Can Hong Kong recover from Covid-19 to reclaim luxury retail market crown?

But a double whammy of Hong Kong’s worst social unrest in decades and the Covid-19 pandemic knocked Russell Street – and subsequently Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon – off the perch of the world’s most expensive retail spaces in terms of rents per square foot, according to a report by Cushman & Wakefield in November.

Rents have tumbled. A walk through Causeway Bay, where Russell Street is located, these days reveals how dramatic the change has been. The former flagship store of US-based lingerie brand Victoria’s Secret is now occupied by a supermarket. The space previously occupied by Burberry has been taken up by a yet-to-open Transformers-themed restaurant, while other shops have been leased by vendors of surgical masks, cheap gadgets and clothes, or food and beverages.

These shops now mainly cater to local consumers, who have become retailers’ key market in the absence of tourists from mainland China, who used to snap up luxury handbags and jewellery, among other high-priced items.