Prime retail rents up 3.8% in Q1

City fringe retail fueled rental growth.

Prime retail rents across Singapore went up 3.8% YoY in the second quarter as the segment stays resilient, according to Knight Frank.

Knight Frank data showed the average gross rents of prime retail space hit $27.40 per square foot per month in the second quarter, up 0.9% from the first quarter.

For the first half, the average rents for premium retail space went up 1.5% as the post-pandemic rebound was masked by high operating costs due to inflation.

Retail space in the city fringe was the major driver of rental growth last quarter with a 1.3% QoQ uptick, followed by suburban malls at 1.2%.

Prime retail rents in the Marina Centre-Bugis area also rose 1% QoQ while rental growth in Ochard grew the slowest at 0.6%.

Knight Frank said prime retail rents remain on track to grow by 2% to 4% for the whole of 2024, mainly because the city-state continues to attract international retailers and even brands and food chains that are new to Singapore.

“[Rental] growth will be measured and likely at a slower pace for the rest of 2024. As it stands, rising rents and operating costs have begun to deter some retailers from expansions, and might soon threaten to compel others into consolidation instead,” it noted.

Follow the link for more news on

Knight Frank

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