Integrated resort projects currently under construction on Macau’s Cotai Strip are set to add 2.4 million sqft of new retail space to the territory within three years.
In tandem, according to figures from property specialist JLL, will come 17,000 more hotel rooms and another 2800 gaming tables.
All this at a time when visitor numbers from China are plummeting and luxury goods sales in the city are estimated to have dropped by somewhere between 30 and 50 per cent in the first half of this year.
JLL says retail rental rates fell by about 5.8 per cent in the first half of this year, compared to the end of 2014. The capital value of retail real estate fell by 6.6 per cent.
The company expects that trend to continue in the second half of this year.
The picture is far worse for the residential sector. JLL predicts a “mild correction” of five per cent in the third quarter, with a possibility of a growth in the fourth quarter when new apartment complexes are released.
“Most of the corrections have been reflected already so for the remaining half of the year, the correction would only be about five per cent,” JLL head of residential Jeff Wong Chi Wai said.
After that growth will return given the projects in the current pipeline will create an estimated 60,000 jobs. In a city with near zero unemployment, that means an influx of overseas foreign workers, all of whom need somewhere to live.
JLL said  in the first quarter of 2015, retail sales of watches, clocks and jewellery fell by 30.5 per cent year on year, according to figures from the DSEC. Total retail sales dropped 11 per cent to MOP16.4 billion in the first quarter.