The number of shop transactions jumped to a 14-month high last month, according to property, although rents in core districts are still seeing a slower recovery.

Deals rose by 36 percent month on month to 106 in August, property agent said, citing consolidated data from the Land Registry.

The total value of the transactions stood at HK$1.74 billion in August, an increase of about 8.3 percent month on month.

Of these, shops valued at between HK$5 million and HK$10 million saw 17 deals, a month-on-month increase of about 1.4 times, and was the category with the highest rate of increase, a property agent said.

Shops valued at HK$10 million to HK$20 million saw 24 deals made in August, a month-on-month increase of about 71.4 percent.

However, the four core districts - Central, Causeway Bay, Mong Kok, and Tsim Sha Tsui - saw only 11 deals, up by just two cases.

This came as a cosmetics retailer rented a 1,500-square-foot shop on Kai Chiu Road in Causeway Bay for HK$500,000 per month or HK$333 per square foot.

However, the rents were still more than 75 percent lower than at the peak when jewelry retailer Chow Tai Fook had paid about HK$2.3 million per month for the shop.

Meanwhile, a ground-floor shop in Mong Kok's Sincere Podium has recently been rented out by a cryptocurrency trading service provider for about HK$70,000 a month, or HK$299 per sq ft after being empty for more than three years.

The latest price was said to be a 50-percent drop from pre-Covid levels and an 80-percent plunge from its peak.

Also, a mainland gold jewelry retailer Lao Pu Gold recently rented a three-story mega-shop at Silvercord mall in Tsim Sha Tsui.

The shop offers a total area of 10,140 sq ft, and the retailer is paying HK$1.5 million per month, or HK$150 per sq ft.

Its previous tenants include British luxury fashion brand Burberry, which had started out renting the place in 2011 for HK$5.5 million a month and renewing its lease in 2014 for a record HK$6.5 million per month.

That meant Lao Pu Gold is renting the place at 70 percent below peak rental values.

Property agent, said Hong Kong's economy and pillar industries had not yet recovered to pre-pandemic peaks as a result of a falloff in spending power and the workforce due to a wave of emigration in recent years.

The SAR government should announce more measures to stimulate the real estate sector in the upcoming policy address next month, Leung said.

In the face of the recent trend of Hong Kong residents going to Shenzhen to spend money, the SAR government should, in the long run, follow out northern neighbor's example by increasing supply of large-scale shopping centers and attracting quality commercial tenants from all over the world to start operating in Hong Kong, thereby diversifying the mix of commercial tenants in Hong Kong and providing the public and tourists with a wider range of consumption experience, Leung said.

It could, he added, also lower the threshold for entering and investing in the commercial market.