CY Leung renews call for Hong Kong landlords to cut rents amid rising vacancies
Leung, now a top political adviser to the country, also warned that landlords would be harmed in the end if they refused to budge on lowering rents.
'It is sheer self-delusion if landlords think they can get the rent level they want by leaving the premises vacant and waiting [instead of cutting the rents],' Leung said on Saturday.
Leung, now a vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, weighed in on the debate over Hong Kong's commercial rents last week after the latest government report showed that, by the end of 2024, the total vacant floor area of private commercial buildings reached 1.4 million square metres.
The empty space represented a vacancy rate of 11.8 per cent – a record high over the past 40 years.
The slackening economy has also resulted in a string of high-profile shutdowns of established restaurants in recent months, with some citing high rents as a reason.
'The overall economic environment is like that now. Perhaps it is partly because people are going north to spend, or people are getting used to buying takeaway, or shopping online,' Leung said.
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