Office space in Cheung Sha Wan, Hong Kong

Cheung Sha Wan lies between Sham Shui Po and Lai Chi Kok, inside Sham Shui Po District. It was a bay with a long sandy beach before the reclamations, and the Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb here, dating from AD 25 to 220, is the oldest known constructed structure in Hong Kong.

After the war the district made textiles and clothing. The factories moved to the mainland in the 1980s, and the floors they left became offices and wholesale rooms. Cheung Sha Wan Road still carries the wholesale clothing trade, more than 200 shops of it, and people call it Fashion Street. Giordano runs its head office from Tin On Industrial Building, and the Wholesale Food Market on Yen Chow Street West covers 8.8 hectares.

The two centres show both versions of the district. Trade Square is a commercial building of about 350,000 square feet, with floors of roughly 44,200 square feet. Lai Cheong Factory Building, built in 1961 on Castle Peak Road, is the converted side. Government sits here too, at the Cheung Sha Wan Government Offices, 303 Cheung Sha Wan Road.

Two Tsuen Wan line stations serve the district, and one of them is misnamed: Lai Chi Kok station stands inside Cheung Sha Wan. Ooosh is 450 metres from it, six minutes on foot. Trade Square is about five minutes from Exit B at Cheung Sha Wan station.

Central is eight stops south on one train, through Mong Kok, Yau Ma Tei, Jordan, Tsim Sha Tsui and Admiralty. Nam Cheong, one stop east, joins the Tung Chung line, and the Airport Express runs from Kowloon station, two stops further on.

The commute does the first favour. Two stations on the Tsuen Wan line put most of Kowloon a short ride away, and Central is eight stops with no change of train, so a meeting in town never costs the afternoon.

The room prices do the second. A room for four is HK$6,920 at Trade Square, one price for the room however many of the four turn up, and coworking from about HK$3,000 a month per person at Ooosh covers a team of one.

Staff coming from west Kowloon or the New Territories get a simple run in. Nam Cheong one stop east adds the Tung Chung line, and Kowloon station two stops past it has the Airport Express.

These are working wholesale streets, and it is not an address a client would suggest for lunch. Neither centre sits over a station, so every commute ends with a five or six minute walk.

Lai Chi Kok one stop west also opens lower, at about HK$750 for one person against around HK$3,500 here, so price alone is not the reason to pick this district.

Lai Chi Kok is the next station west, and Cheung Sha Wan's listings also appear under it, because the two districts share Lai Chi Kok station. It opens at about HK$750 for one person, with three centres across converted factories and a Grade A tower.

Prince Edward is two stops south. One centre with private rooms only, one person from HK$2,633.

Mong Kok is three stops south. Five buildings among the shops, one person from HK$2,623 and coworking from HK$3,500.

Cheung Sha Wan sits above all three on entry price. What it adds is Trade Square's full size floors and a choice of two centres, each a short walk from its own station.

The offices opening in Cheung Sha Wan exist because of a government policy with a deadline. The 2018 Policy Address reopened the scheme that waives the fees for converting or redeveloping old industrial buildings. In a Legislative Council reply of 7 May 2025, the government said the Town Planning Board had approved nine of eleven redevelopment applications for pre-1987 industrial buildings between April 2022 and March 2025, across eight sites.

The 2024 Policy Address extended the concessions to December 2027, so converted offices are still arriving in the district.