Office space in Lai Chi Kok, Hong Kong

Lai Chi Kok was Kowloon's garment district. The factories moved to the mainland in the 1980s and left the buildings behind, and the names on the doors still say so: The Hive and The Garden both run inside Tai Cheung Liberal Factory Building.

Two kinds of building stand side by side. Cheung Yue Street has the new towers, Billion Plaza at number 8 and Billion Plaza 2 at number 10, both 31 storeys of Grade A space, with Arcc Spaces four minutes from the station. Around them, the older blocks on Wing Hong Street and Wing Ming Street are still factory buildings with offices inside.

D2 Place is the district's best known conversion. Lawsgroup turned two of its family's factory buildings on Cheung Yee Street into a mall with offices above, D2 Place One in 2013 and D2 Place Two in 2016, the first conversion of its kind in Hong Kong. Most firms here are fashion and garment companies, product designers and their sample rooms, online retailers, film and photography studios and small technology teams.

Lai Chi Kok station is on the Tsuen Wan line. Mei Foo is the next station east, and that is where the Tuen Ma line crosses, so one stop puts you on a second network. Prince Edward is three stops east and Central is nine, on one train the whole way.

Arcc Spaces in Billion Plaza 2 is 320 metres from the station, four minutes on foot. Tai Cheung Liberal Factory Building is 500 metres, six minutes. For the airport, change at Mei Foo onto the Tuen Ma line for Nam Cheong, where the Tung Chung line and the Airport Express both stop.

The price does the talking first. About HK$750 a month takes one person at Arcc Spaces, and around HK$3,000 takes a room for four in the same Grade A tower, four minutes from the station.

Growing is easy here. Three centres run from one desk to rooms for teams, and the rent follows the room rather than the headcount, so a team can add people without the bill jumping.

Staff coming from West Kowloon or the New Territories get a short ride. Mei Foo Sun Chuen is the next station, the Tsuen Wan line runs out to Tsuen Wan, and the Tuen Ma line reaches Tuen Mun.

Lunch is settled too. D2 Place, two converted factory buildings of shops and restaurants on Cheung Yee Street, is a few minutes from all three centres.

These are working streets. Cheung Yue Street and Wing Hong Street carry lorries and loading bays, and at ground level this is a working district rather than a pretty one.

The choice is also narrow. Three centres cover the district, so if none of them fits, there is no fourth option down the street. Mong Kok, three stops east, has five buildings and opens at HK$2,623.

Cheung Sha Wan is the next station east, and the two districts share Lai Chi Kok station. Two centres, one person from around HK$3,500, with rooms for four from HK$6,920.

Kwun Tong is the other side of Kowloon at a similar price. Sixteen buildings to choose between, one person from HK$1,354 and coworking from HK$2,000.

Mong Kok is three stops east. Five buildings among the shops and restaurants, one person from HK$2,623.

Lai Chi Kok opens lower than all three for one person, at about HK$750, and its coworking opens lowest too, at HK$1,750.

The buildings here sit on the Cheung Sha Wan boundary, and that is the market the research houses measure. The June 2026 reading put net effective office rent there at HK$26.2 per square foot a month, flat over the quarter and up 0.5% over the year, with vacancy at 12.4%. Central asked HK$97.5 on the same date.

No major Grade A office completions are expected in Kowloon during 2026. Rents here have been steady, and the choice across the three centres is still wide.