Originally posted by pat33:
I think the rental of shop premises are too expensive in Singapore. We can't always compare rental with London, Paris, Tokyo and New York BUT also with Bangkok, KL and HK too.
Businesses are determined by overall supply and demand. Rental can be high because of demands. If demands exist, rentals can be high and yet affordable. Overall supply and demand is closely watched by occupancy ratio and this ratio is now very miserably low for most property types due to over-supply. In an over-supply situation, why flood the market with more supply? Will the extra shopping spaces released by URA lead to more jobs? The larger issue is: will more concrete projects create jobs. By putting the same amounts of concrete investments into new factories and new technology start-ups such projects might create more jobs for the retrenched and more new graduates too can be employed.