Hong Kong Real Estate CBD office recovery versus decentralised drag

Research evidence excerpt

Hong Kong Real Estate CBD office recovery versus decentralised drag

Equities ● REMD

30 June 2026

The big picture: overall office rents improved for the third

consecutive quarter, with the Central market taking the lead again

Hong Kong’s office market continued to improve with a pick-up in leasing demand amid a large

supply pipeline, as reflected by the elevated vacancy rate. The demand is primarily driven by

banking and financial services-related sectors and centred on core business districts. We

expect the divergence to continue in the coming quarters, and non-core districts like Kowloon

East could remain under pressure.

Overall Grade A rents increased 1.7% q-o-q in 2Q26, accelerating from 1.5% in the previous

quarter. Central rents increased 3.3% q-o-q (versus 3.8% in 1Q26).

The vacancy rate for Grade A offices eased to 13.3% as at end-May 2026 (from 14.1% as at

end-December 2025). Core districts led the improvement for a third straight month – Central

vacancy declined to 9.2% and Wanchai/Causeway Bay declined to 9.8%.

Fig 1. Overall rents noted positive growth for third quarter – Central CBD areas recorded

the highest growth (% q-o-q change)

10% Overall Central

8% Wanchai/CWB Tsimshatsui

6% HK East Kowloon East

4%

2%

0%

-2%

-4%

-6%

-8%

-10%

1Q152Q153Q154Q151Q162Q163Q164Q161Q172Q173Q174Q171Q182Q183Q184Q181Q192Q193Q194Q191Q202Q203Q204Q201Q212Q213Q214Q211Q222Q223Q224Q221Q232Q233Q234Q231Q242Q243Q244Q241Q252Q253Q254Q251Q262Q26

Source: Real Estate Intelligence Services (REIS), Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), HSBC

Fig 2. Improving financial activity could Fig 3. A rising number of IPO applications

support the CBD office space, in our view in Hong Kong should support financial

services-related leasing demand…

150 32,000 660

130 28,000 560

110 24,000 460

90 360 20,000

16,000