Chart of the Day: Retail space supply to shrink in 2020-2021

Supply in the pipeline will go below the three-year average of 1 million sqft.

This chart from Edmund Tie & Co. shows that the supply pipeline for retail property from 2019 until 2022 will remain limited, totalling to only 692,000 sqft net lettable area for the four periods combined.

The supply in the pipeline for the next three years is well-below the past three-year average of 1 million sqft, and the past five-year annual average supply of 1.2 million sqft.

Fresh supply of space would only come with the 80,000 sqft China Square Central retail podium that will be completed by Q4.

In the past quarters, net absorption and supply rose significantly, largely underpinned by the opening of Jewel Changi Airport and Funan in Q2 and PLQ Mall in Q3. Totalling more than 1 million sqft of retail space, these new malls were more than 90% pre-leased. In a quarterly basis, occupancy rates edged up by 1.1 ppt to 91.2%.