Former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying has challenged landlords to “adjust their mentality” over rental yields as he renewed his call for price cuts to stem a 40-year-high vacancy rate for commercial properties from rising further amid a slackening economy.

Leung, now a top political adviser to the country, also warned that landlords would be harmed in the end if they refused to budge on lowering rents.

“It is sheer self-delusion if landlords think they can get the rent level they want by leaving the premises vacant and waiting [instead of cutting the rents],” Leung said on Saturday.

Leung, now a vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and state leader, weighed in on the debate over Hong Kong’s commercial rents last week after a government report showed that, by the end of 2024, the total vacant floor area of private commercial buildings had reached 1.4 million square metres.

The empty space represented a vacancy rate of 11.8 per cent – a record high for the past 40 years.

The economic slowdown has also resulted in a string of high-profile shutdowns of established restaurants in recent months, with some citing high rents as a reason.