Causeway Bay beats Fifth Avenue as world’s priciest district for retailers
Shoppers cross a road in Causeway Bay where retail real estate is more expensive than New York’s Fifth Avenue.
Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay is the most expensive district in the world for retailers, according to a survey by real estate services company Cushman & Wakefield.
The average rent in Causeway Bay is now higher than New York’s Fifth Avenue and Paris’s Avenue des Champs-Elysees as luxury brands compete for retail space in the densely built shopping area to sell products to cashed-up mainland Chinese, Bloomberg reported.
Fifth Avenue came second in the survey of 326 prime locations in 62 countries, marking the first time in 11 years that it has not been the world’s most expensive retail area, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
The Champs-Elysees was third.
Reuters reported that the average retail real estate rent in Causeway Bay increased 34.9 percent from a year ago to an annual $2,630 per square foot, compared with $2,500 per square foot on Fifth Avenue and $1,129 per square foot on Paris’s most famous shopping strip.
Despite a slowdown in economic activity, many luxury brands see Hong Kong “as the ideal launching platform into mainland China,” Cushman & Wakefield said.
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