clashes broke out between the self-proclaimed managers and the protesters, and required mediation by the police. Two protesters were arrested and one reporter was injured during the clash.
  Conflicts between the management and the public reoccurred on the night of 9 February. The men were filmed beating up protesters while police stood by and prevented others from being involved. A reporter was also beaten up by the control team. A 31-year-old man was arrested for causing disorder in a public place. He allegedly interfered with a worker performing his duties at Leung King Estate. The Link REIT distanced itself from the clashes and denied the hawker control team was part of its staff.
caption: Barriers set up by management at Leung King Estate against hawkers
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "2112", "Image ImageLength": "1408", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-LX7", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC 2014 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2016:02:11 15:40:04", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Image Tag 0xC6D2": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... ]", "Image Tag 0xC6D3": "[0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ... ]", "Image ExifOffset": "724", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1490", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6352", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/15", "EXIF FNumber": "7/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "400", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Standard Output Sensitivity", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:02:10 20:50:11", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:02:10 20:50:11", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "3906891/1000000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "485427/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "31/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "47/10", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2112", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1408", "Interoperability Tag 0x0103": "6", "Interoperability Tag 0x0112": "1", "Interoperability Tag 0x011A": "180", "Interoperability Tag 0x011B": "180", "Interoperability Tag 0x0128": "2", "Interoperability Tag 0x0201": "11254", "Interoperability Tag 0x0202": "4449", "Interoperability Tag 0x0213": "2", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1276", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "24", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}