Retail rents in the city’s major shopping districts — Causeway Bay, Central, Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok — have fallen to their lowest levels since 2003, and retailers are striking while the iron’s hot, SCMP reports.

Though a retail slump — the product of the pandemic and socio-political unrest — has pushed brands like Gap and J.Crew to exit or minimise their footprint in the city, the likes of Brandy Melville and Harvey Nichols owner, Dickson Concepts, have taken over key street boutiques in hopes that demand will rise.

The former has taken over a storefront on Causeway Bay’s Russell Street that was vacated by Rolex and is paying 70 percent less than the watchmaker, insiders told SCMP; the latter will pay HK$205.3 million (around $26.4 million) for a six-year lease of a two-storey shop in Mongkok.