Why Hong Kong’s student housing market faces race against time

In the first half of this year, investment in Hong Kong commercial real estate reached HK$24.1 billion (US$3.1 billion), up 56 per cent in annualised terms, according to CBRE data. The education industry was a crucial source of demand, generating HK$10 billion worth of transactions, with many of these deals involving assets for conversion into student housing. At a time when the living sector – which includes traditional rental housing, purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) and housing…