It is a rite of passage to gripe – and occasionally gloat – about Hong Kong property prices. Companies setting up in the territory have to accept they will pay some of the highest prices in the world for office space and possibly dole out equally large housing allowances.
Likewise for retailers. Burberry, the British luxury brand, pays about $1m a month in rent for its store in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay shopping district. Ralph Lauren is heading to Hollywood Road, traditionally home to purveyors of antiques, memorabilia and general tat rather than expensive US clothing.
But it is not a uniform picture of sky-high rents, as those who took space during the bleak days of Sars, the infectious disease that swept through the territory in 2003, or the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98, can testify.