All for a Hong Kong address

This is one of the busiest and most crowded shopping districts in the world, with sky-high retail rents to match, but that has not stopped retailers from opening yet more stores in the city of 7 million, attracted by hordes of visiting consumers.

The latest arrival is Tommy Bahama, which joined the fray with the opening of a 4,000-square-foot store in the Wan Chai district, its first outlet in the city. Reports from the real estate services company CBRE last year ranked Hong Kong as the world’s most expensive place for prime real estate and office rents, and ECA International, which advises companies that post employees abroad, published a poll showing that Hong Kong was the most expensive place to rent high-end apartments. The cost of buying a home, likewise, has soared despite repeated efforts by the government to cool the market.