Shop rents look set to head lower in Hong Kong next year, with real estate agency Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. predicting an up to 5% drop from recent highs.
Denis Ma, head of Hong Kong research at the firm, says that given the level of rents, “a lot of retailers are taking a step back and having a look at the market.”
Shop rents in the former British colony were overtaken this year by New York’s Fifth Avenue as the most expensive in the world, but had held that position for two years. The current slowdown – the average monthly rent on street-level shops in the Central business district has fallen 1.5% this year – comes against a backdrop of a weak retail spending by mainland Chinese visitors, with sales of luxury items down 12% on the year in October, and recent political unrest.
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