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Peggy Ye

City University of Hong Kong has bought an office property in Kowloon for HK$1.96 billion (US$252 million), joining a growing list of educational institutions buying office assets amid depressed prices as the city’s office market shows early signs of stabilising.
CityU Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the university, has acquired the low-rise office block at Festival Walk in Kowloon Tong from Singapore-based Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust. The agreement was signed on December 10, with delivery taking place on Wednesday, according to Land Registry records.
The four-storey block is part of Festival Walk, the complex connected to Kowloon Tong MTR station and opposite the CityU campus. It offers about 214,000 sq ft of space, is more than 90 per cent occupied, and was acquired at roughly HK$9,160 per square foot.
City University of Hong Kong said the acquisition was driven by a shortage of campus space and rising demand for research facilities, particularly wet laboratories, as additional space and funding may not be available until 2030 or later.
The university said leasing off-campus wet laboratories would involve high set-up and reinstatement costs, as well as uncertainty over lease renewals, making an outright purchase more cost-effective. It added that the property’s proximity to the main campus made it a rare opportunity with “no comparable alternatives”.
The university expected the relocation of administrative offices to begin in phases after legal completion of the transaction, which is slated for February 2026.
The price remained attractive given the property’s location and scarcity, said Louise Ho, senior regional sales director of the office department at property agency Centaline.
“Kowloon Tong is not a conventional business district, but it is well connected, surrounded by luxury residential developments and close to major universities, which makes assets like this relatively rare,” Ho said. “If you take the geographical environment into account, this is still a reasonable – even cheap – price.”
The deal reflects a broader shift in Hong Kong’s office market, where government-related bodies and universities are increasingly buying rather than leasing space. Persistent oversupply and softer rents have pushed prices lower, creating opportunities for long-term, cash-backed institutions less sensitive to short-term market cycles.
Mapletree, wholly owned by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek, said in a statement last month that the offloading aimed to optimise its portfolio in a dull Greater China office market and reduce its debt. The trust fund retained full ownership and operation of the seven-storey Festival Walk shopping centre and parking levels.
The trend of office purchases by educational institutions has gained momentum over the past two years. Last month, Hang Seng University of Hong Kong acquired 16 office units and car parking spaces at Metropole Square in Sha Tin for HK$90 million, with the deal set to close this month. In 2024, Hong Kong Metropolitan University bought the 15-storey One HarbourGate East Tower in Hung Hom for HK$2.6 billion.

In July 2025, Lingnan University spent HK$120 million to acquire commercial space in the New Territories, converting retail units into classrooms.
English Schools Foundation, which operates kindergartens and primary and secondary schools across Hong Kong, acquired two floors of office space in Island Place Tower in North Point in January 2025, and has relocated from its previous leased office in Quarry Bay.
While institutional buyers have been among the most active, recent high-profile transactions suggest broader confidence may be returning to the grade-A office segment.
Vobile Group, a US-based technology firm listed in Hong Kong, bought the top floor of Hong Kong’s Bank of America Tower in November for HK$198 million, more than 60 per cent below its peak valuation.
In October, Alibaba Group Holding and Ant Group agreed to buy the top 13 floors of One Causeway Bay from Mandarin Oriental International for HK$7.2 billion, marking Hong Kong’s largest office deal since 2021. Alibaba owns the Post.
End users were currently more active than investors in Hong Kong’s office market, as falling rents and weak business sentiment continued to cloud near-term returns, Ho said.
For institutional investors such as Mapletree, the outlook made office acquisitions harder to justify because they needed to deliver measurable performance over fixed investment cycles, typically every five to 10 years, she added.
Overall, commercial property transactions rebounded in 2025 after a prolonged downturn, with total deal value as of December 15 rising 38 per cent from a year earlier to HK$36.4 billion.
Office prices would remain flat in 2026, though some districts could see declines of up to 5 per cent, according to property agency Centaline. The firm predicted around 240 office transactions worth around HK$6 billion in the first quarter, as strategic buyers continue to capitalise on attractive prices in key areas.


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University buys four-storey office block in Kowloon Tong for US$252 million from Singapore-based Mapletree


University buys four-storey office block in Kowloon Tong for US$252 million from Singapore-based Mapletree.


CityU joins ranks of schools snapping up Hong Kong offices with Festival Walk buy

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}University buys four-storey office block in Kowloon Tong for US$252 million from Singapore-based Mapletree

University buys four-storey office block in Kowloon Tong for US$252 million from Singapore-based Mapletree