CapitaLand says traffic at Singapore malls almost back to normal

Singapore

CUSTOMERS are once again going shopping, with foot traffic - especially in the suburban malls - almost back to normal, said Lee Chee Koon, CapitaLand group chief executive on Wednesday.

It is now about 5 per cent down from before the Covid-19 outbreak, he said at the company's Q4 results briefing.

When Singapore raised the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (Dorscon) level on Feb 7 from yellow to orange amid indications that the disease was spreading in the community, foot traffic dropped by 50 per cent, said Jason Leow, CapitaLand president, Singapore & International.

Two weekends ago on Valentine's Day, people found difficulty in booking restaurants.

Last weekend on Feb 22, foot traffic had gone back up to about 95 per cent, said Mr Leow.

While there is some impact from the Covid-19 outbreak on its lodgings business in Singapore, this has been mitigated by two factors - its customers are corporate and their stay is longer, said Kevin Goh, The Ascott Ltd chief executive. Its lodgings business is slightly less affected than hotels as a whole, he added.

The group's lodging business under Ascott owns and manages close to 114,000 units, comprising about 69,500 operational units and 44,500 units under development.

Elasticity of demand by corporate travellers is tighter than leisure travellers, he said.

In Singapore, the occupancy at Ascott Orchard is about 70 per cent.

In China, things are also improving, Mr Lee said. This morning, he was told there were massive traffic jams in Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Lodgings occupancy in China's Tier 1 cities is about 70 per cent while it is 40 per cent in Tier 2 cities, said Mr Goh.

The group's office and business parks in China have opened since Feb 17, said Lucas Loh, CapitaLand China president. About 70 per cent of companies have reopened, though only about half of their staff are back at work, he said. This is also similar to CapitaLand's own China staff where its offices are operating at half strength.

In China, life is progressively going back to normal, and most of the group malls cater to local demand, he said. So he expects shopper traffic to bounce back more quickly as it depends less on foreign traffic.

As of now, 12 of its malls in China are still closed under government directive.

The group has 51 malls in China, some of which are under development.