In view of the ongoing impact brought by COVID-19 pandemic to the economy of Hong Kong, the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) announces today (27 September 2021) to further extend the rent relief for its domestic and commercial tenants in its properties for another six months, from October 2021 until the end of March 2022, in a bid to assist the URA’s tenants in the face of current economic challenges amid the pandemic to sustain their businesses and support employment.

The URA’s rent relief measures have been in place since April 2020, with the amount of rent concession to date exceeding $120 million.  In the recent rent relief period from April to September this year, URA’s tenants were encouraged to contribute a portion of their rental savings for charity or other community causes.  As of end-August, their contributions have benefitted over 13 charity organisations, covering welfare agencies and community initiatives ranging from medical services, child welfare and learning support, on-the-job training for people with disabilities, free meals for the elderly, recycling projects, to animal protection, embracing the spirit of riding out the difficult times together.

The new round of rent relief will continue to benefit tenants from a wide range of trades including food and beverages, retail, services, education and social enterprise with details as follows:

• 75% rent relief for over 440 domestic and commercial tenants in the rehousing blocks and the acquired properties within the URA’s redevelopment projects.
• 75% rent relief for commercial tenants operating in the commercial portions of redevelopment, preservation and revitalisation projects with tenancy agreements signed with the URA.  For those tenants whose businesses have not been affected by the pandemic, the URA will only consider offering a rent concession if they agree to contribute a portion of the rent concession to society for charity or other community causes (such as giving free meals to the low-income families).  Rent relief measures, however, will not be applicable to those tenants with tenancy agreements effective from January 2021, as the level of rent has already taken into consideration the prevailing market conditions.
• For the shopping malls¹ jointly operated by the URA and joint venture developers, the developers will review the tenants’ situation case by case.

Subject to the development of the pandemic and the impact on the domestic and commercial tenants in its projects, the URA will review the need for a further extension of the relief measures, if necessary, to help the tenants sustain their businesses.

(ENDS)