Tenant sales in CICT’s downtown malls reach pre-pandemic levels of 85%

UOB Kay Hian said tenant sales will enhance further this year.

Tenant sales of CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust’s (CICT) downtown malls reached pre-pandemic levels of 85% in December 2021.

In 2022, UOB Kay Hian said CICT’s tenant sales, along with shopper traffic, in its downtown malls, will be enhanced further given the return of the office crowd.

In a report, the analyst said physical occupancy at office buildings has already improved to 50% in January.

Apart from the return of office workers, CICT also cited that tenant sales in downtown malls have reached pre-pandemic levels of 85% in December 2021.

CICT has also been improving its retail spaces, recording an occupancy rate of 96.8% in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2021, which is 0.4 percentage points higher than the quarter prior. It granted fewer rental waivers of $8.4m to retail tenants in the second half of 2022.

Amongst its plans include the reconfiguration of the 111,000 square feet of retail space at Raffles City Singapore (RCS) into smaller units for speciality retail and large format stores targeted to be completed by Q4 2022. It also entered into an agreement to divest JCube, a leisure and edutainment mall located in Jurong Lake District, for $340m.

Meanwhile, the analyst said it also sees improvement in the trust’s office portfolio, saying Capital Tower and Six Battery Road will likely recover back above 90% after securing new tenants in the first quarter of 2022 with the return of the office crowd.

In a move to improve its office portfolio, the trust acquired two trusts that hold 66 Goulburn Street and 100 Arthur Street located in Sydney, Australia with an agreed property value at $672m (A$672m).