About 25 senior US executives and investors are heading to the Philippines this month for a five-day mission that Manila is positioning as a showcase of its ambitions to attract more foreign capital and cement its role in US-linked supply chains. The visit, organized by the Philippine Trade and Investment Center (PTIC) in New York alongside Philippine consulates and business groups, will run from July 6 to 10 and take investors through Manila, Clark, Subic and Corregidor Island.

Delegates, drawn from major US investment firms in the Northeast, Midwest and other regions, are scheduled to meet Philippine government leaders, economic and tourism officials, as well as local banks and business groups. A central stop is a business forum hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines together with domestic financial institutions and industry associations, where opportunities in green energy, banking, telecommunications, manufacturing, housing, tourism and shipping will be in focus.

Officials are using the mission to highlight the country’s growing digital network and skilled workforce, as well as recent moves to deepen economic ties with Washington. The visit follows the Philippines’ inclusion in the US-backed Pax Silica initiative, which aims to secure global artificial intelligence supply chains. In April, the two countries announced plans for a 1,618-hectare AI-native hub in New Clark City in Tarlac, designed to attract AI and chip manufacturing investment. Washington is also a key partner in the Luzon Economic Corridor, an effort to bolster connectivity among Metro Manila, Clark, Subic and Batangas.

Beyond conference halls in the capital, the delegation will tour active development areas managed by local hub authorities in Clark and Subic to assess infrastructure on the ground, according to PTIC statements. The itinerary will close with a visit to Corregidor Island, a historic site that Philippine officials say underscores the longstanding relationship between the two countries. The trade mission, they add, comes as Manila is "actively working to welcome international businesses and establish itself as a key partner for US companies looking to grow in Asia," with US goods trade with the Philippines estimated at about $41 billion by the Philippine Statistics Authority.

Hong Kong home prices notched their strongest half-year performance in eight years, with a widely watched index breaking above the 160 mark and approaching a near three-year high. The latest reading of the Centa-City Leading Index (CCL), which tracks secondary residential prices, climbed 0.52% week-on-week to 160.77, marking a fifth consecutive weekly gain and a cumulative rise of 2.11% over that period. The level is the highest since early September 2023, or 147 weeks.

Measured over the first six months of the year, the CCL advanced 11.56%, the biggest half-year increase since a 13.2% jump in the first half of 2018. The gain sharply outstripped the 4.7% rise recorded for the whole of 2025, exceeding that full-year performance by 6.86 percentage points. Centaline Property’s research department attributes the turnaround to a decline in HIBOR from May 2025 and two rounds of local bank rate cuts last year, which together helped prices bottom out and reverse course. From the low of 135.16 points when H‑rate mortgages again fell below their cap in May last year, the CCL has now risen 18.95%; compared with the 134.89 level before the March 2025 budget, it is up 19.19%. The index is now 18.34% above its level before the first rate cut in September 2024, and its gap from the historic peak of 191.34 in August 2021 has narrowed to 15.98%.

The latest advance has been broad-based across market segments. The CCL Mass, covering large housing estates, rose 0.43% week-on-week to 162.19, extending its climb for a third week and accumulating a 1.60% gain to the highest level since late August 2023. The sub-index for small and medium-sized units rose 0.50% to 160.78, also up for three straight weeks and 1.62% higher over that stretch, while the large-unit index gained 0.61% to 160.71, its fourth weekly rise in a row and a 3.64% gain over that period. On a half-year basis, all eight major price indices increased, with six of them advancing more than 10%. The overall CCL was up 11.56%, CCL Mass 11.72%, small and medium units 11.56% and large units 11.53%.

By district, Hong Kong Island outperformed the rest of the city by a wide margin, underscoring a pronounced “luxury effect” in the current upcycle. The Island’s mass-housing index climbed 1.41% in the latest week to 164.11, its third straight weekly gain and a 3.78% advance over that period, reaching a 149-week high dating back to mid-August 2023. Over the first half, Island prices surged 17.09%, compared with gains of 11.33% in Kowloon, 8.71% in New Territories East and 9.17% in New Territories West. In the latest week, New Territories West rose 0.39% to 144.9, a high not seen since early October 2023, while New Territories East edged up 0.15% to 172.43, near its early-September 2023 peak. Kowloon slipped 0.1% to 161.13 but remained at its second-highest level since early July 2023.

Despite the sharp rebound in prices, Centaline’s research team expects the pace of appreciation to moderate in the coming months. They cite a pullback in Hong Kong equities, a slower launch pipeline for new developments, more hardline pricing stances among second-hand sellers and a visible drop in transaction volumes, alongside the possibility of US rate hikes, as factors likely to cap further gains. The firm is targeting 165 points for the CCL in the third quarter, implying a further rise of 4.23 points, or about 2.63%, from current levels.