Coronavirus: MTR, Link Reit and Swire offer retail tenants rental relief at their shops and shopping centres as Hong Kong’s Covid-19 cases surge

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MTR will offer rental concessions, and special help to tenants of scheduled premises which had been ordered to close under the government’s anti-pandemic rules

Link Reit and Swire Properties said they would offer case-by-case, tailored support for retail tenants operating in their shopping centres

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Idle turnstiles in a deserted station on a Sunday in Tsim Sha Tsui, in what used to be one of Hong Kong’s busiest transport terminals, on 13 February 2022. Photo: Dickson Lee

Lam Ka-sing

Published: 6:45pm, 16 Feb 2022Updated: 8:24pm, 16 Feb 2022

Several of Hong Kong’s largest property landlords said they would offer their retail tenants rental relief and concessions, stepping up to help businesses that had been decimated by plunging foot traffic amid the city’s resurgent Covid-19 outbreak.

MTR Corporation, the city’s sole mass transit railway operator, said it would offer rental concessions across its network of 97 subway stations, and at the 13 shopping centres it owns. Tenants of scheduled premises that had been ordered to close under the government’s anti-pandemic rules will also get help.

Link Reit, which operates 11 million square feet of retail space in Hong Kong, said it would offer “support on a case-by-case basis” across its properties. Swire Properties, owner of the Pacific Place and Citygate Outlets shopping centres, said it would continue providing “tailored support to tenants on a case-by-case basis.”

“Many sectors are facing tremendous pressure in their operations, as the latest wave of Covid-19 has gotten increasingly severe,” MTR’s chief executive officer Jacob Kam said in a statement, without divulging financial details or say how many tenants MTR is helping. “Various MTR businesses are also affected by the new wave of the pandemic, including a significant drop in our patronage during non-peak hours.”

Hong Kong’s property developers and hotel owners are stepping up to offer their help, after Chinese President Xi Jinping instructed Hong Kong’s authorities to take the “main responsibility” in containing the so-called fifth wave of infections in the city, which reported a record 4,200 new cases on Wednesday.