Hong Kong’s retail property market is bracing for turbulent times as a street front shop in the world’s most expensive shopping district was sold at a 73% loss.

According to Land Registry records cited by the Hong Kong Economic Times, the 244 square foot shop in Causeway Bay was sold for HK$5 million ($650,000) earlier this month, or around HK$20,500 per square foot.

That price was just over a quarter of the HK$18.74 million which the seller had paid to purchase the bedroom-sized property from Chinese Estates Holdings Limited seven years ago.

The discount sale came as a number of international retail chains have fled Hong Kong’s famously pricey retail strips in recent months as sales of luxury goods plummet in the face of closed borders and economic gloom.

Source: Mingtiandi