“Occupancy for both Downtown Core and Orchard are at 0.6ppt and 8.1ppt, respectively, below the average occupancy in 2019,” say the analysts. “Before the onset of the pandemic, the prime-suburban occupancy gap generally hovered below 2% across 2019, while the disparity in occupancy continued to be high at an average of 5.2% in 2022.”
The retail market in Singapore has had a “slow start to the year”, with occupancy across the island declining 1.4 percentage points (ppt) q-o-q to 91.2%, say DBS Group Research analysts, but a stronger recovery in prime central regions of downtown core and orchard in the coming quarters is anticipated.
In their May 19 report, analysts Derek Tan, Dale Lai, Rachel Tan and Geraldine Wong say that while most regions across Singapore registered a q-o-q decline in tenant occupancy, Orchard saw the largest decline, retreating 6.0 ppt q-o-q, while suburban occupancy continues to stand at the highest at 96.4%.
