NWD to roll out Hangzhou offices amid AI boom

Cici Cao

New World Development (0017) will roll out a grade A office building in tech-crowded Hangzhou this year to cash in on strong demand for premium commercial property in the Chinese city.

The Front Tower office, valued at 1 billion yuan (HK$1.07 billion), is the only Grade-A office space available for sale within the New World City Arts Center located in Wangjiang New Town.

The tower features floors with areas ranging from 16,000 to 38,000 square feet over total area of nearly 280,000 sq ft.

The 8-million-sq-ft center includes a shopping mall, luxury hotel, apartments and a world-class community.

Chief executive Echo Huang Shaomei said that with its thriving innovation, Hangzhou is set to become a world-class hub for the artificial intelligence industry and this is fueling demand for high-end commercial properties in the city.

She said the center will become a landmark in Hangzhou.

The residential component, River Opus, has been delivered, with 930 flats sold, generating over 11 billion yuan in revenue. These flats are now among Hangzhou's top luxury residences, with prices exceeding 10,000 yuan per sq ft in the secondary market, according to NWD.

Hangzhou has emerged as one of China's most vibrant tech hubs in 2025, fueled by a new wave of home-grown startups dubbed the Six Little Dragons, comprising Game Science, DeepSeek, Unitree Robotics, Deep Robotics, BrainCo and Manycore Tech.

Led by the AI startup DeepSeek, these rising stars are challenging tech giants like Google, Amazon and Apple in the United States.

Hangzhou was already well known as the headquarters of Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba (9988).

Alibaba's influence further gained momentum following a high-profile meeting between President Xi Jinping and the company's founder Jack Ma Yun.

According to JLL, the average net rent of grade A offices in Hangzhou was 129.9 yuan per square meter a month as of December, down 1.4 percent from the previous month, and the average vacancy rate of these buildings rose 1.3 percentage points to 25 percent in the fourth quarter.

For residential properties, the average monthly rent was 50.26 per sq m in 2023, a 4 percent drop from 2022, according Beike Research Institute.

The city recorded over 5.3 percent decline in rents in the first 11 months of 2024, according to the China Index Academy.