Attention, shoppers: Malaysia’s malls need you
Attention, shoppers: Malaysia’s malls need you
Delayed mall openings, growing e-commerce — the brick-and-mortar shopping experience is gloomier than usual in Malaysia
Malaysia’s shopping scene is now at a crossroads, with new malls being delayed from opening and existing ones closing altogether. In fact, the situation has become so bad that retail consultants actually hark back to the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s.
“After 1998, things were back up pretty fast,” Savills Malaysia managing director Allan Soo told The Edge Malaysia. “This time is the toughest. There are more variables, more competition and real oversupply issues. It’s going to be much harder work.”
All across the peninsula, a lethal combination of fickle consumers and a glut in retail space is doing a disservice to shopping mall operators. The rise of online shopping also seems to serve as the nail in the proverbial coffin.
In Kuala Lumpur, the Melati Mall, a MYR670 million (USD166 million) joint venture between Sime Darby Property Bhd and CapitaLand Malls Asia, will delay its opening this year to the second quarter of 2017. “Design planning and current headwinds” allegedly caused the postponement, reported The Edge Markets.
In Penang, the Perda City Mall shuttered at very short notice, giving tenants only a day to close shop. It had been in business for only 18 months in total.
More: These are officially the world’s best cities for luxury shopping
In a report by National Property Information Centre, an oversupply seems to be creeping up on Malaysian retail space. Around 16.2 million square feet in retail space is being developed around the country, to say nothing of the 148.85 million sq ft already in existence.
Yet the average occupancy rate for Kuala Lumpur and Selangor malls stood at 82 percent and 79 percent, respectively, in 2015, compared with 83.2 percent and 81.7 percent in 2014, Henry Butcher Malaysia reported.
Not factoring in anchor tenants, the average monthly rents in Kuala Lumpur also fell last year to MYR12.09 (USD3) psf from MYR13.03 (USD3.23) psf.
Running parallel to the pressures on brick-and-mortar malls is the rise of e-commerce. In a recent survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers, half of Malaysian shoppers were found to have bought something online at least once a month. Only 7 percent of the respondents never shopped online.
Read next: Malaysia’s 2016 Real Estate Personality is Chuah Theong Yee
Source: Property Report