Influx of mainland Chinese F&B brands such as Hey Tea, Mixue could provide relief to Hong Kong’s retail property market, analysts say
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Late one afternoon this month, as customers lined up outside a new high-street shop in Mong Kok for a cup of Mixue Bingcheng bubble tea, Lily Cheng finally ordered her favourite drink after queuing behind nearly a dozen people.
“I liked this milk tea brand when I was still in mainland China, and it just feels homely to find it in Hong Kong too,” said Cheng, 23, a postgraduate student from the mainland studying in the city.
Mixue, one of China’s largest milk tea makers with about 36,000 stores, opened its first store in the city in December and intends to apply for an initial public offering on the Hong Kong stock exchange. It is among a number of mainland food and beverage (F&B) brands that are expanding their footprint in Hong Kong.
This expansion trend is expected to provide some comfort to Hong Kong’s softening retail property market as well, analysts said.
“We are seeing sustainable demand coming from a lot of restaurant operators, and Chinese F&B operators are one of the forces driving retail demand lately,” said Marcos Chan, executive director and head of research at CBRE Hong Kong.
The F&B sector, which contributed nearly half of Hong Kong’s retail leasing demand last year driven by new Chinese restaurants, will continue to be the biggest source of demand in 2024 as well, according to CBRE.