Orchard Road retail vacancy edges up to 7.2% in Q2

Prime mall rents rose 0.3% as limited supply and youth-focused concepts supported demand.

Retail vacancy in Singapore’s Orchard Area edged up to 7.2% in the second quarter of 2026 from 7.1% in the previous quarter, according to Savills Singapore.

Despite the slight increase and a year-on-year decline in tourist arrivals, demand for prime retail space remained supported by luxury brands, international retailers and experiential concepts.

Average monthly rents across Savills’ basket of prime Orchard Area malls rose 0.3% QoQ to $23.70 psf.

Retailers continued to seek flagship stores and larger-format spaces along Orchard Road and in the prime city center to improve brand visibility and customer engagement. Demand was particularly evident amongst luxury, beauty, wellness and experiential brands.

Savills also noted growing spending influence from Generation Z and Generation Alpha consumers. Sulian Tan-Wijaya, executive director and head of retail at Savills Singapore, said youth-focused fashion brands such as Brandy Melville and Subdued were performing well.

Fashion, beauty and cafe operators could benefit if their branding and products appeal to these younger consumers, she added.

Limited new supply is expected to support the leasing market. Savills estimates that approximately 309,000 square feet of net lettable retail space will be completed in 2026, below the five-year average of 474,000 square feet.

New supply is projected to moderate further to 241,000 square feet in 2027, equivalent to about half the historical average.

Against this backdrop, landlords have been upgrading existing properties and refreshing their tenant mixes. Asset enhancement works are underway at Plaza Singapura and NEX, while HarbourFront Centre is slated for redevelopment.

Landlords of malls not undergoing major works have also introduced new food and retail concepts to attract shoppers and maintain relevance.

Savills expects Singapore’s retail property market to remain resilient for the rest of 2026, supported by consumer spending, a firm labor market and constrained near-term supply.

Average passing rents for both Orchard Road and suburban malls are forecast to grow by 1% to 2% for the full year. However, Savills described the outlook as positive but measured, with well-located malls offering strong tenant mixes and experiential concepts expected to outperform.

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia