Hong Kong property firms are shifting strategy toward AI infrastructure

10:00 PM · July 20, 2026

Haoran Liu, president of the China region at Reynold Lemkins, told CNBC that Hong Kong property companies are increasingly shifting their strategy toward AI infrastructure investment rather than relying solely on traditional commercial real estate. The shift reflects a broader repositioning of Hong Kong as a potential bridge between Chinese technology companies seeking global computing capacity and international investors and infrastructure providers, leveraging the city's existing role as a financial and logistics hub between mainland China and the rest of the world. For Hong Kong's commercial property sector specifically, converting or repurposing existing real estate holdings toward AI infrastructure, such as data center capacity, offers a path to new revenue as demand for traditional office and retail space has softened in various Asian markets even as demand for AI computing capacity continues to climb. The framing positions Hong Kong's property firms as opportunistic beneficiaries of the broader AI infrastructure buildout, applying capital and real estate expertise already built up over decades to a new category of demand rather than competing directly with the specialized data center operators and technology companies driving AI infrastructure investment elsewhere. Liu's comments add a regional, real estate specific angle to the broader story of how the AI boom's demand for physical infrastructure is reshaping capital allocation decisions well beyond the technology sector itself.