By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-04-03 00:31:34 | Updated at 2025-04-03 20:39:03
20 hours ago
Futu Securities International (Hong Kong) has scooped up a prime retail space in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay, according to market sources, as one of China’s fastest-growing online brokers doubles down in one of the world’s most expensive retail areas to prepare for a bull run in the stock market.
Futu will occupy the street-level space in Soundwill Plaza on Russell Street that was left vacant since February by the Transformers: The Ark restaurant. The broker could be paying HK$1.2 million (US$154,000) per month to add another bricks-and-mortar branch to its online business, according to agents’ estimates. Futu declined to comment.
The rental charge for the 4,540-square foot (421.8 square metres) space occupying three floors - currently under renovation - has risen by a fifth since the Transformers restaurant’s owner iFree vacated the shop, agents said.
Still, the rent is about an eighth of the monthly charge of HK$8.6 million that Burberry paid in 2015 to the landlord Soundwill Holdings during Hong Kong’s pre-pandemic retail boom. The British fashion brand ended its lease in 2021, two years into a slump that was sparked by anti-government protests and followed by the pandemic-era travel restrictions. Transformers restaurant took over the space from Burberry.
“We have seen more leasing activities, but they have not translated into higher rents,” said Martin Wong, senior director and head of research and consultancy for Greater China at Knight Frank.
Russell Street is in one of Hong Kong’s main shopping districts. Shops along the 250-metre long thoroughfare had to pay US$2,671 per square foot on average in annual rent as recently as 2018. That made it the world’s costliest retail strip, surpassing the Champs Elysees boulevard in Paris, Omotesando in Tokyo and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, according to Cushman & Wakefield.
