Industry experts estimate there are about 9,000 serviced apartment units scattered around town. A booming market, high land prices and a scarcity of land in central areas are driving new and existing operators into secondary locations. Those apartments include Manhattan Heights in Kennedy Town and CHI Residence in Yau Ma Tei and Jordan.

Ovolo Group, which has 245 apartments in its six Hong Kong Island properties, ventured into Kowloon for the first time with the launch in May of new premises containing 63 serviced apartments in Sham Shui Po.

'There's been a trend of serviced apartments decentralising in Hong Kong to remain competitive,' says James Alba-Duignan, regional sales director at HRG Asia-Pacific. 'We foresee the demand for serviced apartments increasing and [for] the supply to be tight over the next six to 12 months. This would mean that prices of existing apartments are expected to rise, while occupancy would be at almost full capacity.'