Hong Kong’s latest office landmark nearly full as segment upturn simmers

The newest landmark office tower in Hong Kong’s main business zone is nearing full occupancy a year and a half after it welcomed its first tenants, suggesting improving fortunes in the city’s office property segment.The Henderson – the prime commercial development and namesake tower for one of Hong Kong’s largest developers – reached 90 per cent occupancy recently, Henderson Land said on Friday.The 36-storey building in Central counts among its tenants auction house Christie’s, alternative investment firm Point72, secondary private assets market investor Coller Capital and growth equity firm General Atlantic. Hedge fund firm Aeonea, investment management company Cohen & Steers, law firms Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and Nishimura & Asahi, and luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet had also leased space in the building, the developer added.The building’s success reflects improving prospects in Hong Kong’s struggling office property segment, which has been hobbled by oversupply over the last few years.Last year, net take-up of office space reached 1.73 million sq ft, the most since 2018, according to Colliers. The Central-Admiralty area and Kowloon West led the recovery with take-up of 400,000 sq ft and 227,000 sq ft, respectively, the property consultancy added. However, overall vacancy rates last year increased to 17.5 per cent from 16.8 per cent in 2024, it said.Grade A office rents last year were down 41 per cent from a peak in the first quarter of 2019, according to CBRE. But prime office rents slowed their decline in the second half of the year – to 1.1 per cent from 4.7 per cent in the first half – despite an additional 3 million sq ft of new office supply during the year, according to Colliers. The slowing decline in rents had continued into this year, property agents said.