Demand for Orchard Road retail space heats up in spite of sales lag: Savills

New international brands are setting up shop here.

Despite the decline in overall retail sales for the second quarter, vacancy rates in the country’s shopping capital fell from 7.8% to 7.4% in the same period.

According to a report by Savills, the demand for retail space on Orchard Road remained strong in Q2, as new-to-market brands such as Pudu and Spanish Doughnuts have set up their first Singapore stores.

Other stores include Yves Rocher, which opened its flagship store at Ngee Ann City. Sony has also recently opened a 10,000-sq ft flagship store, its largest in Southeast Asia, at 313 Somerset.

Here’s more from Savills:

Meanwhile, over in the CBD, One Raffles Place reopened for business on 29 May 2014 after a major refurbishment exercise.

With a net lettable area of about 98,500 sq ft spread over six storeys, the shopping mall has a committed occupancy of over 90.0%, featuring brands such as H&M, Uniqlo, Victoria’s Secret and others.

Despite the high occupancy rate of the mall, the Downtown Core’s vacancy rate continued to climb to 8.8% in Q2/2014, higher than the 7.6% recorded in the previous quarter.