Shopping Monster: Skyrocketing rents hit Singapore's next shopping mecca

Guess where it is?

Move over Orchard Road. All eyes are now on Jurong East as the next big shopping mecca in Singapore. Recently touted to be one of the possible locations for the terminal of the proposed high-speed rail (HSR) link between Singapore and Malaysia, the potential for a significant boost in catchment population and footfall is immense, according to Knight Frank's report.

But with great potential comes greater rents. Knight Frank noted that notwithstanding the initial gestation period for the new retail malls in Jurong East to see stabilising rents, average prime retail rents in Jurong are among the highest across the different suburban retail mall clusters in Singapore.

Knight Franks added that as at 1Q 2014, the monthly gross prime retail rents of shopping malls in the Jurong cluster (comprising both Jurong East and Jurong West precincts) averaged about $32.50 per sq ft, higher than the average prime retail rents of $32.30 per sq ft for suburban malls across Singapore.

However, not all the retail malls in the Jurong cluster are registering high rents. Some of the newer malls are still undergoing operational issues or face competition from the existing established malls, which affected the achievable rentals for the landlords of new malls, said Knight Frank.