Two of Hong Kong’s largest property developers have offered a solution to (hopefully) alleviate the parallel trading problems in the city’s border towns.
The fix? A dedicated shopping mall, of course.
Sun Hung Kai Properties and Henderson Land Development said at a press conference yesterday that they would provide a 420,000 square-foot piece of land in Lok Ma Chau on which developers can build a provisional shopping mall.
The main purpose of the scheme is to divert mainland shoppers away from border towns by bringing all the desired household goods to one place.
Hong Kong residents have recently staged a series of protests against parallel traders, which they say are reducing the availability of products in the territory.
The site is currently a parking lot within walking distance from the Lok Ma Chau MTR station
According to WSJ, Chairman of Henderson Land, Lee Shau-kee, said, “There is a lot of strife in Hong Kong right now over the issue of tourists. We have the land, and we are willing to rent it out without considering profit.”
Singtao Daily has reported that a non-profit organisation, comprised of local property owners and chambers of commerce, has already submitted an application to run the shopping mall.
The land will be rented for just HKD1, however, rent for individual stalls, which may apparently start out as shipping containers, are expected to be rented for HKD60-80 per square foot.
Construction will begin in May if all goes smoothly, and the temporary mall is slated to open for the Oct. 1 Golden Week national holiday.
Yeah, good luck with that.
Though Sun Hung Kai Properties and Henderson Land Development are only providing the land and will not bother with running the temporary mall, they hope to take over the site in two years time in order to build a permanent shopping centre.
Photo: Ding Yuin Shan via Flickr
Reader Interactions