Property Agents occupying precious retail space

[TheDevil_666]

I've always been perplexed to see so many property agents occupying precious retail space all around HK. On some streets it just seems that there is a loop of them.....Centaline-Midland-Ricacorp....wash rinse repeat type of thing.

It baffles me why would they pay that kind of rent when they can easily work out of an office. Shouldnt these scarce retail spaces be used by businesses that can better serve the community?

[Cheeky Kiwi]

LOL

businesses that can better serve the community do not make money and therefore cannot pay the rent to occupy those scarce retail spaces

[shri]

LOL

businesses that can better serve the community do not make money and therefore cannot pay the rent to occupy those scarce retail spaces

Radical thought .. can these businesses which serve the community rent a digital display out to these estate agents and people can browse their listings / ads and press a button and be connected to a real agent digitally to enquire?

An agent could even watch who is reading / browsing these digital displays and yell at them... "Are you interested in buying or renting? No?? DLLM! PLEASE FUCK OFF..."

Would be win win ...

[ndt]

It baffles me why would they pay that kind of rent when they can easily work out of an office.

Developer cartel (hereinafter called D-Gang), Property Agent Nexus (hereinafter called PA-Gang) are an echo system to scratch each other's back.. D-gang provides hefty commissions to PA-gang to rent a place in prime locations to buy maximum in-your-face visibility, in return PA-gang work as PR, create demand and more importantly FOMO to push price upwards for new development.. Imagine all these scumbags surviving on paltry number of secondary transactions and 1% commission or without 3-4% kickback from D-gang on even less number of primary transactions..

Lets not forget our benevolent Govt also helped them generously during difficult times in last couple of years with hundreds of millions of dollars to rent high street places..

[shri]

@ndt - you're doing well to channel my inner-conspiracy-theorist Welcome to the club.

[TheDevil_666]

LOL

businesses that can better serve the community do not make money and therefore cannot pay the rent to occupy those scarce retail spaces

By "serve the community" I mean shops/businesses that are of use to the consumer. Its not like we're buying apartments here like we'd be buying groceries....well most of us anyway.

All I see is a ridiculous loop of the same real estate agents. Why on earth does Centaline or whoever need to occupy 3 shops within a 1km radius? Although I understand that its market driven and if they can pay the rent then thats fine, but the rents are not cheap at ground floor level. Why cant they just go to an office? Surely this retail space could be put to better use.

[aw451]

By "serve the community" I mean shops/businesses that are of use to the consumer. Its not like we're buying apartments here like we'd be buying groceries....well most of us anyway.

All I see is a ridiculous loop of the same real estate agents. Why on earth does Centaline or whoever need to occupy 3 shops within a 1km radius? Although I understand that its market driven and if they can pay the rent then thats fine, but the rents are not cheap at ground floor level. Why cant they just go to an office? Surely this retail space could be put to better use.

If Centaline isn't on G/f, someone else will and they will take all the landlords and renters / buyers because both sides benefit from the visibility.

[TheDevil_666]

If Centaline isn't on G/f, someone else will and they will take all the landlords and renters / buyers because both sides benefit from the visibility.

The aspect of visibility is redundant these days with mobile apps and online searches.

[aw451]

The aspect of visibility is redundant these days with mobile apps and online searches.

There's less incentive to digitise because it causes their business to become commoditised. Centaline lists on the major platforms but only after they have failed to move the property in their stores.