Media OutReach
Hong Kong Residential Prices and Volume to Pick Up in 2025, Student Accommodation Takes the Spotlight in City’s Capital Market
New supply to weigh on office sector rental levels, while core retail high street rents continue to recover
- Grade A office year-to-date (YTD) net absorption as at mid-November recorded 1 million sq ft, with overall rents down by 5.9% in the same period. Rents are forecast to experience further downwards pressure in the 7%–9% range in 2025.
- Prime retail high street store leasing momentum slightly picked up in 2024, with core high street rents rising by 3%–7%. The retail rental level is expected to further increase by 3%–5% in 2025.
- Driven by the rate cut and relaxation of loan-to-value (LTV) ratio, residential market sentiment has improved, and transaction volume is forecast reach 53,800 cases in 2024. If rate cuts continue in 2025, housing prices and transaction volume are expected to rise by 5% and 3%–5%, respectively.
- Capital market sentiment remains cautious with YTD transaction volume of non-residential big-ticket deals recording just HK$28.5 billion as at December 6. The student housing sector is expected to remain as investors’ key focus in 2025.
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 9 December 2024 – Global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield today held its Hong Kong Property Markets 2024 Review and 2025 Outlook press conference. With the U.S. Federal Reserve initiating an interest rate easing cycle, coupled with the relaxation of the LTV ratio for residential properties, as stated in the Hong Kong government’s Policy Address, residential market sentiment has improved. Demand for rental housing assets has also increased, and with the government expanding the non-local student ratio, student accommodation has become a key focus in the city’s capital market. In the Grade A office sector, despite positive net absorption for five consecutive quarters, the high availability rate has kept overall rents in a downward cycle. As for the retail market, active new lettings in prime streets have reduced vacancy rates across core districts. Amid the revival of the “multiple entry” Individual Visit Schemes (IVS), we expect core high street rents to continue to recover in 2025.
Grade A office leasing market: YTD net absorption reached more than 1 million sq ft, the highest since 2019
In Q4 2024, as at mid-November, Grade A office net absorption slowed to 46,000 sq ft, but still representing the fifth consecutive quarter of positive net absorption, bringing YTD net absorption to more than 1 million sq ft, the highest level since 2019. As no major new office projects completed during the quarter, the overall availability rate edged down to 19.2%, marking the second consecutive quarter of decline. New lettings in Q4 were mainly driven by the Banking & Finance sector, accounting for about 33% of total leased area. However, demand from the education sector rose notably to 12% of total leased area, with examples such as the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and the University of Hong Kong committing to more than 10,000 sq ft of office space in Manulife Financial Centre and Kingston International Centre in Kowloon East, respectively.
Grade A office rents continued to fall in Q4 2024 up to the end of November, by 2.1% q-o-q and 5.9% YTD (Chart 1), to record HK$45.1 per sq ft per month. However, supported by demand from insurance companies, rents in Tsim Sha Tsui fell by just 2.3% YTD, outperforming the overall market average.
Chart 1: Rents of Grade A offices in Hong Kong
Source: Cushman & Wakefield Research
John Siu, Managing Director, Hong Kong, Cushman & Wakefield, said, “The Hong Kong Grade A office market recorded net absorption of 1 million sq ft as at mid-November 2024, while the availability rate has declined for two consecutive quarters, suggesting market sentiment is somewhat improving. Looking ahead in the short-to-medium term, leasing market sentiment in the Grade A office sector will still depend on the overall economic recovery and the performance of the local IPO and stock markets, which could support leasing demand from related and downstream industries. However, as total Grade A office supply is expected to reach 3.5 million sq ft next year, the availability rate is expected to stand at above 20%, and overall Grade A office rents will continue to decline by 7%–9% in 2025.”
Retail leasing market: New leasing activities underpinned the recovery of high street rents, while Causeway Bay witnessed zero vacancy
The change in consumption patterns of tourists and local residents continued to affect the Hong Kong retail market. For the January to October 2024 period, total retail sales in the city recorded HK$312.3 billion, a y-o-y drop of 7.1%. Among the major retail categories, only Medicines and Cosmetics witnessed an increase in sales at 5.7% y-o-y, while sales in the Jewellery & Watches and Fashion & Accessories sectors, formerly very popular with tourists, fell by 15.5% and 10.6% y-o-y, respectively. This indicates a structural change in the consumption habits of tourists and local residents following city’s post-pandemic border reopening.
In Q4 2024, the overall retail high street vacancy rate among core districts fell to 7.6%, as the market continued to see leasing activity from both local and Chinese mainland brands. Across the key submarkets, Causeway Bay recorded a vacancy rate of 0%, for the first time since 2019, suggesting brands are willing to return to the traditional tourist-oriented districts amid the significant rental correction. Vacancy levels in Central, Tsimshatsui and Mongkok remained stable q-o-q, staying at 8.6%, 9.4% and 8.4%, respectively.
With the accelerating leasing momentum, high street retail rents across districts continued to rise steadily in Q4, recording a q-o-q increase ranging from 0.6% to 1.3% (Chart 2), bringing the y-o-y increase to 3% to 7%, with Central and Tsimshatsui both registering a more notable y-o-y increase of 6.7%. Meanwhile, F&B rents dropped in a range of 0.7% to 2.0% q-o-q across districts, due to the increasing operating costs and the northbound travel of Hong Kong consumers.
Chart 2: High street retail rents in prime districts in Hong Kong
Source: Cushman & Wakefield Research
John Siu added, “Throughout 2024, although the number of visitor arrivals continued to recover, the overall retail sentiment in the city has not been able to sustain the growth momentum from last year. In the face of the change in tourists’ and local residents’ consumption patterns, retailers are generally undergoing an adjustment period. While high street leasing activity in core districts has become more active, retailers have remained cautious with their expansion strategies, given the uncertainty surrounding the changing spending habits of consumers. We believe leasing demand in the coming year will mainly be driven by Chinese mainland brands who view Hong Kong as a key stepping stone to promote their brands on the international stage, gradually absorbing vacant space on high streets. Looking ahead to 2025, we believe the series of economic and consumption stimulus measures launched by the Central government will continue to benefit the Hong Kong retail market, including the recent resumption of “multiple-entry” Individual Visit Schemes (IVS) for Shenzhen residents. Coupled with the gradual easing of the strong Hong Kong dollar, we expect total retail sales in Q1 2025 to increase by 3% to 5% y-o-y, with high street retail rents across core districts recording single-digit growth of 3%–5% throughout 2025.”
Residential market: Q4 transactions improved amid rate cut, 2025 home prices to see 5% upside
Hong Kong residential market sentiment improved in Q4, with more investors and potential buyers entering the housing market again, supported by the U.S. interest rate cut in November as well as the relaxation of the LTV ratio announced by the Hong Kong government in the 2024 Policy Address. We forecast that residential transactions in Q4 2024 will reach approximately 15,800 units, up 54% q-o-q and 108% y-o-y from the previous low base, bringing the full-year 2024 annual transaction volume to 53,800 units, climbing 25% from last year’s low (Chart 3). Following the U.S. Federal Reserve’s commencement of the interest rate easing cycle, developers have been actively launching new projects, in turn competing with purchasing power in the secondary market. From January to October, primary market transactions accounted for about 32% of total residential transactions.
Chart 3: Number of residential sale & purchase agreements
Source: Land Registry, Cushman & Wakefield Research
Edgar Lai, Senior Director, Valuation and Consultancy Services, Hong Kong, Cushman & Wakefield, commented, “Rating and Valuation Department data shows that the housing price index stemmed the prior five months’ drop in October, with the index edging up by 0.6% m-o-m, narrowing the cumulative drop in the first ten months of the year to 6.8%. Meanwhile, our C
Cushman & Wakefield mid-and-small size units price index strengthened slightly by 1% in Q4, as at December 6. Home prices in popular estates across segment also rose. Prices at City One Shatin, representing the small-sized market, rebounded by 13.5% q-o-q. Prices at Taikoo Shing, representing the middle-sized market, increased by 0.7% q-o-q, while Residence Bel-Air in the luxury market moved up by 0.5% q-o-q.”
Rosanna Tang, Executive Director, Head of Research, Hong Kong, Cushman & Wakefield, added, “The U.S. Federal Reserve has cut interest rates twice since September this year, with major banks in Hong Kong following suit. This has prompted some potential buyers to reassess and compare the performance of banks’ deposit rates versus residential rental yields. In fact, our inquiry volume index in November has risen by around 18% from August’s low following the rate cuts, suggesting that the market generally believes that interest rates have peaked, thereby supporting the return of certain capital allocations to the residential market. Looking ahead to 2025, if interest rates continue to stay on a downward trend, and the stock market remains stable, we expect residential transaction volume will increase by 5%–8% to a level of 56,000–58,000 units, supporting an overall price rebound in the range of 5%.”
Non-residential investment market (deals exceeding HK$100 million): Capital market muted by high interest rates in 2024, rental housing emerging as the market highlight
Amid the high interest rate environment, bank have tightened approvals on commercial mortgage loans. Coupled with a lack of high-yield assets in the market, this shackled overall investment activity which remained sluggish through 2024. For the year to date, the non-residential investment market for deals exceeding HK$100 million has recorded 65 transactions as at December 6, with total transaction volume recording HK$28.5 billion, a drop of 41% y-o-y (Chart 4). In face of the liquidity challenges and heavy interest expenses amid the high interest rate environment, landlords are more willing to offer price discounts on property disposals, thus leading to further correction of property prices and the average deal size. At the same time, this situation has provided windows for cash-rich investors and end-users to bottom-fish. In 2H 2024, local capital accounted for nearly half of total transaction volume by consideration, while Chinese and foreign capital accounted for 34% and 17%, respectively.
Chart 4: Annual non-residential investment transactions (2015-2024*)
Source: Cushman & Wakefield Research
Tom Ko, Executive Director and Head of Capital Markets, Hong Kong, Cushman & Wakefield,
concluded, “In 2024, the office sector accounted for 43% of the total transaction number, the highest across all sectors. This was chiefly due to the significant reduction in asking prices for the asset class, thus attracting end-users acquiring assets for saving future rental expenses. Some investors are also eyeing the capital appreciation potential of new Grade A offices. Meanwhile, the retail sector accounted for around one-third of the total transaction number, with a few transactions of neighborhood malls with relatively stable rental income and shops at prime locations recorded. It is worth noting that in 2024, there were a total of nine hotel and rental housing-related transactions, at around 14% of the total number of deals this year, up from 5% in 2023. Following the renewed influx of expat talent and non-local students, demand for co-living properties, multifamily assets, and student accommodation has continued to rise. Furthermore, the latest Hong Kong Policy Address encourages the private sector to convert hotels and commercial buildings into student housing, and we believe this sector will continue to be sought-after in the coming year, particularly for those assets in prime locations with conversion potential. Looking ahead, despite the rate cut in September 2024, commercial mortgage rates are still higher than the property yields for most commercial sectors. We expect total investment volume to pick up by around 10% to HK$ 30billion in 2025.”
Please click here to download photos and presentation deck.
(From left to right) Tom Ko, Executive Director and Head of Capital Markets, Hong Kong, Cushman & Wakefield; John Siu, Managing Director, Head of Project and Occupier Services, Hong Kong, Cushman & Wakefield; Rosanna Tang, Executive Director, Head of Research, Hong Kong, Cushman & Wakefield and Edgar Lai, Senior Director, Valuation and Consultancy Services, Hong Kong, Cushman & Wakefield.
Hashtag: #cushman&wakefield
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Cushman & Wakefield
Cushman & Wakefield (NYSE: CWK) is a leading global commercial real estate services firm for property owners and occupiers with approximately 52,000 employees in nearly 400 offices and 60 countries. In Greater China, a network of 23 offices serves local markets across the region. In 2023, the firm reported revenue of $9.5 billion across its core services of valuation, consulting, project & development services, capital markets, project & occupier services, industrial & logistics, retail and others. It also receives numerous industry and business accolades for its award-winning culture and commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), sustainability and more. For additional information, visit www.cushmanwakefield.com.hk or follow us on LinkedIn (
https://www.linkedin.com/company/cushman-&-wakefield-greater-china).
Media OutReach
Global Governance Report Highlights Future Shock Risks as Democratic Accountability Slips and State Capacity Plateaus
The BGI, presented Wednesday by an international group of governance scholars, analyses measurable benchmarks of democratic accountability across 145 countries.
On a 100-point scale, the global score for democratic accountability slipped slightly from 65 in 2000 to 64 in 2023, the most recent data used in the project. The wave of democratisation observed in the closing decades of the last century has stalled in the last 15 years. Democratic accountability fell in 54 countries while it improved in 48 countries.
Yet the BGI — a collaborative project of the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Berlin’s Hertie School and the Berggruen Institute, a think tank headquartered in Los Angeles — captures remarkably widespread growth in provision of public goods.
Encompassing healthcare, education, infrastructure, environmental sustainability and conditions to foster employment and rising prosperity, public goods improved in 135 of the countries studied, while declining slightly in just four. The global average jumped from 58 to 69 points from 2000 to 2023.
The third component of what the BGI authors refer to as the “governance triangle” is state capacity, defined as the ability to tax, borrow and spend, control territory, operate scrupulous, competent bureaucracies and administer predictable rule of law. The index finds the global average ticking up from 48 to 49 points; 56 countries had increased state capacity while 57 declined.
“What does it tell us about the world ahead?” Prof. Helmut K. Anheier, a Luskin School sociologist and BGI principal investigator, asked during the public release of the 2026 BGI on the UCLA campus.
“Countries are not really improving in their governance performance in significant ways. … We’re not really having forward-looking investment in governance capacity. There is considerable inertia.”
The largest improvements across all three BGI components occurred in Gambia, which the report groups with “low-capacity developing states.” These states score low across the board, particularly in the provision of public goods. This cluster constitutes the poorest countries with the least developed economies, which face the most serious challenges.
“They have the greatest exposure to likely future crises, whether it’s global warming, whether it’s a new pandemic, whether it’s another financial crisis, whether it’s the impact of AI,” Anheier said. “And they have the least capacity to respond to it.”
Bhutan, Georgia, Iraq and Tunisia — which make up the remaining top five countries with the largest improvements in the BGI — are classified as “capacity-constrained states.” They tend to be middle-income with struggling democracies. These countries score higher across the board than the low-capacity developing states, but their state capacity tends to lag compared to public goods and democratic accountability.
The capacity-constrained states risk falling into “a cycle that erodes the institutions they have built,” Anheier said.
“Consolidated democratic states”, a cluster of most of the world’s richest countries, which score highly in all three BGI components, have to confront domestic complacency. Further, in the United States and some others, “political dysfunction” is leaving mounting problems unaddressed and risking erosion of state capacity, Anheier said.
At the other end of the spectrum, the country with the farthest fall on the BGI since 2000 is Nicaragua. Second from last is Venezuela, followed by Hong Kong, Hungary and Turkey. The rest of the bottom 10 are Russia, Iran, Poland, El Salvador and Belarus.
Since 2023, which is the last year of data available for the study, Poland and Hungary have both seen government changes via election, despite serious democratic backsliding. Both had fallen out of the group of “consolidated democratic states” by 2023 and moved into the capacity constrained cluster.
The other eight countries at the bottom of the list are all places that once had some semblance of competitive elections, but by now have little or no remaining pretense of democracy. They are grouped by the authors among the “authoritarian and hybrid states”, which have by far the lowest democratic accountability but outperform even some struggling democracies in delivering public goods.
These regimes have tended toward faster economic growth in the period observed. But that seeming prosperity, typically fueled by extractive industries or overreliance on exports, masks “serious institutional weaknesses in these countries, including divided elites,” Anheier said.
Relatively few countries — 21 of the 145 — changed enough for better or worse to be classified in a new group by the end of the 23-year study period.
“Movement between them is rare, but this is largely what we should expect,” said Stella Ghervas, a UCLA historian on a panel of experts who discussed the BGI findings Wednesday. “Government systems are not created in a moment. They evolve over long periods of time.”
Local conditions shaping governance in each country can rarely be quickly reset through political will or even external shocks, Joseph C. Saraceno, a Luskin School data scientist and BGI co-author, said Wednesday.
“Despite all the talk of major transformations happening in global affairs, the underlying configuration of governance simply doesn’t appear to change very much,” Saraceno said. “We use the term inertia to describe this reoccurring pattern. In other words, the structures of global governance are resistant to movement as the conditions beneath them are quite sticky: political economies, demographics, resource endowments. These are deeply layered, and they push each country toward the world that it already inhabits.”
But the challenges lurking around the world may not wait for the slow and difficult processes of political change and development to catch up.
“With the few exceptions of those countries in the consolidated democratic world,” Anheier said, “the great majority of the countries in the world is ill-prepared for the future.”
The full report, ‘ 2026 Berggruen Governance Index – The Four Worlds of Governance‘, can be viewed and downloaded from the website of the UCLA’s Luskin School.
Frank Fuhrig, DNA
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Media OutReach
Grobrix Launches “Silver Harvest Initiative”, Turning Schools into Micro-Farms Powered by Students and Retirees
The pilot transforms existing spaces such as corridors and rooftops into small-scale growing sites using compact, soil-less farming systems. By using existing infrastructure instead of new farmland or large facilities, the model enables food production across multiple community locations, making it easier to implement in schools and shared environments.
Students take part in planting, transplanting and harvesting as part of their daily school environment, while crops such as leafy greens can be harvested in cycles of approximately three weeks. This demonstrates how consistent production can be achieved even within limited spaces.
Retirees, known as “Silver Farmers”, manage the farms and oversee daily operations. Students support planting, harvesting and basic monitoring, creating a working environment where food production becomes part of everyday school life. The setup also gives students direct exposure to how food is grown and managed, turning the school into a hands-on learning environment aligned with sustainability and applied learning goals.
“Singapore does not have the luxury of large farming spaces. But we have schools, and we have retirees who want to contribute. This pilot shows that food production can be practical and repeatable by using spaces we already have,” said Mathew Howe, Founder of Grobrix.
The initiative comes amid growing adoption of micro-farming across Singapore, with schools, companies and community spaces increasingly integrating small-scale food production into existing environments. Demand for such systems has risen in recent months, reflecting broader interest in community-based approaches to food resilience.
The Bukit View Primary School pilot will run over 12 months, focusing on improving yields and integrating produce into school consumption. Grobrix will track how much of the school’s leafy green needs can be met through these growing spaces, with the aim of developing a model that can be adopted across other schools.
Grobrix has installed more than 100 edible growing systems across Singapore and is expanding its footprint regionally and internationally. The company plans to scale the Silver Harvest Initiative to more schools while training additional retiree participants, building a network of community-based growing sites over time.
As Singapore continues to strengthen its food security strategy, including updated targets to increase local production of vegetables and protein by 2035, the initiative offers a practical example of how food production can be integrated into everyday environments beyond traditional farming spaces. It also aims to build greater awareness of food sources and encourage more active participation in local food systems.
Hashtag: #Grobrix #growingtogether #sustainability #urbanfarming
https://grobrix.com/
Grobrix is a Singapore based agritech company that integrates farming into the built environment through its patented “Farming as a Service” model. By combining modular vertical farming technology with a cloud based management system, the company enables corporate and residential spaces to produce high quality local crops. Beyond hardware, Grobrix fosters community engagement and food resilience through its unique intergenerational and corporate wellness programs. Currently operating across Singapore, Malaysia, and the United States, the brand is redefining how urban populations interact with their food sources. Its mission is to transform urban infrastructure into a productive, sentient, and sustainable ecosystem for all.
Media OutReach
CUHK Claims Top Positions in Hong Kong and Asia in the Latest QS World University Rankings by Subject
CUHK’s Academic Excellence and Global Research Impact
Ranked among the world’s top 50 universities, CUHK ascended to 32nd place globally in the QS World University Rankings 2026, marking a four-place rise that reinforces its role as a hub for rigorous inquiry, and a dynamic environment where students are empowered to pursue meaningful research and knowledge exchange. This trajectory is supported by 17 CUHK researchers recognised on the Highly Cited Researchers 2025 list by Clarivate Analytics, and 431 academics listed among the world’s top 2% scientists by Stanford University. Among them, 47 scholars were ranked within the global top 100 in their respective fields. Notably, three scholars, including Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Dennis Lo Yuk-ming, have earned positions within the global top 10, a distinction that highlights the remarkable depth and excellence of CUHK’s research community.
CUHK’s The Nethersole School of Nursing: Nurturing Research Innovation and Global Talent in Nursing
Among CUHK’s strongest performers in this year’s rankings, the Nethersole School of Nursing has been ranked #1 in Hong Kong and Asia, and #6 worldwide. Reflecting on the academic environment, Pham Nhat Vi DO, a Vietnamese PhD student in Nursing, shared: “My PhD journey at CUHK has transformed my research abilities, critical thinking, and leadership skills. Through CUHK’s outstanding faculty support, I have accessed diverse academic resources and gained invaluable hands-on experience, building a strong foundation for my future career.”
Vi’s research focuses on colorectal cancer survivorship using cutting-edge technology. As the first Vietnamese researcher adopting this approach, her work reflects CUHK’s strength in empowering students to break new ground.
CUHK’s Geography and Resource Management: Advancing Student Research on Pressing Climate Challenges
CUHK’s Department of Geography and Resource Management has also earned notable recognition in this year’s ranking, placing #4 in Asia and #21 worldwide. Arati POUDEL, a Nepali PhD student, highlighted the University’s research ecosystem as a key defining aspect of her experience. “CUHK exceeds expectations through outstanding research facilities, supportive faculty, and comprehensive professional development opportunities. The prestigious Belt and Road Scholarship has also enriched my research journey in this beautiful campus environment.”
Supported by CUHK, Arati’s research investigates how adaptation to climate extremes—particularly water scarcity and excess—are being addressed, and the pivotal role played by communities and civil society in leading these responses.
Through the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026, CUHK continues to demonstrate the impact of its research and scholarship. These achievements underscore the University’s growing influence on the global academic stage and its steadfast commitment to addressing complex global challenges through innovation, insight, and collaboration.
Hashtag: #CUHK
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About CUHK
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) is a leading higher education institution dedicated to nurturing and empowering students to become responsible and compassionate global citizens. With a rich heritage and a forward-looking vision, CUHK strives to blend tradition with innovation, fostering academic excellence, research breakthroughs, and meaningful societal impact.
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