Midland points to recovery in shops

The number of new shop registrations rose 7.4 percent month-on-month to 101 in March, with the total value going up 6.2 percent to HK$2 billion, according to Midland IC&I.

Among them are a bundle of multiple shops at Mongkok Commercial Centre and a shopping mall at COO Residence, which were sold for HK$350 million and HK$440 million, respectively.

Only shops with a value under HK$5 million or between HK$10 million and HK$20 million recorded an increase in registrations in March, the former being up by 27.5 percent month-on-month to 51 cases and the latter up by 28.6 percent to 18 cases.

Meanwhile, a total of 279 street shops were registered in the first quarter, up by 9.8 percent from the previous three months and their value going up by 45 percent to HK$5.17 billion, the agency said.

The number of mainland visitors to Hong Kong is expected to rebound to 2 million a month in the coming months from just 1.1 million in February, to render a boost to the market sentiment, said Lieman Leung, a director at Midland Shops.

Leung projected the monthly shop registration number to hover between 100 and 120 cases in the short term and it will be crucial to monitor the data during the Labor Day Golden Week. If the growth in visitor arrivals and retail sales exceeds market expectation, more investors will be attracted to the market and further stimulate the transaction numbers, he added.