Ample floor plates and strong local demand a great push for department & fast fashion
In the quarter under review, Orchard Road saw renowned department store Robinsons announcing its intended move into The Heeren. The department store will take up over 150,000 sq ft, spanning five floors and a basement in 2013. The Heeren will be gutted out to make space for Robinsons. Marks & Spencers also doubled its size at Wheelock Place, taking up 30,000 sf of space. Uniqlo is establishing its first largest and first streelevel store in Singapore in Bugis+, formerly known as Illuma. As announced, H&M and another major international fashion retailer will take up close to 20,000 sf and 22,000 sf of space in Suntec City shopping mall respectively when it completes its asset enhancement exercise in 2Q13.
Letty Lee, Director, Retail Services said “The regional malls provide a blank canvas for landlords to cater to large anchors. There is limited flexibility for large department stores to move around Orchard Road.”
Flexibility arising from new regional malls also appear to be favourable in carving out space for large anchor and mini anchor stores. Jem will feature a spectrum of major tenants the likes of Robinsons (85,000 sf), Marks & Spencers (32,000 sf), Courts (20,000 sf), Uniqlo (17,000 sf) and H&M (19,000 sf).
The availability of ample new retail space has also allowed the opportunity for several fashion labels to either expand their presence in Singapore with a South East Asia flagship status or to establish their first standalone stores. Notable ones include Coach in Wisma Atria (4,600 sf), Tory Burch, new to Singapore at Wisma Atria (2,500 sf), Tommy Bahama, (1,900 sf at Wisma Atria), Fendi, (2,200 sf at Ngee Ann City), and Lindeberg, (1,200 sf , new to Singapore at Mandarin Gallery.)
In CBRE’s 2012 edition of “How Global is the Business of Retail”, Singapore was reported to be the most targeted market in Asia for European retailers, with 39.9 per cent of European brands present here. The proportion of top retailers being represented in Singapore has increased slightly from 38.5 per cent from the year before.
Bugis+ is the one of the only two incoming supply in this quarter. This is the rebranding and AEI of Illuma by CapitaLand. Targeted to complete by July 2012, more than 90 per cent of their tenants in Levels 1 & 2 have already began operations in June. The other retail supply expected to come on stream by end June 2012 will be 100AM which is reportedly 70 per cent pre-let.
Despite the flurry of leasing activities in the market, landlords remained cautious. Average rents tracked by CBRE across all sub-markets remained stable with the prime Orchard Road and prime Suburban rents maintaining at $31.60 psf/month and $29.75 psf/month respectively in the second quarter of this year. On a y-on-y basis,the average rents for both sub-markets grew by 5.0 per cent and 2.2 per cent respectively.
Singapore’s retail market continued to display resilience alongside risks over the eurozone crisis. The tourism industry reported an 18 per cent and eight per cent y-o-y growth in tourism receipts and visitor arrivals for 2011. Based on the MasterCard Index of Global Destination Cities, Singapore was ranked fourth in visitor arrivals and fifth in tourist spending amongst 132 international cities. According to the Singapore Tourism Board, Asia remained a strong visitor source market for 2011 with a contribution of 76 per cent.
Based on the 1Q 12’s GDP performance, it was also reported that the accommodation & food services and other services industries (which include arts, entertainment and recreation activities) grew by 4.0 per cent and 5.1 per cent y-o-y respectively. Coupled with robust domestic consumption, retail sales managed to continue growing at 2.2 per cent y-o-y in April 2012. Top performing sectors y-o-y includes telecommunications apparatus & computers (14.7 per cent), medical goods & toiletries (8.8 per cent), furniture and household equipment (4.4 per cent) and supermarkets (4.4 per cent). The sales of food & beverage services also went up 5.5 per cent y-o-y.
In addition, the availability of new retail supply arising from refurbishments and new completions has also been a catalyst for several new market entrants beginning their ventures here. The recently opened JCube has managed to attract international fashion brands like American Baby Phat, Swiss Tally Weijl and Spanish Shana to suburban Jurong.
Looking ahead, the Singapore retail market is expected to continue to attract new retailers and concepts as it matures through globalization. Supported by both tourism and domestic spending, the market is expected to remain stable for the next six to 12 months.
Disclaimer:
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