“Wuhan welcomed the opening of Wuchang MixC and Min Zhong Le Yuan in Q2/2024, which brought new retail landmarks and trendy commercial vitality. The city’s high-end retail landscape will continue to benefit from highquality supply such as Wuhan SKP to stimulate consumption needs.”

JAMES MACDONALD, SAVILLS RESEARCH



Developers keep lowering rent expectations.

• Wuchang MixC and Min Zhong Le Yuan opened in Q2/2024, bringing 294,000 sqm of new supply and pushing the total stock to 8.25 million sqm.

• The market proactively looked for new growth. Domestic trendy retail brands have sprung up. F&B sector enriched its diversity by introducing restaurants with regional characteristics. Meanwhile, the services sector has seen specific growth with hair care and indoor entertainment tenants emerging.

• Driven by newly-opened projects, leasing activity in the market performed well. The citywide vacancy rate edged down 0.3 ppts QoQ and fell 2.4 ppts YoY to 10.4%.

• Fast fashion and foreign cosmetics sectors continued shrinking. Mjstyle, Whoo and Innisfree closed several stores in the quarter. Competition intensified in the beverage sector. Specialty coffee %Arabica and Costa downsized stores. Training and education sector was still under pressure; YMM Art Education and Rise Education withdrew many stores.

• Developers kept lowering rent expectations to attract ideal tenants. The shopping mall ground-floor rents declined 0.5% QoQ and 0.9% YoY to an average of RMB 339.9 psm pmth by Q2/2024.

• Looking ahead to the rest of 2024, Wuhan’s retail property market will introduce a series of quality projects including Wuhan SKP, which may bring commercial vitality and intensified competition as well.