International retailers still keen on Singapore despite sluggish sales trend

Landlords are wooing more new-to-market brands.

Despite flagging sales and manpower issues, multinational retailers are still keen to expand to Singapore because of the city-state’s reputation as a test bed for the Southeast Asian market.

According to RHB, more new-to-market names will flow into the market in coming quarters as mall landlords aggressively seek to rejuvenate the retail scene by wooing new brands.

“With many more names new to the Singapore retail market, we think that demand for retail space in the local scene will continue to persist,” said RHB.

A recent report by CBRE highlighted that Singapore is the second-hottest city for new retailer expansion, as it introduced a total of 58 new retail brands last year.

Just ahead of Singapore is Tokyo, which brought in 63 new retail brands into its retail scene.

“Given the favourable supply-demand dynamics, we expect rental rates to remain resilient, but with limited upside as demand should soften,” RHB said.