Weave Rejigs Hong Kong Portfolio with Student Housing Debut and Kai Tak Sale Effort

Warburg Pincus-backed Weave Living is reshaping its Hong Kong portfolio by shifting two of its properties in the city into a new student housing strategy while putting a third up for sale.

The living sector fund manager and operator has engaged Knight Frank and CBRE to find a buyer for its Weave Studios – Kai Tak at an asking price of HK$460 million ($58.7 million), according to market sources who spoke with Mingtiandi, setting the regional firm up for its first exit from an investment in its home city. News of the sale effort was first reported by the Hong Kong Economic Times.

While Weave looks for an exit in Kowloon East, the company is repositioning two of its Weave Studios properties – one near the University of Hong Kong in Sai Ying Pun and another near Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hung Hom – under a dedicated student housing brand which it plans to expand into Sydney, Singapore and Seoul. 

“The structural demand drivers are clear: demand for student accommodation across Asia Pacific’s gateway cities continues to grow rapidly, driven by increasing international student mobility and supportive government policies,” Weave founder and CEO Sachin Doshi said in a statement. “This supply-demand imbalance is not unique to Hong Kong. Across the region’s key gateway cities, the challenge is equally acute.”

TPG AG-Backed Asset

Weave’s partner in the property at 103 Tam Kung Road in Kowloon’s To Kwa Wan area is understood to be TPG Angelo Gordon, with the two companies having teamed up to purchase what was then a 99-room hotel for HK$390 million in 2021.

Brokers representing the property described it as suited for conversion to student housing or accommodation for foreign talent, with units in the building available for as low as HK$13,000 per month in the 2018-vintage property. 

TPG Angelo Gordon has recently been marketing a number of Hong Kong assets, including putting a set of Kowloon East offices floors on the market last year at 32 percent below their 2018 acquisition price. Also in 2025, a TPG Angelo Gordon joint venture agreed to sell the Connaught Hotel in Western District’s Sai Ying Pun area for HK$410 million – 44 percent below the 2018 price. 

Testing the Market

Letters of intent under the sale campaign are due on 30 June. Neither Weave nor TPG Angelo Gordon had replied to inquiries from Mingtiandi about the sale campaign by the time of publication. 

Weave is asking the equivalent of HK$15,296 per square foot for the 30,072 square foot (2,794 square metre) property – a rate which analysts described to Mingtiandi as “on the very high side.”

While living sector assets have proven to be the city’s most sought after properties in the past two years, the highest price achieved in recent months for a building in the market was the sale of the Soravit boutique hotel on Granville Road in Tsim Sha Tsui for a reported HK$370 million earlier this month.

That deal works out to HK$11,040 per square foot or HK$4.87 million per room, while Weave’s asking price represents HK$4.64 million each for studios which range from 118 to 140 square feet in size.

Student Housing Debut

Weave’s roll out of its student housing brand also features a TPG Angelo Gordon asset, with the US fund manager having backed Weave’s HK$900 million purchase of the Grand City Hotel on Queen’s Road West in Sai Ying Pun in 2022.

Opened as Weave Studios – Sai Ying Pun in 2023, the 214-unit property is being renamed as Weave Campus – Sai Ying Pun. The other initial property in the Weave Campus launch is Weave Campus – Hung Hom, a 95-unit property which Weave acquired in 2019 as its second project.

Both locations are set to open for the 2026/27 academic year and are now open for booking, per the statement. “In response to the surging demand for student accommodation across the region, we are actively identifying more Weave Campus locations,” Weave’s Doshi said.

He added that, “We see Weave Campus as a natural extension of our existing portfolio and now offer a highly curated suite of rental accommodation options that cater to a broad demographic who can live within the Weave Living eco-system from their student life all the way through to their professional and family life.”