Harbour City parent Wharf is optimistic Hong Kong’s retail tide has turned, after sales inched up in last quarter.

Wharf’s chairman and MD Stephen Ng Tin-hoi said retail tenants’ reported sales at both Times Square and Harbour City had stabilised, recording a “small increase” in the first quarter.

“We have received positive sales feedback from our tenants in April. It reflects our performance is better than the overall retail market,” he said in a briefing. But he did not disclose actual figures.

Along with an increase in foot traffic in the two centres, sales of luxury goods had improved. But he said it was too early to tell conclusively if the two-year long decimation of the luxury sector had ended.

As reported on by Inside Retail Hong Kong last Friday, Hong Kong retail sales rose for the first time in two years in March, running 3.1 per cent ahead of the same month last year.

According to Wharf’s 2016 financial statements, sales by tenants of Harbour City fell 9.9 per cent last financial year, and across the water at Times Square, by 11 per cent.