Hong Kong Island
Hong Kong Island: financial core, Central/HSBC/Stock Exchange, colonial-era cession (1842), $10.7B IPOs (2024), NSL uncertainty for multinationals.
Hong Kong Island is the historic core of the territory—the area ceded to Britain in 1842 where the colonial administration and financial center developed. Central District houses the headquarters of major banks (HSBC, Standard Chartered, Bank of China Tower), the Stock Exchange, and government buildings. Victoria Peak offers the iconic skyline view that symbolized Hong Kong's rise as Asia's financial gateway. The island's geography—steep hillsides meeting the harbor—created the dense vertical urbanism of Central, Admiralty, and Wan Chai. Post-handover, the island remains the address for multinational regional headquarters, though the National Security Law (2020) and SNSO (2024) have introduced 'heightened uncertainty' for foreign firms. IPO activity recovered in 2024 ($10.7 billion, 66 listings), and Q1 2025 reached $2.3 billion—the highest first quarter since 2021. The island's four districts (Central & Western, Eastern, Southern, Wan Chai) include some of the world's most expensive real estate alongside Aberdeen's fishing village heritage. Hong Kong Island concentrates the wealth that the new security framework simultaneously protects and potentially threatens.