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In view of the passing of the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) (Amendment) Bill, CapitaLand announced that it will waive and potentially defer rent for qualifying small and medium enterprise (SME) tenants.
It explained that the payment and timing of rebates and deferral will depend on the authorities’ assessment of the eligibility of CapitaLand’s SME tenants.
CapitaLand Group Chief Financial Officer Andrew Lim revealed that the financial strain placed by the Bill on the group remains high, and could adversely affect its financial performance for 2020.
“We therefore maintain our conviction that the impact of the regulatory intervention be applied objectively, transparently and proportionally, as a shared responsibility across all stakeholders, so that the commercial real estate ecosystem can continue to be competitive locally and internationally after the crisis,” he said.
“CapitaLand remains committed to working with our tenants through these trying times. It is in our interest to see our tenants ride through this with us. We are all in this together because everyone in the ecosystem has been impacted.”
In fact, CapitaLand has provided its tenants some form of rental relief even before the Bill was passed, with CapitaLand Mall Trust committing a rental package of around $11 million. This translates to rental waiver in April and May for nearly all its tenants, inclusive of the property tax rebates’ value.
Additional rent waiver was also provided from 27 to 31 March to “tenants ordered to close their premises since 27 March”.
“On top of that, some tenants were granted a waiver on their turnover rent and were permitted to use one-month security deposit to offset their rents in March 2020,” said CapitaLand in a release.
Including the government’s property tax rebate and additional rental assistance, Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust also waived two months’ rent “for retail and F&B tenants within individual buildings and amenity centres in its portfolio”.
Aside from passing down applicable property tax rebate, CapitaLand Commercial Trust likewise extended rental relief to its retail, service and food and beverage tenants whose businesses have been affected by the pandemic.
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Victor Kang, Digital Content Specialist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email victorkang@propertyguru.com.sg