New Territories on a roll for day shoppers

Jane Hu, a financial adviser from Huizhou in Guangdong, travels to the outskirts of Hong Kong to shop with her friends at least once a month.

They rarely venture into the city centre or stay overnight.

"It's only a two-hour bus ride, so we're not wasting our money on hotels," said Hu, 30, hauling around a suitcase stuffed with pharmaceuticals and snacks she bought in the New Town Plaza shopping mall in Sha Tin, 26 kilometres from the border. "These are like grocery-shopping trips."

Mainlanders like Hu, taking day trips in search of basic goods, are helping boost retail rents in the New Territories, according to brokers Savills.

Firms such as Sun Hung Kai Properties and Link Real Estate Investment Trust, which run malls in areas outside the city's most expensive retail districts, are set to benefit amid a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy, BNP Paribas said.

"There's a major shift in spending patterns among Chinese travellers," said Simon Smith, senior director of Asia-Pacific research at London-based Savills. The areas closer to the border "are probably where the headroom is in terms of rental growth this year".

Rents at malls on the city's outskirts, which can be as low as a 10th of those in the city centre, are expected to grow as much as 10 per cent this year, Savills says. Rents of street-level shops in prime shopping districts in Hong Kong will probably remain flat, while those in prime-location malls will gain about 5 per cent.