URA offers 6 months’ rent waiver to businesses struggling to stay afloat

Businesses operating in Urban Renewal Authority (URA) properties that have been struggling to stay afloat amid the fifth wave of coronavirus infections could have rents waived for six months under a HK$57 million programme.

Relief will be offered to gyms, beauty salons, barber shops and other commercial premises that were forced to temporarily shut under anti-epidemic measures.

Restaurants will also be able to forgo paying rent if the amount makes up a quarter of turnover for a particular month, while most other shop operators will receive rent cuts of up to 75 per cent.

URA managing director Wai Chi-sing outlined the measures for its commercial and residential tenants in a blog post yesterday. Rent relief since April 2020 would now rise to a total of HK$200 million, Wai wrote.

The programme is part of the authority’s efforts to partake in the government’s anti-pandemic campaign. The URA has offered 56 flats in its rehousing blocks and acquired properties as quarantine facilities for family members of its infected tenants.

It has also arranged for contractors to spray antivirus coatings in 50 of its rehousing blocks and buildings set for redevelopment.

Wai said rent concessions were an effective way to help commercial tenants. URA research showed many would break even as a result of the relief, with some even able to “make a little profit”.

“With the discount, the rents in general take up about 10 per cent of the tenants’ monthly turnover,” Wai wrote. “This can significantly ease the operational pressure [on commercial tenants] and in turn help safeguard jobs.”

Unlike previous rounds of rent relief, Wai said the latest measure would last six months from April and be more targeted. Instead of offering a 75 per cent cut in rental payments for all tenants, Wai said the authority hoped to assist those who had been hit the hardest.

Citing restaurants, he said: “Under the government’s anti-epidemic measures, these tenants cannot offer evening dine-in service, and can only sit two people per table. Some of them are temporarily closed because their staff have contracted the virus. Business is frozen.

“Gyms, beauty salons, barber shops and other scheduled premises have had to remain closed since mid-February and they are not expected to reopen until midApril. These businesses are facing the difficulties of having zero income,” Wai wrote.

But he noted that some shops were less affected by the surge in infections, referring to supermarkets, pharmacies and stores that sold masks as examples.

Wai said the authority would review the financial situation of such businesses on a case-by-case basis to determine how much rent relief they would receive.

About 400 domestic tenants in the authority’s rehousing blocks and its acquired properties will continue to receive a 75 per cent rent cut for the next six months.