World’s priciest retail streets: Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui slips to third place after New York’s Fifth Avenue and Milan’s Via Montenapoleone

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Tsim Sha Tsui commands annual rents of US$1,493 per square foot versus US$1,766 in Via Montenapoleone in Milan and US$2,000 on Fifth Avenue in New York

Rents in the main shopping districts of Tsim Sha Tsui, Causeway Bay and Central have fallen between 39 per cent and 46 per cent before the start of the pandemic

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Tourists are seen in Hong Kong’s shopping haven of Tsim Sha Tsui, the most expensive retail destination in Asia-Pacific. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

Cheryl Arcibal

Published: 4:14pm, 21 Nov 2023Updated: 5:48pm, 21 Nov 2023

Hong Kong’s tourist hotspot of Tsim Sha Tsui retained its ranking as the most expensive retail destination in Asia-Pacific, but slipped to third place globally due to pandemic-related curbs that brought tourism to a standstill, according to a survey by Cushman & Wakefield.

Annual rents in Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon declined by 39 per cent before the onset of the pandemic – at a time the city had been brought to a standstill by a period of civil unrest that often turned violent – to US$$1,493 per square foot.

Meanwhile rents in Via Montenapoleone in Italy’s fashion capital of Milan surged by 31 per cent to US$1,766 per square foot in the same period, making it the second-most expensive retail strip in the world behind New York’s Fifth Avenue at US$2,000 per square foot, which held on to its title for a second straight year.

“Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui is the most expensive regionally followed by Causeway Bay at US$1,374 per square foot per year,” the property consultancy said in the report on Tuesday. They were followed by Tokyo’s Ginza in third place in the region at US$912 per square foot per year, and Omotesando in fourth place at US$798 per square foot per year.

In 2021, Tsim Sha Tsui was adjudged the world’s most expensive place for retail rents, edging out Causeway Bay, widely considered the trendiest shopping district on Hong Kong Island. However, the city’s stringent pandemic curbs for three years until the end of 2022 led to a recession caused by a slump in tourist arrivals and retail sales.