Community malls top retail category in Greater Bangkok
Community malls still constitute the most fashionable retail category in Bangkok, as all newly completed facilities in the second quarter were community malls, according to research by Colliers International (Thailand).
Occupancy and rental rates for retail businesses have shown little change since the start of this year, and there is a steady rise in the amount of retail space coming on to the market.
Hypermarkets are another intensely competitive market in Thailand. Three are only three players in this sector, Big C, Tesco Lotus and Makro, and they are planning to expand with stores across the country.
Convenience stores became a newly competitive market last year, and that continues this year and will continue to do so for the next few years. All competitors in this sector are big-name players and they are planning to open many branches in the future.
In Greater Bangkok, about 21,390 square metres of space was supplied in the second quarter, but all new retail centres are in the suburbs.
More than 249,000sqm is scheduled to be completed before the end of the year.
Many new players are entering the Bangkok retail business, but all are more focused on community malls. Almost 100 per cent of new community malls opened in the first half of the year are in the suburbs close to residential areas.
The future supply scheduled to be completed in the second half amounts to nearly 250,000sqm, with about 131,750sqm in shopping malls, while more than 117,000sqm is in community malls.
More than 105,000sqm is scheduled to be completed in the last six months of the year in the inner city.
All shopping malls planned to be completed this year are in the inner and outer city areas, while 51 per cent of the total future supply of community malls are in the suburbs. Community malls are geared to be part of a residential community, so most are in residential areas.
Most retail centres scheduled to be completed between this year and 2015 in the inner city are shopping malls, some larger than 50,000sqm, such as Central Embassy and Emquartier.
The inner city has the highest rental rate, with most retail developments in the central business district and located along mass-transit lines, which are more convenient for shoppers. Many new community malls in the suburbs were completed in the past few years, so rental rates in those areas continued to increase.
