\n<\/p>\n
For budding retailers hoping to establish a presence in malls, the \u201crisk-managed\u201d approach can feel like a competitive disadvantage.<\/p>\n
In Mr Clement Low\u2019s seven years in the F&B industry, he has seen his fair share of turnover of neighbouring tenants.<\/p>\n
Mr Low is the marketing and business development manager of The Whale Tea, a bubble tea brand that started as a franchise from China in 2019 but now operates independently.<\/p>\n
The Whale Tea has nine outlets across Singapore, mostly in malls. At tenancy renewal, rent increases can range from 4 per cent to 7 per cent, which Mr Low considers reasonable. However, he has also encountered rent increments of 20 per cent to 30 per cent.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of retailers or business owners, they couldn’t continue \u2026 because it’s not doable anymore,\u201d he said, pointing to rising operational costs, including manpower and materials.<\/p>\n
By contrast, there are some well-established brands from China that have deeper pockets and can take more risks, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of them, they run the business here, they are not even making a profit yet, but they just keep dumping money just to build a brand \u2026 they just want the market share,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot afford to do that. So every single one of the shops that we open, we must make sure that it’s profitable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Developers stressed that rent is not always the deciding factor when picking tenants.<\/p>\n
CapitaLand\u2019s Mr Yeo said it is more important for them to think of the overall trade mix.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy does the \u2018evil REIT\u2019 have bookstores which don’t pay high rent? Because you manage the portfolio, so paradoxically, maximising the value of the property does not mean maximising the value of every single unit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For example, having a bookstore in a mall can bring footfall during off-peak hours. The vibe and energy it creates justifies the higher rent of other tenants, which then makes up for the bookstore\u2019s lower rent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s how we think about trade mix. Honestly, it’s very seldom who can pay the highest rent,\u201d he said, adding that that factor is only considered when deciding between a few similar brands that fall under the same category.<\/p>\n
\u201cOtherwise it’ll all be gold shops, EVs, massage shops,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Yeo said pulling together a good trade mix is like having a good plate of economy rice. There are the staples \u2013 supermarkets, foodcourts \u2013 but also a little something special. In a mall\u2019s case, that means independent and niche brands.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to have those staples, because if your whole mall is very niche, small tenants, it’s also difficult to survive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
A mall can have 200 to 300 tenants. \u201cA percentage of that will definitely have to be your utilitarian ones,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
SMALL BUSINESSES PRICED OUT? For budding retailers hoping to establish a presence in malls, the \u201crisk-managed\u201d approach can feel like a competitive disadvantage. In Mr…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--kdhRG4Ac--\/c_crop,h_898,w_1598,x_1,y_114\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/06\/15\/shopping-malls-singapore-quiet-empty-low-traffic-gfx-cna-in-focus.png?itok=nYdot7Kv","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2051,12685,22],"class_list":["post-61322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-focus","tag-malls","tag-singapore","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/61323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}