Suburban malls need to watch out for ageing population, lure of shopping across the Causeway

SUBURBAN malls here are an extremely resilient property asset class. Many of these malls recovered well from the Covd-19 pandemic, with strong occupancy levels and rental rates.

Investor appetite for suburban malls, which are limited in supply, is strong. Earlier this year, Allgreen Properties bought The Seletar Mall, located in Sengkang, for S$550 million or about S$2,900 per square foot (psf) of net lettable area (NLA) – over 14 per cent higher than the property’s end-August 2021 valuation.

Recently, Frasers Property Limited (FPL) reported an 82 per cent year on year drop in net profit for the half-year ended Mar 31 on the back of non-cash unrealised fair-value losses and impairment on some of its commercial properties in the UK and Australia, as well as lower residential contributions from Singapore and Thailand.