Mong Kok traders strike for lower rents
Operators from more than three-quarters of the shops in the Mong Kok Computer Centre went on strike for three hours yesterday to demand a rent cut amid the economic downturn.
The strike lasted from noon to 3pm at the centre in Nelson Street, which houses around 70 shops.
The manager of one computer hardware store said rents increased 20 per cent early last year and requests for an adjustment had been ignored.
'The computer hardware business has been heavily hit,' he said. 'We hoped the landlords would give us a 20 per cent rent discount, for example, for six months.'
He said store operators might not pay their rent on time in protest.
The centre is owned by Alpha Investment Partners, the property investment fund of Singapore's Keppel Land. The centre's leasing office declined to comment last night.
