UBS to lease office space in Sun Hung Kai’s West Kowloon project from 2026, bringing its Hong Kong staff under one roof

The Swiss investment bank said it will lease 250,000 square feet of office space in the tallest tower of the West Kowloon terminus project, scheduled for completion in 2025

It is likely the rent is about half that paid by tenants at the IFC, where one of UBS’ offices is currently located, according to a property analyst

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Sun Hung Kai Properties paid HK$42.2 billion – a record at the time – for the huge plot of land at the High Speed Rail terminus in West Kowloon in 2019. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 6:57pm, 10 Oct 2022Updated: 7:06pm, 10 Oct 2022

UBS said it will lease 250,000 square feet of office space in the tallest tower of the West Kowloon terminus project, a cluster of commercial buildings scheduled for completion in 2025.

The Swiss investment bank becomes the first anchor tenant at Sun Hung Kai Properties’ development and plans to relocate the staff from its four current office premises to the new space in 2026, according to Amy Lo, co-head of wealth management, Asia-Pacific.

The planned move bucks the trend in the office property market in Hong Kong, where companies are moving back to Central and other districts that are seen as prime business zones. It is likely that the rent is about half that paid by tenants at the International Financial Centre (IFC), where one of UBS’ offices is currently located, according to a property analyst.

“We are excited to be moving to the workplace of the future, with state-of-the-art infrastructure that brings together and empowers all of our UBS colleagues in Hong Kong under one roof,” Lo said. “The office will be built for our purpose and we believe it will improve productivity, collaboration and well-being for colleagues.”

Its location should help UBS connect with the mainland Chinese cities of the Greater Bay Area, and to the wider world, she said.

Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP) paid HK$42.2 billion (US$5.45 billion) – a record at the time – for the huge plot of land at the High Speed Rail terminus in West Kowloon in 2019. Once complete, it will provide 2.6 million square feet of office space split between two towers, and some 600,000 square feet of retail space in a shopping mall.

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