Cut rents now or miss out, CY Leung tells Hong Kong landlords

Former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying has urged landlords to lower rents as the city’s commercial property vacancy rate hit a 40-year high and retailers cried foul over being forced to close businesses to stem losses.

In his social media post on Thursday, Leung pointed to the rate of vacant commercial buildings in the city, which reached a record high of 11.8 per cent by the end of 2024.

He said that soaring rents had forced restaurants to have extremely cramped washrooms and to store ingredients outside toilets, leading to unpleasant experiences compared with Shenzhen, where each dining area has its own stand-alone facility.

His remarks were made as some political parties, according to sources, voiced tenants’ woes and proposed countermeasures during the ongoing public consultation on Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s 2025 policy address.

“Landlords cannot let a property sit empty and refuse to lower the rent just because you are afraid of bank repossession. Sooner or later, you will have to face the reality of high vacancy rates and falling market rents,” Leung said.

“They cannot just wait for luck to change, nor can they fight against the market. They need to adjust to current market prices and decisively cut rents – just as they raised them decisively when the market was booming.