The Department of Economics and Finance at The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong held the first session of its Economics and Finance Public Lecture series on 15 October 2026 (Thursday). Dr. Albert Ngai spoke on “How Finance Fuels Real Estate”.
Dr. Albert Ngai is an accountant and corporate finance practitioner with over 30 years of experience. He held senior management and financial roles and took part in financing, mergers and acquisitions, and “white knight” restructuring and rescue transactions with a combined value of billions of Hong Kong dollars. In 2005, he led a team that helped a major Indian trading conglomerate secure HK$500 million in financing and complete the acquisition of a newly renovated hotel property. In 2023, he led the advisory work for one of Hong Kong’s largest subsidized housing management groups on an asset disposal valued at HK$170 million. In 2024, he served as the financial advisor for the pre-IPO financing round of a local technology unicorn.
The lecture was for students who want a career in investment banking, corporate finance, or financial advisory, and to see how finance actually fuels a real estate deal. Dr. Ngai opened with a direct question, “What is investment?”, and then set out the valuation tools that connect a finance classroom to a property transaction. Students worked through how a real estate valuation and a financial valuation sit side by side, and how a chief financial officer reads risk when liquidity tightens.
With that deal record in the room, the lecture moved from the framework to practice. Dr. Ngai handed students the playbook that firms use for advanced financial models, valuation, and the market methods behind large property transactions. Later in the session, he returned to tools students already meet in finance, including the capital asset pricing model and the measurement of beta, and placed them against the question of what a property investment is worth. The session then turned to Blackstone’s acquisition of Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., and to how a real estate investment fund fuels a real estate project, and how restructuring can strengthen the return on the investment.
These are the questions the Minor in Real Estate Finance and Investment is built to answer. The minor is designed for students enrolled in the BBA (Honours) in Finance and Banking. It adds a professional stream to the degree: seven specialist modules covering urban and real estate economics; the legal, financial and regulatory framework; urban planning and land law; measurement, appraisal and performance; real estate finance and investment; development practice and financing; and real estate as a global asset. The pathway is accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in Valuation. Students also complete Professional Practice Challenges in the minor, so classroom ideas are tested on practice-oriented problems. Students on the accredited route can progress, after graduation, toward chartered status through relevant work experience and the RICS Assessment of Professional Competence.