As Asia's largest real estate investment trust, Link has focused on building and serving thriving communities since day one, improving lives, helping businesses, always enhancing the productivity, efficiency, and comfort of the properties we manage. Continually evolving to meet the changing needs and capture opportunities, creating long-term value and sustainable returns for our investors and partners. Sustainable growth is not just down to a company with strong ESG conviction. It's also built on a diversified portfolio that gives the company strength and resilience. Our leadership in the non-discretionary retail sector insulates us from economic cycles, and we transfer our know-how in portfolio management, capital management, and asset management to other markets and asset classes, community commercial facilities, offices, logistics assets, and more. With an ambitious eye on tomorrow, we are employing agile management and investment models to deliver consistent growth for our partners amid constant change.
Today, we are committed to being a world-class real estate investor and manager, exploring growth across Asia Pacific, taking a three-pronged strategy, asset class, geography, and investment model, to pursue growth that lasts, backed up by our highly experienced and skillful management team. With our strong track record, robust governance, and the agility to evolve, Link is your trusted partner as you embark on your growth journey. Whatever the challenges, and wherever Link grows next. Link, growing beyond.
I hope you liked the video. I would like to invite our senior management presenters to go onto the stage to take a group photo. George, K.S., and Greg, please. Thank you, gentlemen. I'm Silvia, General Manager of Investor Relations. We are very pleased to have our CEO, Mr. George Hongchoy, CFO, Mr. Kok-Siong Ng, COO, ex-Mainland China, Mr. Greg Chubb, here to give us an update on the annual results and also the strategic plan in the future. Without further ado, I would now to hand over the floor to George, our CEO. George, please.
Thank you, Silvia. Thank you everyone for joining us today. I'm pleased to have K.S. and Greg with me here. I will start with the market outlook. Greg will present operational updates across our portfolio. K.S. will talk about our capital management strategy, and then I'll wrap up to talk about our strategy and priorities going forward. We'll go to Q&A after that. Link has an excellent track record and on-the-ground experience as a portfolio manager, leveraging our expertise in real estate space, and we have achieved a robust set of results in 2022, 2023. I would like to highlight a few key themes for this year. First, we are on the path of a firm post-COVID recovery.
We have pivoted our business strategy to cater for the changing market conditions and emerged from the pandemic in a more competitive and resilient position than ever before. Second, we have strengthened our capital base to navigate interest rate headwinds. By being proactive and strategic on our capital management front, we created a solid foundation for driving long-term growth. Third, our diversification strategy drives resilient earnings and valuation, helps create stable return and value for our unit holders, and offer protection during different phase of the economic cycle, further reinforcing our competitive edge, one being business resilience. Finally, Link 3.0, growing our lighter business and capital partnership. During this year, we drove portfolio diversification and enhanced portfolio resilience by expanding into Australia and Singapore.
In the longer term, we want to grow the management fee income to a certain level, which is expected to boost our profitability and distributable income. We are still in a situation where uncertainty in the financial market, geo-economic fragmentation, ongoing trade dispute, and supply chain disruptions still weigh on the market outlook and induce significant risk. Nonetheless, we believe that APAC will continue to be viewed as a safe investment destination. To counter these challenges, we will continue to drive portfolio diversification by entering different parts of the APAC region, further smoothening returns over economic cycles. By deploying these strategies, Link REIT aim to create stability and increase returns while mitigating risk in the fast-changing global markets. As the WHO ended the Global Health Emergency Declaration for COVID, countries worldwide are gradually returning to normalcy.
This slide showcase market prospect and opportunities as we usher into the post-pandemic era. Border travel between Hong Kong and Mainland China has resumed, with the tepid return of tourists, along with the transparent and liquid nature of the Hong Kong market, the market presents a stable growth outlook. As for Mainland China, the continued rise in consumption, expansion of infrastructure, and technological advances have created enormous growth potential in leasing demand. Despite slowing growth, it remains one of the region's fastest growing markets. Singapore has long been a hub of investment, underscored by its low unemployment rate and high disposable income. More corporates position Singapore as a regional hub, along with increasing flow of talent that have made it an ideal location for investors looking for long-term growth and stability.
As for Australia, stable economic fundamentals drive real estate return, population growth, changing demographics, infrastructure expansion, present opportunities, particularly in urban centers. Tapping into a strength of these market in APAC, Link REIT is in a solid position to leverage our expertise in managing assets to increase our presence and benefit from economy of scales. Right, let me turn over to Greg to go through the operation update.
Great. Thanks, George, and thank you, everybody, for joining us this afternoon. Today, I'm very pleased to present our annual results for the financial year 2022-2023, which demonstrates the strength of our diversified platform. Sustained revenue and NPI growth reflects the effectiveness of our corporate strategy of continuous focused asset management and diversification. Reporting year-on-year growth of 5.4% and 4.8% respectively, which has been driven by new contributions from Australia retail and office, Mainland China logistics, and the full year contribution from Hong Kong car service centers. Notwithstanding the challenges posed by the rising interest rate environment, our total distributable amount maintained a growth trajectory and edged up 0.6% year-on-year.
The enlarged portfolio value is offset by the increased number of units on issue due to the 1-for-5 rights issue, with NAV per unit decreasing by 4% year-on-year to HKD 73.98. Our Hong Kong portfolio continued to demonstrate its resilience amidst challenging macroeconomic conditions, underpinned by record high occupancy and robust rental reversions. Total revenue for our Hong Kong retail portfolio increased by 3.6% year-on-year. Portfolio occupancy reached a record high of 98% at the end of the financial year, thanks to our well-positioned and high-quality, non-discretionary community commercial facilities and our strong asset management capabilities. Average monthly rent per unit edged up to HKD 63.80 per sq ft. Average reversion rate maintained its growth momentum and increased 7.1% for the full year.
As the market shows signs of recovery, retail consumption, consumer confidence, and leasing demand have all gathered momentum. Given predictable footfall, easily accessible and strong connectivity of our community facilities, chain retailers continue to be attracted to our portfolio of assets. Over 670 new leases were signed in Hong Kong, over which 260 are new brands to our portfolio. Activity with fashion and specialty restaurants were the most active amongst top new leases signed, followed closely by learning institutions like refreshments and bakery. Very pleasingly, the worst of the COVID pandemic is largely behind us. Our Hong Kong tenant sales now mostly exceed pre-pandemic or 2019 levels. Overall, tenant growth sales per square foot posted a very solid 6.2% year-on-year growth, thanks to improved consumer sentiment and the further relaxation of social distancing measures.
Overall rent to sales ratio further reduced to a very sustainable 12.5%. The full reopening of the borders is expected to provide support of the improvement of economic conditions. The disbursement of the new round of consumption vouchers, along with the increased minimum wage, will render further support for our tenant sales. Revenue from our car parks and related business rose 12.3% year-on-year. The ongoing improvements in our monthly and hourly car parking income have resulted in both rental revenues exceeding pre-COVID levels. The full year contributions from our two new car park, car service centers, and go down buildings in Hung Hom and Chai Wan have also boosted the revenue with a steady recurring income stream.
Income per space per month registered a growth of 5.3% year-on-year to just under HKD 3,300 per month. This is mainly attributable to the increment in car park tariffs and higher sales of hourly tickets. Average valuation per space increased 19.4% year-on-year to HKD 725,000 per space from both increased income and capitalization rate adjustments. Discussing on China, our portfolio in mainland China experienced operational challenges due to the pandemic-driven turbulence for a large part of the financial year. Rental reversions were -3%. In view of the subdued market sentiment, Link provided RMB 48 million in rental concessions and property management fee waivers during the year to tenants who were heavily impacted by the pandemic.
Retail and leasing sentiment rebounded strongly after Chinese New Year, with our average occupancy improving significantly to 95.2%, while our overall rental collection rate maintained a very healthy level at 97% for the year. We're confident that mainland China's economic recovery is on track. We're very well positioned. Our logistics portfolio is situated in major transport hubs. Our high-quality assets are poised to benefit from the visible economic recovery in China. Driven by the uptick in consumption, our logistics assets in China are 100% leased, with a WALE of 1.7 years. Leases across our logistics portfolio provide a stable rental escalation term of 4% to 5%, serving as a natural hedge against inflation.
Post balance date in April and May 2023, we completed the acquisitions of two logistics assets in Changshu, thereby expanding our logistics portfolio and creating additional room for growth. Given the sustained demand for logistics space, we believe the sector will continue to provide substantial potential for rental growth. Moving on to Singapore, the recent acquisition of our two retail assets, namely Jurong Point and Thomson Plaza, was completed at the end of March, together with the asset management arrangements for AMK Hub, marking our entry into the Singapore market and also our first step towards an asset-lighter business. Our Singapore non-discretionary retail portfolio, with nearly full occupancy, exhibits a very promising outlook, backed by robust operational metrics, including footfall and consumer spending power. The suburban retail market in Singapore continues to exhibit strong potential, with rising rentals and heightened demand for leasing.
Our operational metrics are moving in a positive direction. Our new regional office in Singapore has been established to explore growth opportunities and enhance in-market capabilities further across Asia Pacific. Our Singapore team will work closely with our Hong Kong team to leverage the strengths of both teams, replicating the successful asset management approaches in Hong Kong and bringing value to Singapore and other international markets. For Australia, the retail sector there has exhibited very positive trends as pent-up tenant and consumer demand, as well as economic recovery, has bolstered consumer spending. Our tenant sales registered growth of 12.5% since the acquisition of the portfolio there last year, demonstrating business resilience of our assets. As a result of improvements in these tenant sales as well as footfall, our occupancy increased to just under 97%.
Robust leasing demand has emerged due to the unique and complementary positioning, as well as the trade mix of our portfolio, amidst the return of international tourists and improved economic fundamentals in Australia. Our international offices are located in prime CBDs. Committed occupancy of our high-quality portfolio stood at around 90%. The flight to quality assets in the CBD continues to influence the trajectory of the recovery in the office sector. To enhance the attractiveness and increase our customer-centric offering, we are continuing with many asset enhancements at our office assets, both in Australia and the U. K. Our modern assets feature sophisticated design specifications as well as green attributes that are poised to benefit from the ongoing return of office workers. We continue to take active strategies to unlock the latent value across our portfolios.
This included conducting four asset enhancement initiatives that were completed in Hong Kong during the year, with a combined capital expenditure of HKD 159 million. The return on investment achieved ranged from high single digit to double digit. As for current projects underway, we've commenced four projects in Hong Kong and one in mainland China. Furthermore, we've identified over HKD 640 million of further capital expenditure for future projects that are underway or awaiting approval. Now moving on to sustainability. We've identified four strategic focus areas across the portfolio over the next five years. Reducing our carbon footprint and reinforcing climate resilience remain our priorities. Our latest acquisition in Singapore has completed a flood risk assessment as part of its due diligence process. This year, we've submitted science-based target net-zero packages for validation.
This is intended to enhance our decarbonization pathways, credibility, and transparency, while aligning with investor expectations. We're an early adopter of ISSB, with the latest published report prepared with reference to the earlier draft exposure guidelines. We are setting up an ESG data management system for better data transparency and accuracy. We've also reevaluated our sustainability branding, strategy, and narrative. This year, we've prioritized nine ESG KPIs based on our materiality assessment and risk register exercise that is overseen by our board and also assured externally. Focus areas here include resource management, talent retention, stakeholder engagement, and supply chain. Our sustainability leadership aligns with global and industry best practices, as manifested by our improved ESG indices performance over the financial year. With GRESB, we ranked sixth in East Asia. Our score there has improved from 73 to 79.
As for the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices, or DJSI, we're included in the Asia Pacific Index, where our score has improved from 63 to 71. With Sustainalytics, we had a low risk rating, with our risk exposure lowered from 11.3 to 10.6. I'd now like to hand over to KS. Thank you, K.S.
Thank you, Greg. Good afternoon to everyone. We remain convinced that adopting a prudent management strategy is imperative to navigate through the high interest rate environment. Given that inflation continues to be sticky and the economy showing only tentative signs of weakness, the market anticipates interest rates to stay at elevated levels. To mitigate the impact of funding costs on our operations, we aim to keep our fixed rate debt ratio at approximately 60%. The significant increase in funding costs will undoubtedly negatively impact our DPU. The elevated level of interest rates and uncertainty reinforced the importance of having a strong balance sheet, with financial flexibility and funding certainty to withstand the challenges. Same as other risks, our average borrowing cost rose to about 3%.
Nevertheless, our financial position has been bolstered by the successful completion of our rights issue, which generated a gross proceed of HKD 18.8 billion. As a result, net gearing ratio fell to 18%, and we will not require any refinancing for the next 12 months. With available liquidity of HKD 27.3 billion, we possess ample liquidity to fund emerging new accretive opportunities. Average debt maturity was 3.7 years, staggered to two, nine, 30, and beyond. We have ensured that our debt profile is suitably diversified, comprising a variety of types, maturities, and currencies, making our funding costs competitive. Our A ratings with all three credit agencies remained intact, underscoring our solid fundamentals. In response to the unpredictability of exchange rates, we have hedged our Australian dollar, British pound, and Singapore dollar assets using local currency fundings. Additionally, all non-Hong Kong dollar incomes are hedged annually.
Valuation of investment properties grew by 11.6%, boosted by acquisitions of assets and fair value gains. Valuation of our Hong Kong portfolio rose 7.6%, fueled by an increase in NPI and higher market rent assumptions, along with cap rate adjustments in retail and car park assets. Excluding the translation difference and on a like-for-like basis, the value of our mainland China properties went down by 3.7% in RMB terms, due to lower income amid the pandemic. Valuation of our international portfolio increased by 2.6 times, with the addition of newly acquired assets in Australia and Singapore. The cap rate expansion in mainland China was due to shortening land lease remaining, whereas Australia and the UK were attributable to higher borrowing costs and uncertainties around monetary policies. Cap rates of Hong Kong portfolio were largely unchanged.
I'll now pass to George to provide us an update on our strategy. George, please.
Thank you, KS. We have, for the past year, continued with our diversification strategy, which aims to tap the emerging sources of growth in APAC region. As a result, the value of our portfolio has grown to HKD 248 billion. This year, we have captured several opportunities towards further diversification. We won the tender of a parcel of non-office commercial use land of Anderson Road, Kwun Tong, which we intend to develop as a community commercial facility. Our first-time expansion into Singapore, through the acquisition of two suburban non-discretionary retail assets, and completed three acquisitions: a 50% interest in three iconic retail assets in Sydney, 49.9% interest in the trust of five office assets, and three logistics assets in mainland China.
The geographic breakdown of our portfolio reflects Hong Kong's proportion further declined to 74.1%, while mainland China represent 14.4%, and international increased to 11.5%. Link has continuously transformed and worked hard to drive a new phase of growth. The past year is what we call a pivotal year for us in our corporate history, achieving several landmark milestones. At the same time, you know, we are doing all that with the challenges of the pandemic. To name a few things that we've done, a new senior team was put in place, formal management committees reestablished, third-party capital raising team was introduced. Diversification continued to drive growth, with resilient performance in Hong Kong retail and car park businesses, and contribution from new assets in mainland China and international.
Link was successfully raised Asia's largest rights issue in the real estate sector, with a total subscription rate of over 240%, closing within two months, reflecting strong support from our unit holders. Link also achieved several other firsts, including the first retail development project, first acquisition in Singapore, and launching the asset-lighter business. With the revamp of the Link strategy, we will also couple it with a well-thought-out communication plan targeting all the stakeholders. You have all heard about Link 3.0 strategy and the transformation journey from us many times, let me give you a brief overview of the key highlights. Our Link 3.0 strategy, built on our strength in portfolio management, capital management, and asset management.
We aim to enhance our managed portfolio through diversification and optimization, while leveraging the strength of our balance sheet. This strategy is designed to propel our growth while continuing to pursue quality organic growth in the new phase of our journey. Furthermore, Link 3.0 explore new opportunities for enhanced capital management, which will enable us to increase our income streams and expand our asset under management. We expect transition from growing not only GAV, but also our AUM, with third-party capital. As always, we maintain a prudent approach and will not rush to any acquisition. We will stay patient and selective, and only pursue the right deals in order to meet our objectives of risk management and diversification. Non-discretionary retail and logistics in key developed markets in APAC remains our top choices. We have confidence in Australia and Singapore, given their robust economic fundamentals.
Hong Kong is our home market, and we will not rule out any attractive opportunity as it arises. We will look at opportunities in mainland China, especially in top-tier cities, as it continues to be one of the regions with the highest economic growth. Office is not one of our top priority at the moment. As we grow our AUM, our investment strategy may be expanded in line with the requirements of our capital partners. In a nutshell, we are fully committed to delivering stable distribution and continuous growth. To this end, maximizing occupancy rate, delivering high-quality offering, elevating shoppers' experiences, are top priorities in shaping our business strategy. We'll remain cautious and selective in deploying capital while leveraging our core competencies in asset management, portfolio management, and capital management.
I'm confident that our Link 3.0 strategy pathway will drive a new phase of growth. Here are the dates for payment of distribution and also a scrip election, which will be available. All right, let's move on to Q&A.
Thank you, management, for the presentation. Now we'll move to the Q&A session. For those attending in person, please raise your hand, state your name, and also your organization, and before stating the questions. For those joining online, please use the Q&A function. The first question is Sam from Jefferies.
Thank you, management, for the presentation. This is Sam Wong from Jefferies. I have two questions, if I may. First of all, Hong Kong retail sales this year will very likely hit double-digit growth, right? With occupancy costs at a relatively low level, do we expect to achieve double-digit rental reversion for Hong Kong retail this year? This is the first question. The second question is, we saw notable positive revaluations in Link REIT's portfolio this year. With rates likely high, higher for longer, do you see any needs to adjust the cap rate assumption going forward? Thank you.
I'll take the question on Hong Kong rental reversions. I think it's unlikely it'll be double-digit growth. I think it more than likely would be similar to what we printed in the past financial year. I agree with your points around the sustainable occupancy cost and increasing sales. Probably another focus for us is to build on the record portfolio occupancy, I think is an important consideration, but it's not all about the financial objectives. You know, we've always got one eye on improving the environments that we operate and continuing to improve our retail mix and tenancy offering to our shoppers, which in turn further will increase the sales performance of our assets. I'd probably pull you back from double digit rental reversions.
We'll be endeavoring to do whatever we can, but I just would, you know, urge you to pull those sort of growth expectations back a little.
On valuation and cap rates, I think if you look at what has happened for the end March valuation, the U.K. office actually has expanded the cap rates from about 5.2% to 6%. It has already started. Likewise, for Australia, the office property has seen cap rates expanding by about 50 to 80 basis points. Cap rates are already moving, especially in the bigger, more liquid markets. If you look at Hong Kong, Singapore, I think the thesis has always been that it's a very tight, small market. Hong Kong, most of the good assets are never for sale.
Singapore, lots of them are already in the REITs. They are not going to let go of the fees. So you hardly see cap rates expand because there's a comparative deal out there that's being sold at a distress. Again, as international cities with wealth preservation, hub family offices, I think the dynamics are sometimes quite different. Hong Kong office, our view is that it will hold because car parks, Hong Kong car parks tend to have characteristics of being intrinsically linked to your residential yield. For mainland China, LPR is actually on the bearish side. It's been loosening with RRR as well, increasing.
I think overall, our outlook is that there is a risk around the U.K., Australian, cap rates, but as an overall portfolio, it's not big.
I must say, to supplement my two colleagues, operational excellence is probably something that we focus on a lot over the last two, three years. It's extremely important during, you know, volatile market condition. One of the things that we started focusing on very early in when COVID started, was increasing occupancy, but because if you can't increase rent, the only way to drive income was to increase occupancy, which we have done. As Greg said, we're now at a record high occupancy rate for Hong Kong. At the same time, because of that, and then now you've fill-filled it up, then obviously what we wanna do is make sure that we find better tenants or improve tenant sales and then increase the rent. That's a process that's ongoing.
If you look at the more risky areas, like, you know, Kowloon East office, that we have one property, our occupancy rate is 98% versus the vacancy rate in that area is about, you know, close to 20%. Again, a relentless focus on actually achieving little small things that add together is very important for us to drive, you know, what we have delivered over the past year. The other point I will add is diversification, I think, has worked for us in that, you know, during. The whole point about diversification is there will be some market that goes up, and other market might be more challenged, and this is exactly what happened last year with what happened in China.
The prolonged lockdown was probably longer than most people have expected, but then, you know, we have Australia coming in a little bit earlier. We also have Hong Kong rebounding, especially the car parks. I think, you know, having gradually build out a diversified portfolio allow us to you know, resist some of the challenges over the last few years.
Thank you, management. The next question will be from, Kyle of BAMCO.
Hi. Thanks. A couple of questions. First, just want to talk about mainland China. Can you discuss, give us an update on the recovery of retail sales at your shopping malls in mainland China? I think there have been a lot of investor concerns about the relatively slow recovery in consumption, where are you versus pre-COVID sales level. Second question is about the acquisition environment. Have the sellers' expectations sort of come down enough to meet your requirements for returns? Yeah, given what you said about macro uncertainty and that you have patience, should we sort of imply that, you know, the possibility of some deals in the near term does not look that high? Thanks.
Yep. I'll take the Mainland China. Equally, like you, I'm also very concerned. I think the headlines has been a bit bearish the last two weeks. You translate to what it feels like when you're on the ground. Clearly, coming out of the lockdown, we have gotten out of the worst that we could expect of China retail. When you're on the ground, what you get to... You'll sense is that the supermarket and retail are not getting a very strong recovery. The casual dining, food dining, cafes, al fresco, those things are doing pretty well. I would say they are past pre-COVID levels.
If you look at some of the new tenant mix that we put in, as these expiries surface and spaces available, is that you have to start adding experiential stuff, rock climbing, skateboarding and stuff. We are also evolving the role of the shopping mall. I think that change is a lot more drastic than what you see in Hong Kong. I think what we have also discovered, that the tenant sales have another driver coming out from what they call the night economy. A lot of young people are willing to be hanging out in al fresco dining, whether it's, they call it, Shijie or night market, or just al fresco cafes. They sit out there until late night.
The trading hours for some of the less physically bound real estate actually have gotten. Overall, I think footfall is clearly, this month, is back to last year's equivalent of 100%. Tenant sales is largely around F&B spending, entertainment. Retail is not as strong as we are expect. Of course, during COVID, you would have continued shopping on Taobao. What is the big deal that there's no COVID, that you suddenly rush out there to buy versus delivered to your home? I think the expectations are there, and then what we have to do is to continue to readjust the trade mix to what we think works. Hopefully, we continue to optimize this portfolio that we have in China.
A number of us, including KS and myself, been traveling to China just to see what's on the ground. you know, January, February, good bounce back, very quick. March, April, slowed down because I guess that initial euphoria is over, and people sort of got back to, I guess, looking at economic outlook, thinking about their jobs, et cetera. Acquisition, seller's expectation really hasn't moved that much. Banks hasn't really forced too many people to get into sort of distress level that has forced sales across most of the markets that we look at.
For us, if we can get 4.5%-5% deposit rate, you know, if we go and do an acquisition with very low initial yield, you will be the first one to put a sale on us. What we will do, I suspect, is that at some point in time, we'll probably think that there are some very good asset. When I say good asset, we will never say these are strategically important. They will be financially very good assets. It might challenge us for a year to have some dilution, but we strongly believe, you know, that we can underwrite the growth over the next few years, then we'll probably do those deals. We're not there yet.
The gap between buyers and sellers is actually widening. I think buyers are adjusting down their pricing expectations. Sellers hasn't moved. I think you see deal volume has come down, fundraising have come down. Everyone's sort of watching and waiting. If you look at some of the curves, interest rate for some people will go up and then come down immediately. Our belief is it goes up and then stay up for a while. We'll probably see the market to be a bit more interesting for us towards the second half of this year, when the distress is a little bit higher.
Thank you, management. The next question will come from Ken, from Citi.
Hi. Hi, thanks, management. It's Ken from Citi. I want to take more detail on your Link 3.0, given that this is some of the strategy that you post, I think, maybe earlier this year or last year. I think reason most of the people are concerned on those, on the LP side, they are quite cautious, and everything's so volatile, U.S., CRE things. I think, is this something that you also face difficulties in looking for LP, in chipping in for your potential fund management platform? Hence, if it is the case, when do we expect the timeline and size, and what kind of asset should we be expecting on this to be announced? I like, would that be putting the whole Hong Kong retail portfolio in a fund to sell?
Afterwards, I also want to ask about you talking about the heavy asset. How many percent of the fund you want to hold at the end? This is on the fund management side. Secondly, I think, K.S. and George also mentioned about the difficulties of basically being more cautious on looking for new project. Given that this HKD 18 billion raised in the rights issue, HKD 9 billion is spare on cash, will we be used this to do some early repayment of the debt or anything to save such high interest expense? Thank you.
I need to perhaps clarify Link 3.0, if we haven't made it very clear in the past. It's not a phase in time, so that when we do Link 3.0, we don't do things that we were doing in Link 1.0 or 2.0. This is really something that we add on. If you recall, Link 1.0 is really, you know, what I mentioned earlier, that focus on operational excellence, that asset management detail, driving reversion rate. We'll continue to do all that. Part of Link 3.0, that exists. We're not moving on changing it to asset light and that's not owning anything, become a fund manager. That's not what we say, right? That's a key point.
Organic growth will continue to be the question that you should continue to ask us, how we're driving that. Second is the diversification, how we're doing it, also means diversification of the, the funding sources. That, that's why capital partners coming in is something that we're looking at. Whether that is done by doing acquisition jointly with them or capital recycling, we're working on a number of these. At the right time, when deal is ready, then we will talk to you, and obviously announce it. We will be patient. I think that the point is, you know, we'll need to do the right deal.
We were looking at one possibility. I guess with the uncertainty in the market, some, you know, I would say some of the potential sort of partners might ask for terms that we don't like. We'll say, "Hey, we have the balance sheet to hold on to it. Let's not rush into doing, you know, start this pathway with the wrong deal." We just hold on. When we were looking at the Singapore transaction, it happened exactly the same way. We were going in, hopefully, hoping that we actually go in to do that acquisition with some partners. At the end of the day, you know, we haven't been able to agree the terms. We have the balance sheet capability.
We decided to take the whole thing, which gave us the opportunity to get something at a discount, and the other competitive bidder cannot do so. That sort of led to the deployment of the rights issue. We have some money left from the proceeds that we haven't used to pay down, but this gives us that balance sheet capability, that when a deal comes, we have the capacity to be able to win transactions.
... in terms of capacity, that we can actually do the deal when others can't. Not so much because of pricing, but because of balancing capability. We wanna preserve that. In some ways, one of the ways to preserve balancing capability also is, you know, to do some deals jointly with others. It really add on to all the things that we have been doing well over the last 17 plus years. It's gonna take time. You can't build in your model X% of our revenue becomes fee income and all that quickly. The path that it might take also is a little bit unpredictable. If we do it asset by asset, that accumulation will take a long time.
If tomorrow we go and buy a fund manager, and they already have 20 funds, then... I'm not saying we are, so don't worry. Then, that will be a step up. I can't really tell you today how quickly we can do this. All I can say is, if you look at other fund manager who have done this transformation, part of that pathway will always involve some platform acquisitions, to speed it up. You know, again, it's pricing, it's people issue, et cetera. It is a directional, in, strategy. It is gonna take time. We'll be cautious. You know, we just wanna make sure that we continue to do the right deals.
Mark from UBS.
Yeah. Thank you, management. This is Mark from UBS. I have two questions. I think first one is regarding on the NPI margin. I think this fiscal year, we are like having like maybe like 75%, and which is about maybe two percentage points lower than FY 21. Given that the COVID has already over, do we see the margin should be able to recover back to the pre-COVID level? I think that's the first questions. The second question is regarding on similar to Link 3.0 questions. I recorded in the past few years, we have a pro forma, or how should we look like for Link maybe after five years in terms of geographical distribution?
Not sure after the Link 3.0 strategy got implemented, have that changed your mind, or we can still use the same chart as what we represented?
On the NPI margin, I think clearly this season, the challenges has been inflation at the cost level. If you think about utilities, meetings, kind of jump. You think about minimum wage for the property managers, and even generally, I think across Hong Kong, even if you are not at a minimum wage, you still feel that there's a certain level of wage inflation, 'cause there's not enough headcounts. I think trying to keep to that 75% will need us to put in quite a fair bit of work to hold that margin. To get back to 77%, I think the trickle-down effect needs to come back in, right? If the minimum wage translate to consumer spending back to tenant sales. How long will that take for us?
The disequilibrium that causes inflation is not as straightforward as the past eras of inflation. I think between Greg and I, we have been talking about how then do you look at energy saving, optimizing, operating model of the PMA? What else can you save and yet keep the service level at the right... I think 75 is something that we are aiming for.
Geographic spread, the direction I think is still there. You know, given the uncertainty of the market, I wouldn't point to an exact number, but, you know, taking Hong Kong, diluting Hong Kong, lower, China, getting to a slightly higher number, international getting to a slightly higher number, that's the direction that will continue.
We received a question online, which is about the funding cost. 3% funding cost is the average of the last financial year. What was the funding cost at the end of the financial year? Is there any more detailed explanation on why the finance cost goes up 75%? Thanks.
I'll answer the second one, because the first one is a bit complicated. If you look at acquisitions that were loaded into the last 18 months, there was about, you would track probably HKD 18 billion-HKD 20 billion of assets that were acquired. Clearly, those will then be financed at the higher level of debt versus the earlier ones that we were issuing bonds at 1.85. Those days, I guess, is the easier part. The last batch actually has helped push or has pushed up the average funding cost quite a fair bit from what you saw, two point something to recently three. Yeah. I mean, if today...
Back to the first question, if today you have to refinance Hong Kong dollars, you'll be looking at least nearer to 5.5-6. That's really with our credit margin. I think as you look at the maturity profile, there's a vertical stack that comes every year. If interest rate doesn't come down, you need to refinance that. Two is clearly within the whole graph chart. We have restate 60 is fixed, 40 is float, right? You could actually work out. I guess the most difficult thing is not the parameters, it's guessing where HIBOR will be, where BBSW will be, SORA will be. If it's higher for longer, clearly, then the whole portfolio of HKD 60 billion has to be refinanced at a much higher cost.
We're talking about that bar coming in 2024, 2025, because, 2023, 2024, we have repaid, what need to be refinanced. We'll continue to look at hedging.
We'll continue to look at, you know, various ways of, you know, making sure that, we can protect that, interest, rate or interest expense going up. If it is high for longer, it's, like I said, hopefully longer doesn't mean years, but more about months. You know, it's very hard to be, predict. Everyone have their own crystal ball. I will also say, you know, when you look at what we've done in, over a number of years, then, if you go back, we did number of acquisitions, we did two big disposal, we did a number of acquisitions, and then we did a fundraising through rights issue, convert, et cetera. There's a question that we continue to ask ourselves, in terms of, financing, acquisitions, and growth.
We do it in such chunky way, you know, a number of acquisitions, and then either recycling or new equity, or some REITs around the region will do an equity and debt mix for every acquisition. That's something that I think we'll continue to debate internally as we go forward. I think, you know, to do a big chunky one is obviously, there are, you know, people who favor it, there are those who don't. I think it is just a matter of financing strategy, market conditions that allow us to do that, and, you know, obviously managing cycles.
We received a question online, which is about the Mainland China operation. Can you explain why the rental reversion goes to -3% this year? Also, when do we expect it to turn positive? Thank you.
Clearly, the last financial year, China was almost two-third under lockdown. Someone who was on HKD 10 rent, I could only ask HKD 9.70 from him. That's how it worked, right. Because there are nobody out there who is rushing to rent, because you can't even get out onto the road. For the same guy, please don't destroy the CapEx, please continue running the shop, right. I don't want to have vacancy. Please stay on, but, you know, at a rent that you can accept. You say -3% is actually pretty low, right. In the good old days, China, we are talking about mid-teens, high teens for rental reversion.
I think in that environment, we are looking for occupancy, looking for receivables that are strong, and also not to waste time to let the tenant go under, take back, fight over fit-out, confiscate the goods, go to court, and then six months later, you still get bashed out. That, to me, doesn't make sense for unitholders' value creation. Clearly, going forward, where we are today, I'm quite confident that we are starting to see sentiments coming back on leasing. Hai Chin is there, if you want to get the word from the horse's mouth. I think we are going to get to positive rental reversion, but I don't think you're going to get mid-teens, right? You're going start to get back to, I would say, mid-high single digit.
All in all, it's probably a 10%+ step up kind of numbers that we are looking for.
Very good. You're giving Hai Chin a lot of pressure, probably. Good. You know, it's going back to the same thing, occupancy, trying to keep it high. Also the other number you should look at is obviously rental collection has continued to be in the nineties. We don't see a too much of a rental arrears or rental loss. I think protecting those two numbers in a volatile market has been actually a pretty good result.
Thank you, management. Is there any question from the floor? Ken, from Citi.
Yes, I just have one follow-up question on the reversion outlook mentioned by Greg. say, it's something similar like last year, is maybe unlikely double digit. It seems to me quite conservative on this number, given that we've already done 7% last year, and that we're adding this year additional retail sales growth. you also mentioned about occupancy costs at 12%. Why can't? It's just a simple math of three years. We were hitting a low base in 2020, 2021. How can we get to double digit?
I think it's just a reasonable assumption on our behalf. We don't want to overpromise and underdeliver. We've got one eye on the financial result and another eye on continuing to enhance our mix and offering of our assets. In that mid to high single digit level, we feel comfortable. Beyond that, we'll be doing everything we can to get there, Ken. We want to be reasonable in our outlook.
Thanks for giving pressure to Greg, and then Gary is at the back, the head of our leasing team. Let me perhaps, you know, give you another way of looking at it. You can't just look at our portfolio. A lot of these tenants are chains, and they are still suffering. They might do well if you look at tenancy, tenant sales growth at our portfolio, but they're still suffering in Causeway Bay, they're still suffering in Mong Kok, right? Until the whole of Hong Kong does well, then some of our tenants, while they're happy to give us a bit more rent at ours, but they are looking at their whole business. They are still challenged in spending CapEx, et cetera.
I think, you know, we have been on a more resilient end of the market, but Hong Kong as a whole hasn't really come out of, both, you know, the pandemic impact, and tourist numbers haven't really bounced back as much as we would like to see today. I think there's a journey to go. It will come, but I think we already have been able to try and protect what we have. Hopefully, we are leading in that way. When you talk to our peers, you know, I think everyone hope that the market bounce back a lot faster.
Thank you, management. Is there any question from the floor? Okay, that's the end of the analyst briefing. Thank you for coming.
Thank you, everyone.
Thank you.