Schroders Capital seeks S$220M for Wisteria Mall in second sale attempt

A fund managed by Schroders Capital is seeking about S$220 million for Wisteria Mall in Yishun, its second attempt to sell the suburban mall after a bid last year at S$240 million failed. Knight Frank and Savills are running an expression of interest campaign, with bids due by 26 November.

A fund managed by Schroders Capital is seeking about S$220 million ($171.8 million) for Wisteria Mall in northern Singapore’s Yishun area, a year after it failed to sell the asset at a higher price. Knight Frank and Savills are running an expression of interest campaign for the Schroders-owned portion of the property, which covers 62 per cent of the strata-titled mall, with bids due by 3 pm on 26 November, two market sources told Mingtiandi.

At the guide price, a buyer would pay the equivalent of S$2,398 per square foot of net lettable area in the two-storey property, according to a Mingtiandi calculation. That is 29 per cent less than the per square foot price fetched by Rivervale Mall in northeastern Singapore in September, and below the levels set by most suburban malls traded this year. JLL ran a private expression of interest for the mall last year at a guide price of S$240 million, but no sale resulted.

Completed in 2018, Wisteria Mall sits at 598 Yishun Ring Road, beneath the 216 apartments of The Wisteria condominium. The property has 128,517 square feet of gross floor area and 91,738 square feet (8,523 square metres) of net lettable area, including a 9,710 square foot childcare centre leased under a government scheme for community facilities. The mall was 93 per cent occupied as of 30 September, with a FairPrice Finest supermarket and a food court anchoring the tenant mix. Passing rents average around S$11.84 per square foot per month, excluding the childcare centre and licences, which the vendor describes as below achievable levels. More than 40 per cent of the lettable area comes up for renewal by the end of 2027.

Schroders owns 62 per cent of the strata area in The Wisteria, representing about 61 per cent of the share value, giving a potential owner control over management decisions and a lead role in any future collective sale. The 99-year lease began in April 2015, leaving around 88 years. The agents are pitching the mall’s catchment of about 237,000 residents within two kilometres and roughly 8,700 new homes due for completion in Southern Yishun by 2029, mostly public housing.

Schroders agreed to buy Wisteria Mall from a unit of Singapore-listed builder BBR Holdings for S$208 million in January 2022, through its Pamfleet Real Estate Fund III. The current guide price would give the fund a gain of 5.8 per cent before costs. The renewed sale attempt comes after Schroders and partners TPG Angelo Gordon and Datapulse Investment in May 2024 put the Travelodge Harbourfront hotel in Singapore on the market at a guide price of S$320 million, having paid S$235 million for the property in 2019, without a sale.

Wisteria Mall’s guide price sits at the low end of this year’s suburban mall trades. In September, SC Capital Partners agreed to sell Rivervale Mall in Sengkang for about S$276 million, or S$3,401 per square foot of net lettable area. In July, Frasers Centrepoint Trust agreed to sell White Sands in Pasir Ris for S$467 million, or S$3,106 per square foot. Hines agreed in January to buy Bukit Panjang Plaza for S$428 million, or S$2,602 per square foot, on a lease that began in December 1994, about eight per cent above Wisteria’s guide price per square foot despite having about 20 fewer years left on its lease.