Ask any Malaysian how they spend their weekends and the majority of them will say that they’ve spent their time trudging in shopping malls. It’s just the thing to do, which is unfortunately an evident reflection of how much we love spending our time indoors and not outside doing, well, outdoor activities.
And despite the constant booming of the e-commerce market, 27 new malls are expected to open in greater Kuala Lumpur alone by 2021 and this will bring the total number of shopping malls in greater Kuala Lumpur to 197, spanning 86.2 million sq ft of retail space.
Amongst these malls in the pipeline include The Exchange Mall, Mitsui Shopping Mark Lalaport, Merdeka PNB118 mall, Pavilion Damansara Heights, Pavilion Bukit Jalil, Tropicana Gardens Mall, CentralPlaza mall and Empire City mall. The question is, are more shopping malls really what Malaysians need?
This vicious cycle never ends – The more available retail space there is, the lower the occupancy rates will be, thus, decreasing the rental charges further, which then allows more and more small businesses to pop up.
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