An Investor’s Guide: The Owners of Orchard Road

Have you walked down our Garden City’s famous shopping belt, Orchard Road, recently?

I was not expecting to see the sheer number of people I did on Orchard Road when I was there recently. The amount of foot-traffic on this famous road seems to move only in one direction year after year – up.

Imagine that you are a landlord on one of the properties on Orchard Road. Wouldn’t you feel happy just by standing on the roadside and watching the crowd walk by with their handfuls of shopping bags?

Ho ho ho…

As it turns out, we can indeed own many of the properties on Orchard Road, albeit indirectly. There are numerous properties in the shopping belt that are owned by companies or by real estate investment trusts that are listed in Singapore.

If you are interested in the properties on Orchard Road, here is a quick guide on how you can get exposure to some of them:

1-5) ION Orchard, Wisma Atria, Ngee Ann City, Mandarin Gallery, Mandarin Orchard Singapore 

6) The Centrepoint

One of the oldest shopping malls on Orchard road, The Centrepoint has been open since 1983. The shopping mall is owned by real estate outfit Frasers Centrepoint Limited. Valued at S$646 million on its balance sheet, Frasers Centrepoint counts The Centrepoint as one of the most valuable properties in its portfolio.

7) Paragon

One of the most upscale properties on Orchard road, Paragon consists of nearly 490,000 square feet of retail space and 230,000 sqft of medical suites and offices. Paragon, which is most recently valued at S$2.6 billion, is part of newspaper publisher Singapore Press Holdings Limited’s real estate portfolio. The company is the majority owner and manager of the retail-focused real estate investment trust SPH REIT, which in turn owns and manages Paragon.

8) Wheelock Place

Wheelock Place, a S$915 million seven-storey retail mall and 16-storey office tower, is seated at the edge of Orchard road. The property, which is owned by Wheelock Properties (Singapore) Ltd, had enjoyed close to 100% occupancy as of 2014 and is a very important piece of real estate for the company.

Summary

Feeling impressed by any of the buildings you come across while shopping along Orchard Road? Who knows, you just might be able to share in the economic benefits of some of them.