SG property market (all sectors)

[JR8]

In this case the retail sector.

Savills Retail Sector Briefing - Q1/15 (published today). ->
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"Affected by externalities and policies which are beyond their control, established retailers who are flummoxed over how to curb the slide in retail sales in the Orchard Road shopping district are doing the next best thing, which is to go into suburban malls."
Alan Cheong, Savills Research

Key findings:

• International tourist arrivals in January and February fell 5.5% year-on-year (YoY). Despite this, retail sales (excluding motor vehicles) increased 14.8% YoY in February. This is largely due to the seasonally-heightened domestic spending pre-Chinese New Year, which fell in February this year.

• Notwithstanding the positive retail sales performance in Q1/2015, prime retail rents in Orchard Road dipped 2.0% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to S$32.2 per sq ft per month, while suburban malls held firm at S$31.1 per sq ft per month.

• The end of this quarter saw the soft opening of Capitol Piazza in the City Hall area, bringing in many new-to-market brands.

• In the Orchard area and CBD, malls expected to complete this year are 268 Orchard Road, National Gallery Singapore and South Beach Tower. In the suburbs, Waterway Point at Punggol will be completed in Q4/2015.

• Due to scant new supply coming up, vacancy in the Orchard Road district is likely to remain low.

• Rents may stay flat due to pressures from rising labour costs and tepid tourist spending. Orchard rents are likely to hover at Q1/2015 levels, but with a slight downward bias, whilst suburban mall rents are likely to hold firm.

You can visit the research website here. '
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The research website, with full reports etc, is here ... http://www.savills.com.sg/research/retail-research.aspx

[Primrose Hill]

Residential properties - HDB/private etc

[Barnsley]

Have they been out to the suburban malls....

Shops are opening and closing faster than you wouldnt believe.

A lot of shops are in Orchard Road for show ..... Now folk have travelled more , they realise that there is no point paying a premium just to buy something there. Its cheaper to fly somewhere else and buy it.

I am not really au fait with the business of renting , but why do the "owners" jack up the rents , what are their costs that rise so high so fast?

[sundaymorningstaple]

Coe prices. Gotta be able to afford the COEs.

[JR8]

Residential properties - HDB/private etc

You have the link

[JR8]

I am not really au fait with the business of renting , but why do the "owners" jack up the rents , what are their costs that rise so high so fast?

It's supply vs demand. But out here you have to add in the local stubborn opportunism.

'Rather hike rent 20% and face 2 year void, than leave rent alone and keep good tenant in place'.

Perverse, but how it is here.

[Strong Eagle]

SGD 32 dollars per square foot per MONTH? It's insane. Prime retail space in Houston rents for USD 16 to 20 per square foot per YEAR!

The crash is going to come. Restaurants with limited margins are already leaving... watch as the others go.

[Barnsley]

Orchard Gateway .....
From The Number one news portal ...

"Orchard Road's newest mall has been open for only a year, but the shutters have already come down on at least five shops.

Tenants at Orchard Gateway who spoke to The Straits Times last week said footfall and business have been poor, with some businesses reporting no sales on weekdays .

Orchard Gateway has two diagonally facing buildings on either side of Orchard Road, connected by a glass bridge and an underpass.

The larger 21-storey building, with six retail floors, also houses a hotel and library. It is in a prime spot in Somerset, wedged between Orchard Central and 313@Somerset.

But it is this location that may be the cause of its problems.

Retailers say the mall's layout, insufficient signs and poor marketing efforts have led to shoppers bypassing the mall or mistaking it as part of Orchard Central, despite direct access to Somerset MRT Station.

Said Ray Lee, 40, owner of clothing store The Little Flower At The End Of The Rainbow: "Signs and posters on the pillars to indicate where the mall is were only put up only after we (tenants) requested them.

"It is also puzzling that the information counter is on the fourth floor, which does not help lost customers much."

Tenants said the mall's fashion shops are not immediately visible to shoppers entering via the street-level passageway from 313@Somerset, resulting in them turning left towards Orchard Central instead.

Said public relations and communications officer Jon Lim, 28: "I can't (tell) whether I'm at Orchard Gateway or Orchard Central, and I don't know which shops are specific to Gateway nor if they are worth going to."

When The Straits Times visited the mall last week, there were only a handful of people browsing in the shops, visibly fewer compared with the two other malls.

"There are days when I don't sell anything at all," said Joanna Johnston, 54, owner of clothing store Anna Rainn.

Like a number of other tenants, she has asked the management for rental rebates. The Straits Times understands that some have received rebates of varying amounts.

Savills Singapore, the mall's property manager and leasing adviser, said the mall is considering mutual pre-termination agreements with a few tenants as part of an ongoing "tenant mix review".

It added that it will work with the 115 tenants to boost shopper traffic. This will include exhibitions and performances at the mall, and joint promotional activities with 313@Somerset and Orchard Central.

Location signs have also been installed at strategic locations in the three malls to help shoppers navigate, added Savills Singapore.

Said Ong Kah Seng, director of property consultancy R'ST Research: "The mall could differentiate itself by playing up its library and hotel connection, such as adding "geek corners" or giving special discounts to hotel guests."
"