Coming back from the dead: Do People’s Park Complex, Far East Shopping Centre and other strata-titled malls have a chance?

THEY are among some of the most iconic malls along Orchard Road and were the first shopping centres established in their neighbourhoods. 

Some, such as People’s Park Complex, were lauded as Modernist masterpieces while others delighted Singaporeans with their high-tech features, such as Far East Shopping Centre’s escalators at a time when these were a novelty.

They are Singapore’s strata malls, in which the units belong to different landlords, who may then lease them out. This fragmented type of ownership stands in contrast to malls that are owned and managed by single entities, such as a real estate investment trust (Reit) or a property company.