HIGH-END RETAIL PROPERTIES FACE POOR DEMAND

       The global downturn has sent retail rents plunging on some of the world's most famous shopping streets, a study by global real estate group Cushman and Wakefield released recently showed.
       Prime rents on more than half of 274big-name streets have fallen in the past 12 montjhs, said the report, which surveyed such storied venuses as Fifth Avenue in New York, the Champs-Elysees in Paris and Hong Kong's Causeway Bay. The agency said the decline in rents was the largest ever recorded in the study's 24-year-old history.
       "The last 12 months have been one of the most difficult periods ever for the retail sector, with consumer spending and retail sales down in many markets," said John Strachan, global head of retail at Cushman. "In the previous 12-monjths period global retail markets appeared to be fairly resilient, but more significants as the full impact of the downturn has been realised."
       But he added that "the worst is almost certainly now behind us."
       Fifth Avenue retained its number one rating as the world's most expensive street, where retailers pay US$1,700 (Bt57,000) per square foot a year, a decline of 8.1 [er cent from 2008. Causeway Bay was the second most expensive steet land the Champs Elysees the third.
       Sao Paulo's Alameda Lorena saw the largest gain in retail rents, up 111 per cent from 2008. The sharpest fall was on Colaba Causeway in Mumbai, where retail rents declined 63.5 per cent.

       The decline in rents was the largest ever recorded in the study's 24-year history.