Knight Frank Hires Wendy Lau to Lead Hong Kong Office Services

Wendy Lau has jumped to Knight Frank as Senior Director, Hong Kong Office Services

Knight Frank has brought Wendy Lau over from rival property brokerage Colliers International to take the role of senior director for office services in the Hong Kong market. In her new job at the London-headquartered firm, Lau will focus on serving both occupiers and landlords as Knight Frank fights to increase its slice of the city’s lucrative office market.

Lau, who previously led a team of 25 brokers as an executive director at Colliers, has over two decades of real estate experience in Hong Kong, specialising in tenant representation, and has concluded more than 8 million square feet of transactions for clients from Alibaba to General Electric. She joined Colliers in 2001 and took charge of the office leasing team in 2008.

The hire comes two months after Knight Frank brought Mei Wong and Fiona Priest on board to lead the eight-person International Project Marketing team in Hong Kong.

Lau to Tap Hong Kong’s Buoyant Office Demand

“Leasing demand in the Hong Kong office market remains robust particularly in the banking and finance sectors demanding quality space in the CBD,” commented Piers Brunner, the agency’s Greater China CEO in a statement. “With Wendy’s vast knowledge and in-depth understanding of the Hong Kong commercial market, she is in an ideal position to drive the growth of our Hong Kong Island commercial platform as we identify the best opportunities for our clients.”

Lau steps on board Knight Frank at a time of historically high grade A office rents in Hong Kong’s Central business district — averaging about HK$158 ($20.13) per square foot per month in April, according to the agency’s latest market research report. Robust leasing demand drove an extremely low vacancy rate of 1.0 percent.

Knight Frank Boosts Local Team

Knight Frank has over 15,000 professionals worldwide handling more than $1.4 trillion of commercial, residential and agricultural real estate globally each year. In addition to Hong Kong, the company is active in much of Greater China with offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Taipei and Macau.

The company boosted its Hong Kong team in April by hiring Wong and Priest from real estate consultancy James Charles Partners to market British residential projects to buyers in the city. Wong took the role of Executive Director and Head, with Priest reporting to her as a Director.