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Hong Kong: Decentralized
Business Districts
Following the development of Taikoo
Shing and Quarry Bay into a full fledged
decentralized oce market in the 90s,
another decentralized market is emerging
today – Kowloon East – where over 40%
of Hong Kong’s new Grade A oce
supply will be completed in the next five
years. The development of Kowloon East,
as a decentralized commercial hub, has
been ongoing since the early 2000s as
constraints imposed upon reclamation of
Victoria Harbor in 1997 and the re-zoning
of Kwun Tong and Kowloon Bay for
commercial use in 2001 led to the area's
redevelopment. As the market continued
to mature, corporate owners, comprising
mainly banks and insurance companies,
started to enter the Kowloon East sub-
market to set up back-oce operations
after 2005. Currently, Hang Seng Bank,
Citibank, Standard Chartered and ICBC
have leased space in the submarket.
HONG KONG, CHINA
36 ASIA PACIFIC BFSI OUTLOOK 2017