Stan Group Hotel Up for Sale as Student Housing Conversion in Kowloon

A hotel in Hong Kong’s Mong Kok area is being marketed as a student housing investment for private buyers as the city’s hospitality market flounders and higher-end rental housing players stay on the sidelines.

Hotel Ease – Mong Kok is being marketed by Knight Frank and Colliers, with the joint sole agents stressing its suitability for housing the city’s growing population of students from across the border.

“The property is well-located next to the Yau Ma Tei MTR station,” Willis Mak, an executive director with Knight Frank who heads its private client division for Greater China, said in a statement. “The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong Metropolitan University, City University of Hong Kong, and Hong Kong Baptist University are all accessible within 20 minutes of public transport.

The hotel, which is owned by financially troubled private investment firm Stan Group, has been on the market for several years with market sources indicating to Mingtiandi that the owners are targeting a valuation of around HK$530 million ($68 million) for the property.

Student Housing Demand

The 29-storey property occupies a 4,053 square foot (377 square metre) site and spans around 50,357 square feet of gross floor area. At the stated asking price, the seller is looking for around HK$10,525 per square foot for the property.

With 199 rooms and views of Victoria Harbour from the upper floors, the asking price works out to HK$2.7 million per key.

Thomas Chak, co-head of capital markets and investment services at Colliers Hong Kong pointed out that the building is one minute’s walk from Yau Ma Tei MTR station, and “is also only a 10-minute drive to the Hong Kong West Kowloon High Speed Rail Station, which closely links Hong Kong and Chinese mainland.”

The agents referenced the 2021 purchase of the Hotel Sav on Wuhu Street in neighbouring Hung Hom district by AEW Capital Management and local player Crystal Investment as a successful case. After the partners purchased that property for HK$1.65 billion it has been converted into student housing, and now has a waiting list after being fully rented out for the last academic year.

In late June Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU) acquired a 255-key hotel for use as housing for its students. The institution is said to have paid around HK$1 billion for the Urbanwood Hung Hom hotel at 84-102 Wuhu Street.

Some 16,179 mainland Chinese students enrolled in Hong Kong schools and higher educational institutions for the 2022-2023 academic year, which was up 31.5 percent from 2018 to 2019, according to Hong Kong government statistics.

Apartment Conversions Scaled Back

While Stan Group has yet to find a buyer for the Hotel Ease at its HK$530 million asking price, that number already represents a substantial markdown from previous valuations discussed in the market.

Local press reports in 2022 indicated that Weave Living was in talks to acquire the property, which then carried an asking price of HK$730 million. No transaction materialised.

In 2021 and 2022, international fund managers were snapping up less-loved Hong Kong hotels for conversion into rental apartments, however, with banks slowing lending to the real estate sector and many global fund managers watching the Hong Kong market cautiously, deals such as Hines’ acquisition of the Butterly on Prat Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui in November 2021 have largely dried up.