Nearly every unit in Frasers Centrepoint Trust’s suburban malls was let at the end of June. The trust’s manager put committed occupancy across the retail portfolio at 99.6 per cent for the third quarter ended Jun 30, 2026, in an update posted on Monday, Jul 27, the Business Times reported.
It was a small step back. The figure sat 0.2 percentage point below the previous quarter and 0.3 percentage point below a year earlier. The Business Times noted that the number leaves out Hougang Mall and Nex, which are going through asset enhancement work.
Shoppers up, sales barely moved
Footfall improved. Shopper traffic across the portfolio rose 2.4 per cent from the same quarter last year. Tenants’ sales were close to flat, edging up 0.2 per cent year on year, so the extra visitors did not translate into much more money at the tills.
Debt and a property sale
The manager described a “healthy financial position with lower cost of debt”. The average cost of debt eased to 3 per cent a year from 3.2 per cent in the second quarter, after some interest rate swaps expired. Aggregate leverage came in at 40.4 per cent as at Jun 30, against 40 per cent a quarter earlier. Interest coverage held at 3.66 times. Of the trust’s debt, 65.7 per cent was hedged to fixed rates, and all of it was under green loans.
During the quarter the trust announced that it plans to sell White Sands for an agreed property value of S$467 million. It expects net proceeds of approximately S$454.1 million and net gains of S$32.4 million, and said the deal should give it more room on debt.
A bid at Bayshore Drive
A separate move pointed toward development. A consortium that includes the trust submitted the winning S$2.1 billion bid for a government-sold, mixed-use plot on Bayshore Drive. The trust holds a 50 per cent interest in the commercial part of the project. Sunway-MCL has 30 per cent and Sekisui House 20 per cent. The trust said the project “harnesses development as a new growth driver at an attractive yield” and builds a pipeline for future acquisitions.
Looking ahead, the manager expects the local suburban retail market to stay “well-supported”, citing new supply of space and demand from population and income growth. Units closed S$0.01, or 0.4 per cent, lower at S$2.26 on Monday, before the update came out.
