McDonald’s Corp is marketing eight of its retail properties in Hong Kong valued at HK$1.2 billion ($153 million), at a time when the real estate market in the city remains weak.
The fast food chain is offloading the shops located in major shopping districts including Tsim Sha Tsui and Causeway Bay while keeping the leases, property agency JLL, which was appointed to handle the tender, said in a statement on Monday.
The US company’s decision coincides with a lackluster market. High street shop rents in the city dropped 2.3 percent in the first half, and are set to fall as much as 10 percent in 2025, a JLL report from early July shows. Ongoing economic headwinds are prompting commercial property investors to take a wait-and-see approach despite lower interest rates, according to CBRE Group Inc.
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Still, JLL said it had already received significant interest from a wide range of potential investors given the properties’ prime locations and attractive returns. The biggest store to be sold is in Star House, which is near the city’s popular tourist attraction Star Ferry Pier.
The shops come with existing leases to the McDonald’s restaurants, which will continue to operate, JLL added. The tender will close on Sept 16.
McDonald’s is fully committed to the Hong Kong market, the Chicago-based company said in a statement. The sale is part of its ongoing review to “optimize” its real estate portfolio, it said.