The Yan Wo Building in North Point has a new future (Image: Google)
Centurion Corporation is set to become the latest Singapore investor to boost its property holdings in Hong Kong with the rental accommodation specialist nearing a deal for an apartment block in the city’s North Point area.
A local unit of the SGX-listed developer and investor has signed a provisional agreement to acquire the Yan Wo building at 70 Java Road for HK$364 million ($46.4 million), according to records filed with the Land Registry late last month.
“The company is currently negotiating the final sales and purchase agreement,” a spokesperson of Centurion Corporation told Mingtiandi. He added the SGX-listed accommodation specialist intends to buy the property via a 50-50 joint venture with Centurion Properties, the private investment arm of controlling shareholder Centurion Global.
The North Point deal comes two months after Centurion acquired a set of apartments in Causeway Bay, with Singapore investors having accounted for more than 60 percent of foreign investment in Hong Kong properties during the second quarter of 2026, according to Colliers.
Island East Purchase
Located about a three-minute walk from the North Point MTR station, the Yan Wo Building is a 26-storey commercial-residential block built in 2000.
Centurion CEO Kong Chee Min (Image: Centurion Corporation)
Set back about two blocks from the waterfront, the property offers 42 residential units from the fifth to the top floors. Of the block’s 34,286 square feet (3,185 square metres) of gross floor area, 26,070 square feet are for residential use with another 8,216 square feet in the three-storey retail podium.
The seller is an established local family, who had been seeking to offload the asset for over ten years, according to market sources who spoke with Mingtiandi.
Centurion’s committed HK$364 million acquisition price translates to HK$10,617 per square foot of total gross floor area.
Bobby Mak, real estate valuer at Hong Kong-based CHFT Advisory and Appraisal, described the deal price as aligned with market conditions. Mak judges the property to be worth around HK$389 million, including HK$239 million for the residential portion and HK$150 million for the retail podium.
“Our estimate on the achievable rent if used as a student hostel would be in the range of HK$30,000 to HK$35,000 per unit per month gross, equivalent to a net yield of 4.8 percent to 5.5 percent – broadly consistent with the prevailing market range for student accommodation in Hong Kong,” Mak said.
Growing Portfolio
Centurion entered Hong Kong’s rental housing market in 2024, securing master leases for two student housing projects in Kowloon and a worker accommodation project in New Territories through a joint venture with LionRock Property, a student housing specialist led by local architect Addie Chan.
Operational since the third quarter of 2024, the 114 beds in Centurion’s existing Hong Kong student housing properties were averaging 98 percent occupancy at the end of June, according to the company’s unaudited interim results.
The 539‑bed worker accommodation project in Sheung Shui, operational since the first quarter of 2025, was 70 percent occupied at the end of June.
In June, Centurion expanded its Hong Kong portfolio with the acquisition of eight apartments in the Yee On Building at 26 East Point Road in Causeway Bay for a reported HK$52 million. The company is converting these units into rental apartments offering 32 beds, with properties expected to be operational in the first quarter of 2027, according to its interim results.
Singaporean Capital Influx
Centurion’s North Point move aligns with a growing wave of Singaporean acquisitions in Hong Kong.
In July, SC Capital Partners acquired a luxury residential compound known as The Belvedere in southern Hong Kong Island’s Chung Hom Kok from the local family that owns developer Wah Ha Realty Company for HK$305 million.
That deal came after developer and fund manager Wee Hur Holdings in June acquired One Bedford Place, a newly completed tower in Kowloon’s Tai Kok Tsui area, from receivers for just under HK$750 million, with plans to convert the property for student use.
In April, Singapore’s DBS Bank acquired six floors in The Center on Queen’s Road from entities linked to troubled mainland developer Shimao Group’s founder Hui Wing Mau for HK$2.62 billion ($334 million).
