AL-SALAM REIT ANNUAL REPORT 2017

AL-SALĀM REIT ANNUAL REPORT 2017 49 3. RETAIL As of 1H2017, the total retail space in Johor stood at 19.06 million sq ft, a 3.6% increase y-o-y (1H2016: 18.40 million sq ft). During the corresponding period, occupancy improved marginally to 77.1% (1H2016: 75.9%). AEON Group continued its expansion with the opening of AEON Bandar Dato Onn in early September 2017. The 3-storey shopping mall will cater primary to the demand from within the larger neighbourhood of Bandar Dato Onn. This will be the sixth outlet for AEON in Johor besides Bukit Indah, Tebrau City, Kulai, Permas Jaya and Taman Universiti. IKEA Tebrau was officially opened to the public on 16th November. This is the third outlet in Malaysia. It has a basement car park providing 1,771 parking bays. The retail mall is the largest in South-East Asia with approximately 46,731 sq m (503,008 sq ft) of retail space. WCT’s Paradigm Mall opened its doors to public on 28th November. Among the tenants are Parkson (anchor tenant), Golden Screen Cinemas, Padini Concept Store, Uniqlo, Brands Outlet, Harvey Norman, Blue Ice Skating Rink @ Paradigm Mall and Village Grocer. The seven-storey mall is located along the Skudai Highway. It has NLA of about 1.3 million sq ft. The other components of the 3-in-1 project include a 24-storey serviced apartment block and a 296- room hotel, to be built in the near future. The opening of these three retail malls in Johor Bahru has thus increased the current retail space in Johor to about 21.46 million sq ft. (Extracted from Research Report Knight Frank : Real Estate Highlights 2nd Half 20167 The vacancy rate of retail space stayed stable at approximately 23% while the average rent dropped slightly to RM25 per square foot from RM27 per square foot in 2016 for malls in prime locations. ( Extracted from CBRE | WTW Research : Asia Market outlook 2018, Malaysia).