Hongkong Land Holdings, one of the biggest business-district landlords in Hong Kong, said underlying profit rose 70% in the first half as two residential projects in Singapore were completed.

Profit excluding revaluation losses or gains climbed to US$477 million ($645 million), or 21.2 cents a share, in the six months to June 30, from US$281 million, or 12.5 cents a share, a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory statement today.

 

Average office rents in Hong Kong’s Central business district rose 17% in the year ended May, as financial services companies revive expansion plans after the global credit crisis, according to government statistics. Hong Kong’s economy grew at the fastest pace in four years in the first quarter of 2010, expanding 8.2% from a year earlier.

 

“The commercial property markets of Hong Kong and Singapore should remain stable as the year progresses, while conditions in the group’s residential markets are mixed,” Chairman Simon Keswick said in today’s statement. “The second- half result will benefit from the completion of further residential units, although the contribution will be less than in the first half.”

 

The company said it made “significant profits” from the completion of two its Singapore residential projects, Marina Bay Residences and Waterfall Gardens.

 

After including gains in revaluation of its properties, the company had net income of US$1.39 billion, compared with a loss of US$402 million a year earlier, it said.

 

Hongkong Land is up 8.3% this year in Singapore trading. The stock fell 0.4% to $5.36 at the close of today’s trading and before the earnings were released.

 

The company owns offices including the Exchange Square and Landmark complexes in Hong Kong’s Central district. Hongkong Land has owned properties in Central since 1898, the year China was forced to lease the city’s New Territories to Britain for 99 years.

 

Based in the former British colony, the company is incorporated in Bermuda and its shares trade in London and Singapore. It’s controlled by the Keswick family through Jardine Matheson Holdings .