Hong Kong commercial landlords may bet on investment to curb tenant loss from AI: analysts

Hong Kong’s older office assets and their struggling landlords could face more challenges as the wider adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) by firms in the city leads companies to relocate to newer buildings that better support their requirements, according to real estate consultancy Knight Frank.

AI is poised to usher in more changes in Hong Kong’s commercial office space , and landlords may have to act fast to either refurbish their assets or convert them for new uses, said Lee Elliott, global head of occupier research at the London-headquartered firm.

“If you want to bring buildings up to an appropriate standard in a world of AI, going forward there should be energy resilience, energy supply, connectivity and technological infrastructure,” he said.

“All of those things are an additional layer to get those buildings to the right standard.”

Nearly two-thirds of private offices in Hong Kong will be over 30 years old by 2030, according to official data cited by Knight Frank.

A separate estimate last year by JLL, a global property services and investment management firm, found that about a fifth of Hong Kong’s ageing buildings were potentially facing obsolescence, with declines in both value and efficiency.