Landlords prefer to seek tenants who pay more than less rent
For many Singaporeans, the mall is where life happens—groceries, dinner, haircuts, enrichment classes, all under one roof. It’s as much infrastructure as it is retail.
And we’re not short of options. According to SingMalls, there are at least 106 malls across the island—serving a total of 6.11 million people. That works out to about one mall for every 58,000 people, in a country that covers only 700 square kilometers.
But in some once bustling malls today, the silence is eerie: empty storefronts, rented units, and “Coming soon” signs that have been hanging for months.
Singapore’s retail vacancy rate is rising—reaching 6.8% islandwide in Q1 2025, up from 6.2% the previous quarter, according to Savills Research. Some businesses have cited rising rental costs, however high vacancies alone do not appear to be forcing landlords to lower rents.
Will landlords bleed money by leaving units empty? The uncomfortable answer, it turns out, is usually not—and Woodleigh Mall is a clear example of why.
Vulcan Post you check what’s going on in the background.
Shopping out
Woodleigh Mall was unveiled in May 2023 as a pledge of a brand new location, intended to be the beating heart of the Bidadari community—the only full-service mall serving thousands of residents in the area.
At its grand opening in November 2023, management proudly announced that it had achieved 100% occupancy, calling it “proof of our tenants’ trust in our vision.”
But less than two years later, the picture looks very different.
Residents and staff at The Woodleigh Mall have watched the exodus take place, particularly from the underground food group known as fEAsT@Woodleigh.
In accordance with Motherhoodmore than 15 stores came out of this mall within a year. Previous tenants included Burger King, Fish & Co., Lee Wee Brothers, and Swee Heng Bakery—all of which are no more.
A 45-year-old shop assistant who has worked at the mall for about three years told the newspaper that the high number of F&B hires has been happening “since the beginning.”
“Since it started, this mall has not been doing well. The footfall here is low compared to others,” he said. “Usually in a new mall, the crowd will grow a little bit, but not in this mall. It was very static,” he added.
In addition, some residents cited expensive parking, confusing layouts, and limited retail options as reasons to move elsewhere. “People don’t come to buy here because there is nothing to buy,” said the employee.
Many fingers have pointed to another key culprit: recruitment.
Constance Tan, director of bubble tea brand No.17 Tea, said Stomp that when his lease came up for renewal, the landlord quoted a 30% rent increase, a figure he described as “absolutely unsustainable.” Rather than go completely, No.17 Tea has scaled back to a small kiosk format unit in a similar shopping area.
The natural instinct of the residents is to blame the greedy landlords, and that is not entirely wrong. But it misses how commercial real estate really works—and why holding high-paying tenants can make perfect financial sense.
A shopping mall is considered a stock, rather than a business
The footfall problem and the rent problem feed into each other in a vicious cycle.
Mall occupancy is largely determined by foot traffic. A shopping mall that draws five million visitors a month, for example, can command much higher rents than one drawing 1.5 million. But when prices are disappointing, tenants are struggling to get the sales needed to justify their rent. Others eventually left, making the mall less attractive to buyers—and more difficult to lease.
So why not just lower rents to fill empty units?
Because for commercial landlords, low rent doesn’t just mean less money. They can also lower the overall value of the mall.
Unlike an HDB flat, which is valued primarily based on nearby commercial prices, commercial properties are generally valued based on the rental income they generate. According to CKS Property Consultants, this is calculated by taking the property’s gross operating income—rents minus operating expenses—and dividing it by the market value. In simple words: the more rent a shopping mall collects, the more valuable it becomes.
That creates a problem for homeowners. If they cut rents across the board to attract tenants, the mall’s projected revenue goes down, and so does its valuation.
This is important because banks lend on that basis. In Singapore, commercial property loans typically amount to around 75% of the property value. So if the value of the mall drops by S$50 million after the rent reduction, the landlord’s borrowing power may decrease by S$37.5 million. That’s real money on the table.
Think about it from a landlord’s point of view.
An empty unit can cost them several thousand dollars a month in lost rent. Lowering rents across the board to fill a mall could reduce its value by millions overnight. Adherence is not stubbornness, but math.
Who are the highest paying employers?
Ironically, the tenants most willing to pay high rents tend to be educational institutions, clinics, and enrichment studios—businesses with fixed incomes that generate little revenue when they enter the market.
These tenants are attractive to landlords because they are less dependent on traffic. A quiet Tuesday afternoon may hurt a restaurant or a fashion retailer, but the learning center still collects its funds. They pay reliably, sign long leases, and offer stable entryways, making them good tenants on paper, even if they’re slowly shutting down retail space.
Health care and enrichment tenants have been part of The Woodleigh Mall’s mix since its semi-launch—sitting alongside publicly celebrated F&B brands. With those F&B tenants gone, the balance has shifted, and education and medical presence are becoming more prominent. One in four units at The Woodleigh Mall is now an enrichment center or medical clinic.
On paper, the occupancy looks healthy because these units are counted as a full area. But for residents hoping to find dinner, shop, or run errands, the mall can feel less like a vibrant retail center and more like a ghost town, where “everything is too expensive.”
On the other end of the spectrum, landlords are also expecting serious foreign brands, especially the wave of Chinese F&B chains currently booming in Singapore.
As of Aug 2025, some 85 Chinese F&B brands were operating in 405 food outlets in Singapore, more than double the 32 brands recorded last year. Many of these brands have reportedly offered higher rental bids to secure prime retail locations—similarly the type of premium tenant they hope to attract.
As unfair as it sounds, there is no system in Singapore that forces landlords to fill units with retail tenants, or fill them at all.
There is no vacancy tax on retail space, and there is no penalty for keeping units empty for long periods of time while you wait for a better tenant. And there is no need for a shopping mall that offers residential accommodation to maintain a low level of retail or F&B options.
Woodleigh Mall’s joint venture owners—Cuscaden Peak Investments and Kajima Development—put the mall up for sale for S$800 million in July 2024, less than a year after its grand opening. That’s probably not the behavior of owners preparing for the public, but it’s an exit.
What does this mean for residents?
The frustration residents feel in Woodleigh is real and legitimate. If you’re one of the thousands of HDB residents who only have one shopping mall serving your area, what’s in it matters.
But the problem is not just that landlords are greedy. It’s the whole process of measuring and financing commercial real estate that creates the logical benefits of prioritizing rent over community service. A landlord who cuts rent to fill his mall with popular F&B tenants may be destroying value on paper by doing so.
Until there is policy that changes those incentives, whether that’s a vacancy tax, requirements to use supermarkets that serve the public, or something else entirely, the cycle is likely to continue.
So the next time you pass a closed unit at your local mall, remember: it may not always be empty because no one is looking for it. It may remain empty because the landlord is waiting for a tenant with better financial sense.
And right now, nothing is stopping them.
- Read other articles we’ve written about Singapore businesses here.
Featured Image Credit: Woodleigh Mall, CarectionNo1619 via Reddit
