HK's office vacancy rate could climb further to 18.9 percent, CBRE says

Hong Kong’s office vacancy rate would rise by 1.9 percentage points this year to 18.9 percent, and the rents will drop by up to 10 percent year-on-year, led by decentralized submarkets, according to commercial real estate services and investment firm CBRE.

The new office supply in Hong Kong is estimated to increase by nearly 90 percent or 3.2 million square feet year-on-year in 2025, which may lead the vacancy rate to slightly increase, and keep rents under pressure, the firm said.

But the banking and financial services sector resumed to shore up the office market by renting 1.05 sq ft last year, compared to 649,000 sq ft a year earlier. Benefited from a series of stimulus measures and increasing initial public offerings in the city. CBRE predicted the sentiment of local office leasing will rise and new leasing volume may see a 6 percent year-on-year growth this year.

The gross new office leasing volume recorded an increase for three straight years since 2022, and reached more than 4 million sq ft in 2024, but it was still much lower than the heyday in 2018, around 6.5 million sq ft at that time.

(June Chen)