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To help Singapore’s offshore and marine (O&M) industry, which is suffering from a prolonged slump, JTC has provided rental rebates ranging from three percent to 10 percent to all tenants and lessees from this sector, reported The Business Times.
“This aims to provide some reprieve for our O&M lessees and tenants during this period, while they review their operations to enhance productivity and reposition their business for the future,” said the industrial landlord.
Specifically, it has given rental rebates to around 250 lessees and tenants from this sector for the first time since the Global Financial Crisis.
According to JTC, it has already reduced posted rents (publicly published rents of its industrial facilities and land) amidst the downturn in the industrial property sector in the past two years. While the rebates will further bring down the rentals payable by firms for whole of 2017, it will revert back to the stipulated rates by 1 January 2018 onwards.
For companies that have a higher contracted rent than the posted rents, the rebate will apply to the latter.
Besides the lower posted rents, an additional three percent rebate will be implemented across the board. This is the reason the rental rebates provided are between three percent and 10 percent.
A private industrial landlord estimated that a minimum rental rebate would equate to savings of between ten dollars and a few thousand dollars based on the size of the leased site.
Moreover, JTC will grant short-term lease extensions to firms whose tenancies and leases will soon expire without any investment requirement. This is in lieu of the usual practice of obliging companies to inject more capital into fixed assets, like their premises, plant, and machinery before their leases are renewed.
Meanwhile, O&M firms have started airing their views on other ways JTC can provide assistance to the sector.
These include permitting tenants and lessees to sublet their under-utilised premises to firms from other sectors. Another suggestion is for JTC to buy back waterfront plots from companies struggling to sustain their operations. It may then consolidate these with other users and replenish its own waterfront landbank.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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