by winston » Fri Feb 03, 2017 7:33 am
Retail sector woes persist
by Koey Yip
Retail shops in different parts of Tsim Sha Tsui have remained vacant for up to two years, amid their owners' difficulties in finding tenants due mainly to prolonged poor sentiment in the sector, retail analysts said yesterday.
Reductions in asking rent have done little to lure tenants, with a significant number of shops still unoccupied, they said.
Among the hardest hit areas in Tsim Sha Tsui, a traditional tourist district, is the Park Lane Shopper's Boulevard as tourist arrivals from the mainland continue to fall.
There are about 30 retail premises between Haiphong Road and Kimberley Road and seven shops or about 23 percent of the total are unoccupied.
Three adjoining shops, with a combined area of about 2,000 square feet, have been on offer for rent for a long time.
Analysts said their owners have slashed their asking rent by 22 to 46 percent to HK$380,000 to HK$1 million per month, but they still found difficulties finding takers.
In apparent exasperation, the owner of two adjoining shops decided to rent out the units separately after cutting the rent by 22 percent.
Both shops had been vacant for two years.
The Canton Road area is also suffering from the extended sluggishness of the retail sector in the district.
A 1,000-sq-ft shop has been vacant for a year, forcing its owner to slash rent by 60 percent to HK$600,000 a month.
That rent is now the cheapest along Canton Road, but no tenant has shown any interest.
A 2,500-sq-ft shop used to be occupied by jewelry retailer Chow Tai Fook (1929), but it gave up the premises late last year.
The shop owner has reduced asking rent to HK$2.4 million a month, just about half what Chow Tai Fook used to pay.
Source: The Standard
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"