, Columnist
Why Investors Love Singapore’s Struggling Malls
Vacancy rates are high, rents are depressed and online retailers are hollowing them out. It’s a paradox.
Ignore the missing shoppers, just feel the yield.
Photographer: Wei Leng Tay/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Singaporeans aren’t spending like they used to, at least not in shopping malls. There are too many already and more are being built. But investors still have good reasons to back mall owners.
The city-state has 6.1 million square meters of retail space, of which 8.7 percent is vacant. Yet companies are forecast to add a further 364,000 square meters, with the biggest chunk hitting the market this year. This is when online shopping is catching on, retailers such as Crabtree and Evelyn are closing physical stores, and rents are scraping the bottom.