Strata titled retail malls have been under the radar of investors since the introduction of higher Addition Buyer Stamp Duty rates for residential properties after 12 Jan 2013.
Such strata titled malls can be found in many mixed developments in the city centre to the suburban area. Some have been marketed as rare freehold tenure while others are been laud for its scarcity. It has been a good 7 to 8 years since they are launched aggressively back then. Let me humbly traced back their progress till date.
Here, I used edge inspector to track their progress and I have blurred the unit numbers to comply with PDPA requirement.
Viva Vista
One of the pioneer strata titled retail space launched for sale is located in Pasir Panjang. It is known as Viva Vista. There was a Cold Storage supermarket back then. This 106 units commercial units are located on the first and basement level. There are a couple of transaction after a few sellers managed to flip for a healthy profit before its TOP. The rest that hold on are less fortunate. There are hardly any sales transaction since TOP.
KAP
KAP mall is la freehold mall located next to King Albert Park MRT station. The previous mall used to house the popular MacDonald’s and a Cold Storage supermarket that is popular with the residents in Bukit Timah. Unfortunately, the new mall is a shadow of its past. The management has tried to revamp the mall offering and even organized many events to promote itself.
So let us zoom into the transaction now. Seriously, there are not many transactions since TOP. Note, there are no Seller Stamp Duty for retail properties. Here, I have observed a loss-making transaction at $773,000 after holding it for 5 years. The sellers apparently bought the unit from the developer at $2.77million for a 495 sqf retail space on the ground floor. This work out to be $5,600psf. Apparently, it was sold in Sept 2018 at $2 million or a 38% decline in value.