FROM luxury boutiques to mom-and-pop stores, Hong Kong’s retailers are hurting. Unless landlords can offer more relief, one in four could disappear by December if sales don’t improve, putting an end to the city’s reputation as a shopping paradise.

That’s the gloomy prediction of Hong Kong Retail Management Association chairman Annie Yau Tse, who said the rent reductions that came after public pressure on landlords in February aren’t sufficient.

Most are only willing to cut rents by 10 percent to 20 percent, far from the retail industry’s demand of 50 percent or more. The association estimates there are around 62,400 retail stores in the city.

“Not all landlords have provided a subsidy or rental reduction and our drop in sales is larger than the extent of the relief,” said Alain Lam, the finance director of Oriental Watch Holdings Ltd. The high-end watch seller has 11 stores in Hong Kong, seven of which are leased.

“If the pandemic persists, we may consider shutting down or moving stores.”

It’s a grim forecast being echoed across the Asian financial center.

Retail sales by value sank 42 percent in March after a record 44 percent plunge in February. The city’s economy contracted 8.9 percent in the first quarter from a year ago, Hong Kong’s Census and Statistics Department said last Friday, the worst reading in four decades of data.

In Hong Kong, rent is a huge cost. The city’s Causeway Bay area has the most expensive shop rents in the world, surpassing even New York’s Upper Fifth Avenue and London’s New Bond Street, data from Cushman & Wakefield show.

(SD-Agencies)