SINGAPORE (Mar 2): The Restaurant Association of Singapore (RAS) yesterday announced its disappointment in landlords’ inertia to deliver on rental rebates.
On Feb 13, RAS held a press conference to share industry-wide information on the impact Covid-19 and the measure needed to be put in place to tide F&B outlets over and to safeguard the livelihood of their employees and help save jobs.
Following this appeal, several landlords in the commercial sector publicly announced various relief packages including rental rebates, to help their tenants.
However, five weeks following the confirmation of Singapore’s first case of Covid-19, many F&B outlets have yet to receive any offers or confirmation of rental rebates from these landlords.
Apart from Jewel Changi, Changi Airport Group, JTC and NParks, who have sent written notices on rental rebates to their tenants, all other landlords and mall owners have been slow to react to the appeals of their F&B tenants, according to RAS.
The association gave CapitaLand as an example in its release, saying that CapitaLand had promised rental rebates of 50% for their restaurant tenants, but this has yet to be fulfilled.
To recap, CapitaLand on Feb 24 announced that it met up with RAS and Singapore Retailers Association (SRA) on Feb 21, with Enterprise Singapore (ESG) facilitating the dialogue.
At the dialogue session, CapitaLand provided more details of the comprehensive support package it has drawn up for its mall tenants, which was announced in statements issued previously. These initiatives are on top of the 15% property tax rebate granted by the Government under Budget 2020.
Some of the previously initiatives mentioned include offering mall tenants the flexibility to operate shorter store hours, a $10 million marketing assistance programme to fund retailer-driven and mall-wide promotional activities, passing on full savings of the government’s property tax rebate for qualifying commercial properties to its tenants, as well as offering relevant training programmes under its signature Biz+ Series of tenant engagement events.
Since the Covid-19 has impacted different malls and trades in varying degrees, CapitaLand said that rental relied will be disbursed in a “targeted manner”. The group will offer various forms of support which may include flexible rental payments and a one-time rental rebate of up to half-a-month for eligible tenants.
CapitaLand added that in effort to ease cashflows for all its mall tenants, it will release one month security deposit to offset rental payments for the month of March.
However, RAS checked with various F&B operators, representing some 500 outlets and established that a number of restaurateurs operating in CapitaLand’s handful of urban malls have only been offered 10% rebates instead. But in CapitaLand’s Clarke Quay property, tenants were offered a 15% rebate.
As for the s sub-urban malls, which form the bulk of its portfolio of shopping malls, no rental rebates have been granted.
RAS’ Executive and Management Committee members confirmed that of those who have been notified by Capitaland, all of them have received the same 10% rebate for urban malls and a 15% rebate for their Clarke Quay tenancies, without any exception.
Edwin Fong, executive director and RAS spokesperson says, “We are deeply disappointed in the landlords’ lack of follow through in spite of public announcements of support for the industry during this crisis. Many of the F&B outlets, especially those run by smaller operators, have an urgent need for assistance to alleviate their cash flow situation and mitigate the uncertainties they face in the current climate brought on by Covid-19.”
Nonetheless, Fong says he remains hopeful that landlord will honour their word to support tenants. “The landlords need to fulfil their role as partners in helping the F&B industry save jobs and secure the livelihood of our employees,” he adds.
The Edge Singapore reached out to CapitaLand to comment on the situation.
CapitaLand said that it remains committed to implement the support package for our shopping mall tenants in Singapore, as previously announced. But the group said that it is unfortunate that the entire relief package has not been fully comprehended by RAS, despite its ongoing engagements.
The group reiterated that the Covid-19 has impacted different malls and trade categories by varying degrees, hence rental relief will be disbursed to tenants in a targeted manner. CapitaLand will then offer various forms of support which may include flexible rental payments and a one-time rental rebate of up to half-a-month for eligible tenants.
The group is currently in process of reviewing its portfolio of 3,500 leases and assures that tenants do not have to worry about their rents for March 2020. Rents for March 2020 will be offset against a month of their security deposits.
“Communication with individual tenants on their relief package is ongoing. As an interim relief, we have granted rental rebates of 20% to 30% over two months to eligible tenants in our downtown malls, which have been more affected by Covid-19. We aim to complete reviewing all our leases by this month. By which time, tenants will be informed of their respective rental relief packages,” said Jason Leow, President, Singapore & International, CapitaLand Group.
“We will continue to engage our tenants closely and stand prepared to do more should the situation require. Our various promotions since Feb 14 have shown positive results in bringing customers back to our malls. We will continue to monitor the situation closely and help our tenants to do more sales, while implementing rental relief measures to ease their cashflows,” Leow adds.
