Hong Kong’s Cheung Kong Center II hits 70% occupancy as US quant firm Susquehanna takes three floors

CK Asset Holdings has leased three floors totalling 51,762 sq ft to Susquehanna International Group in Cheung Kong Center II, pushing occupancy to about 70%. The deal adds to Hong Kong’s Central office rebound, with vacancy falling to 10% in August.

US quantitative trading firm Susquehanna International Group has signed a lease for three floors in CK Asset Holdings’ Cheung Kong Center II in Hong Kong’s Central district, bringing occupancy in the long-stumbling office tower to about 70 per cent, according to market sources.

Susquehanna will occupy floors 19 to 21 of the 41-storey skyscraper, which offers approximately 560,000 sq ft of total leasable area across 32 office floors. The Pennsylvania-based firm is moving from AIA Central on Connaught Road Central, just two minutes’ walk from its new address and the Central MTR station.

The lease is estimated to cover 51,762 sq ft (4,808 sq m), with rent understood to be about HK$100 (US$12.80) per sq ft per month. The deal adds to momentum for Hong Kong’s office leasing rebound, which is being led by prime buildings in Central.

Central vacancy fell to 10 per cent as of August, from 14.5 per cent a year earlier, according to Colliers data. “Central continues to be the location of choice for financial institutions, asset managers and wealth management firms given its unrivalled concentration of capital markets activity and professional services,” said Alex Lam, executive director and head of Hong Kong Island for office services at Colliers.

CK Asset had redeveloped the ageing Hutchison House into Cheung Kong Center II, a project completed in 2024 that analysts estimate cost as much as HK$6.5 billion (US$829 million). Occupancy stood at roughly 10 per cent shortly after completion. It has since climbed to about 60 per cent by mid-2026, according to a July Bloomberg report, helped by First Abu Dhabi Bank leasing the entire 42nd floor in July at HK$118 per sq ft per month, and PetroChina taking space earlier this year.

Hong Kong’s buoyant stock market has driven office expansion among global capital market players, with Central reaping the benefit. Henderson Land in June 2025 signed the city’s biggest central lease in decades when Jane Street took 223,437 sq ft across six floors at Central Yards, due for completion in 2027. Qube Research and Trading followed in December, leasing 140,000 sq ft over six floors in tower two of the IFC complex. With Central and Admiralty leasing rates up 5.5 per cent in the first half of 2026, Colliers has upgraded its full-year rent forecast to a 10 per cent increase, from a prior 5 to 8 per cent. However, limited demand continues to weigh on decentralised markets, with the consultancy projecting Kowloon East rents will fall by more than 5 per cent this year.