Hong Kong’s soon-to-be-completed shopping centre development The Lohas mall is having significant troubles in attracting tenants following months of unrest in the region.

A South China Morning Post report said that the 480,000sqft mall’s developer MTR Corporation has struggled to find retailers willing to commit to long-term leases in time for its opening later this year, with only half of available tenancies taken up so far – despite being a long-awaited feature of Hong Kong’s largest residential enclave.

“Many executives in the retail and catering sectors are quite conservative when it comes to opening up new shops, which has delayed our plans for tenant sign-ups,” The Lohas property director David Tang Chi-fai told the SCMP. “The progress is not in line with our targets.”

Hong Kong retail has been doubly hit by last year’s protests and this year’s coronavirus outbreak, which has decimated the numbers of wealthy Chinese tourists visiting the territory to 1.5 per cent of last year’s figures. Retail sales levels for January were 24.1 per cent below last year.

The MTR Corporation is currently considering offering further concessions to retailers if the situation does not improve shortly.