CapitalMall Trust (CMT) release 1H2020 results and it gives some indication to how retail industry will fare past this circuit breaker. As we know, retail industry was destroyed by circuit breaker measures. Tenants were given about 2months of rental rebates mainly for April and May 2020 to help them survive. Moving forward, they have to be on their own. In this article, I'd be sharing some thoughts on it.

How long will it take for shopper traffic trend to fully recover?

For the period 19 June to 5 July 2020, CMT has mentioned that most tenants have resumed operations. Average shopper traffic has recovered to only 53% of the level a year ago. Shopping traffic is absolutely vital to business in the malls. That is the whole idea for paying a premium in rental rates vs a HDB shop unit. Restaurants for example CANNOT rely solely on takeaway for all of it's revenue. The best margins are always the drinks and alcohol....