CICC Leases 50,000 Sq Ft At Kowloon’s International Commerce Centre

HONG KONG – China International Capital Corporation (CICC), which is partly owned by the Chinese government, has agreed to lease 1.5 office floors at the International Commerce Centre (ICC) at 1 Austin Road in Kowloon, reported Mingtiandi on Wednesday evening (17 August, SGT).

CICC’s Hong Kong subsidiary has committed to occupy around 50,000 sq ft at the Grade A office building in West Kowloon. Apart from representing the largest office expansion in the city so far this year, the unit is already leasing at least 120,000 square feet at One IFC in Central.

The 118-storey International Commerce Centre, which is located above the Kowloon MTR Station, offers about 2.5 million sq ft of office space. It was constructed by Sun Hung Kai Properties, the biggest real estate developer in Hong Kong by market capitalization.

The Chinese banking giant is said to be forking out HK$75 psf per month to occupy half of the office space at level 55 and the entire 56th floor. Notably, Deutsche Bank had vacated 3 office floors in the office building in January 2021.

However, the deal comes amidst a backdrop of falling office rents and increasing office vacancy level in Hong Kong. In fact, the office rent for the latest deal in ICC marks a 25 percent discount from its peak in mid-2019, disclosed CHFT Advisory and Appraisal’s Senior Director Alex Leung.

CICC’s latest office rental transaction represents a continued expansion by the Chinese banking giant. It comes one year after it reportedly forked out HK$130 psf per month to secure an additional 53,000 sq ft of office space at One IFC.

At present, monthly net effective rents at ICC presently average about HK$75 psf. But before the mass protest in 2019 and the COVID-19 outbreak in the following year, office rents at the ICC had averaged a bit above HK$100 psf, noted Leung.