Mapletree Commercial Trust Occupancy Rises To 96%

SINGAPORE – The portfolio committed occupancy of Mapletree Commercial Trust (MCT) in Q3 2021 increased to 96 percent, up from 92.6 percent in the prior quarter and 95.3 percent during the same period a year ago, according to local bourse (SGX) filings published on Wednesday afternoon (27 October, SGT).

“Good progress was made at our office and business park assets, where a substantial amount of leases due in FY21/22 were renewed and relet. This lifted portfolio committed occupancy to 96 percent and extended our lease expiry profile considerably,” said Sharon Lim, CEO of the trust’s manager, Mapletree Commercial Trust Management Ltd (MCTM).

During the period under review, MCT’s asset Bank of America Merrill Lynch HarbourFront (MLHF) was fully occupied. VivoCity recorded a committed occupancy of 99.6 percent, while Mapletree Business City (MBC) and Mapletree Anson both saw a committed occupancy of 97 percent. However, that for mTower only stood at 80.4 percent.

For the first half of the year, Mapletree Commercial Trust recorded 29 committed leases for its office and business park properties. Retention rate by net leasable area (NLA) reached 88.6 percent, while the percentage of change in fixed rent for such asset type hovered at 1.5 percent.

Notably, the percentage of change in fixed rent is calculated based on the average fixed rents over the lease periods of the new committed leases divided by the preceding fixed rents of the expiring leases. This is on a committed basis.

Aside from that, MCT’s weighted average lease expiry (WALE) on a committed basis for its office and business park portfolio reached 3.3 years, while that for its retail assets is only 2.2 years. For its overall portfolio, the WALE works out to 2.8 years.