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Some landlords have supported their tenants since the pandemic started, with measures including property tax and rental rebates.
Several landlords in Singapore said they have been providing some form of rental support as well as other types of assistance to their tenants since May when the first heightened alert was imposed to curb a spike in COVID-19 cases, reported TODAY.
Their statement came after an alliance of trade associations representing food and beverage (F&B) and retail tenants said that the majority of frontline businesses did not get significant support from landlords in the form of rental relief since the start of Phase 2 (Heightened Alert).
In appealing for further assistance, the alliance warned that more of them would shut down if no help is extended.
Singapore’s COVID-19 task force had announced that the city-state would revert to Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) again from 22 July to 18 August, in which social gathering would be slashed to a maximum of two persons and dining out is not allowed.
When asked how much support they had given, Ivan Koh, CEO of APM Property Management, which manages Suntec City mall, shared that they had lowered the rent by up to 50% for most tenants during the first round of Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) in May. He assured that they would continue to extend a similar level of rental relief to their tenants this time round.
Koh revealed that Suntec City had restructured the rent for its most affected tenants to a lower base rent, such that a higher portion of the rent is based on their gross turnover. The new rent structure was followed by lease renewals.
“(This) reflects our commitment to share business risks with our tenants during these challenging times. The level of rental support provided to our mall tenants has exceeded the support granted by the Government in 2020 and 2021,” Koh told TODAY.
Other landlords such as Mapletree, CapitaLand, Frasers Property and UOL did not provide details on the rental support they would give, except to say that they would continue to assist their tenants via rental assistance.
City Developments (CDL) referred TODAY to its press release, which stated that the company will restructure the rent for badly affected tenants and allow for flexibility in payments for those struggling with cash flow issues.
NTUC Enterprise’s real estate arm, Mercatus, also pointed to its press release, which said that it will “extend rental, operational and marketing support to affected tenants as (it had) done previously”.
NTUC Enterprise is National Trades Union Congress’ social enterprise arm.
Aside from rental support, UOL will also reward shoppers with discounts and promotions on food delivery orders from its F&B tenants. CapitaLand and CDL, on the other hand, are going to waive commission fees for tenants who join their digital platforms.
Some landlords noted that they had been supporting their tenants since the pandemic started.
UOL said the company as well as its subsidiary Singland have extended over $50 million in rental assistance to a large majority of their tenants during last year’s two-month circuit breaker period and heightened alert period in May.
Mapletree Commercial Trust shared it had provided support packages to eligible tenants since the start of the pandemic until 31 March this year, which helped the tenants offset over four months of their fixed rents on average.
CDL said they had committed over $40 million in property tax and rental rebates to their overseas and Singapore tenants since the start of the pandemic last year. During the first round of heightened alert, almost 90% of its retail tenants received rental assistance.
Meanwhile, Mercatus said it extended over $76 million in rental support to its tenants.
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Cheryl Chiew, Digital Content Specialist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this story, email: cheryl@propertyguru.com.sg
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