‘Getting ahead of the game’: how online study gave Michael Lee an early start in Hong Kong real estate

Posted on: 2026-08-24

University alumnus Michael Lee from Prudential Surveyors (Hong Kong) Limited charts how studying real estate online while working gave him a head start in the profession, helping him build a career that has taken him from Assistant Surveyor to Managing Director.  

 

When Michael Lee told one of his high-school teachers that he planned to study real estate, she offered a prediction about his future career. He would, she said, spend a great deal of his life ‘looking up’.

Nearly two decades later, he admits she was right.

Walk through Hong Kong with Michael and his attention is frequently drawn above street level, noting buildings constructed during different chapters of the city’s remarkable period of urban growth.

“The regulations governing Hong Kong’s buildings have gone through multiple changes and revisions,” he said. “Looking up at buildings of different designs feels like watching the history of Hong Kong unfold in front of you.”

 

Why did he choose to study online?

“I could earn money while studying and, at the same time, gain local technical knowledge through my work.”

Today, Michael, 40, is Managing Director of Prudential Surveyors (Hong Kong) Limited at a time when Hong Kong’s residential property market is showing momentum and its economy is expanding strongly, with real GDP growing 4.3% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026.

However, his route to the top of the company began in a rather different economic climate. In the early 2000s, a younger Michael was weighing up his university options in the aftermath of a difficult period for Hong Kong. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) had dealt the economy a heavy blow, with the Labour Department reporting unemployment reaching a record 8.6% in mid-2003.

Against that backdrop, employability was firmly on Michael’s mind. He had received offers from two UK universities and contemplated studying abroad, but the opportunity to work and earn while completing his degree remotely held particular appeal. Rather than waiting until graduation to enter the profession, he could begin accumulating practical property experience alongside his studies.

The University of the Built Environment had been recommended to him by his high school teachers. Our flexible and online learning model meant Michael did not have to choose between acquiring a degree and acquiring experience.

“I could be a working student,” he said. “I could earn money while studying and, at the same time, gain local technical knowledge through my work.”

“Real estate still seemed to offer strong employment opportunities,” he added, “even during an economic downturn. That was one of the reasons I chose property.”

When he graduated in 2009 with a BSc (Hons) Real Estate Management from the University of the Built Environment, Hong Kong was facing another economic shock as the global financial crisis took hold. Unemployment climbed to 5.4% in the second quarter of 2009, making the experience Michael had already built up particularly valuable as he entered the next stage of his career.

“I was able to gain local practical experience a year or two earlier than the usual university graduate in Hong Kong,” he said. “I could be part of the game earlier.”

 

‘Getting ahead of the game’

Studying alongside a job inevitably demanded discipline. Lectures, reading, research and assignments had to fit around the working week, with evenings, weekends and holidays all becoming potential study time.

Michael now regards that pressure as part of his professional education. “The assignment deadlines were just like deadlines on working projects,” he said. “It really developed my time-management skills. I had office workloads to deal with, and then I had my studies and assignments after working hours or at weekends.”

He believes there was another, even greater, advantage. By working in the industry throughout his studies, he was accumulating practical experience at a point when many of his contemporaries on conventional full-time programmes were still entirely focused on university.

“I was able to gain local practical experience a year or two earlier than the usual university graduate in Hong Kong,” he said. “I could be part of the game earlier.”

The approach paid off. Michael secured a position as an Assistant Surveyor before he had even graduated.

It is a route that remains highly relevant to prospective students in Hong Kong today. University of the Built Environment’s current BSc (Hons) Real Estate Management is delivered fully online, can be studied part-time or full-time, is accredited by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) as well as the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Property Managers.

 

Learning to work independently

Michael credits the demands of the entire degree with changing how he approached both learning and professional responsibility.

Studying independently required him to find information, read extensively, conduct research and decide for himself what was relevant. “I had to be very focused in studying, learning and researching,” he said. “It made me take more responsibility for myself.”

The technical grounding also transferred readily into his work in Hong Kong. Valuation and planning were particularly useful, he said, along with the principles underpinning land administration.

 “Investing in yourself in the property field is always a wise decision. You need a ticket to the Grand Prix or the World Cup – this degree gives you that ticket.”

There are significant connections between the Hong Kong and British systems in this area. Hong Kong retains a common-law legal system, while virtually all land is held on lease from the HKSAR Government. For Michael, studying concepts developed within a UK academic and professional context therefore gave him knowledge with clear practical relevance at home.

 

A range of careers available

His subsequent career has taken him between private practice and government. After beginning at Prudential Surveyors, Michael left to gain experience working in the public sector before being invited to return to the company. He has since risen through its ranks, most recently becoming Managing Director.

For him, that breadth of experience reflects the variety available within surveying itself. Valuation professionals in Hong Kong can build careers in consultancy, government or with developers, moving between technical work, policy, investment, client advice and management as their experience develops.

Real estate continues to make a sizeable contribution to Hong Kong’s economy. The Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department calculated that real estate services generated HK$92.4 billion in value added in 2024, equivalent to 3.2% of GDP. More recent employment data also recorded a 3.4% year-on-year increase in the number of people working in real estate in March 2026, equivalent to around 4,900 additional people.

 

Degree offers a golden ticket

For graduates considering a real estate career in Hong Kong, Michael advises paying close attention to government policy.

“Hong Kong’s property market is very policy-driven,” he said. “You have to be focused on what the Government is trying to introduce in the short and medium term, because that creates new demands around property.”

And for those hoping to enter that market, his advice is equally clear: “Investing in yourself in the property field is always a wise decision. You need a ticket to the Grand Prix or the World Cup – this degree gives you that ticket.”

Michael’s teacher was right that a career in property would keep him ‘looking up’ at buildings. For students ready to follow him into the profession, the opportunities are looking up, too.

 

Where could a real estate degree take you?

BSc (Hons) Real Estate Management | University of the Built Environment