Mainland China’s retail and retail property sectors have suffered another blow amid a fresh wave of store closures by foreign and Hong Kong brands, reports the South China Morning Post. High-profile closures include Lane Crawford, Ikea, Triumph, Zara and Zara Home.
Multinational furniture retailer Ikea said seven mainland stores would cease operations from February 2. As of December 31, German lingerie maker Triumph Group International had closed all of its bricks-and-mortar stores on the mainland. Spanish retailer Zara Home closed its last two stores in Changsha and Hangzhou, in June and July 2025, respectively. Its sister company, fast-fashion retailer Zara, last year shut down more than 10 mainland stores, mostly in second-tier cities, following store closures in previous years. Still, Zara opened some large-scale stores at prime locations in cities like Shanghai.
The average vacancy rate of premium shopping centres in Beijing edged up again by the end of the third quarter in 2025, when it rose 1.6 percentage points quarter on quarter to 8.6%. That was affected by factors such as the launch of new projects, according to property consultancy Savills. Over the same quarter, the average rent of premium retail properties in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen fell 2.4% quarter on quarter, according to data from real estate services firm JLL.