Shopping Centre in Singapore’s Holland Village Sells for $78M Amid Retail Rebound

A freehold neighbourhood mall in Singapore’s upscale Holland Village has changed hands for S$100 million ($78 million), the latest in a wave of retail acquisitions which helped make 2025 Singapore’s strongest year for real estate investment since 2017.

Holland Piazza, a two-storey, 21,806 square foot (2,026 square metre) shopping centre in District 10’s Tanglin-Bukit Timah corridor, was acquired by Cheong Sim Lam, a scion of the family behind Hong Kong-listed Hong Fok Corp, from family-controlled Eng Tiong Realty, which had held the property for more than 50 years.

The deal reflects strong private capital appetite for well-located freehold retail, where suburban prime rents grew 0.9 percent year-on-year in 2025 and are forecast to rise a further 1.5 to 2.5 percent in 2026, according to Cushman & Wakefield. New retail supply is running at just 300,000 square feet annually through 2029 — well below the historical average of 800,000 square feet.

Terry Wong, head of capital markets and investment services at Colliers Singapore, whose team advised on the sale, said Holland Piazza exemplifies what private capital is seeking. “Freehold tenure, neighbourhood convenience with lifestyle upside, and value-creation pathways,” Wong said. “With the ongoing uplift of Holland Village and the addition of new residential supply, we expect occupier demand and higher footfall, supporting both rental resilience and future repositioning strategies for the next owner.”

Neighbourhood Revival

Holland Piazza’s tenant list is dominated by restaurants and other food and beverage outlets, with beauty salons, wellness clinics and healthcare providers taking up upper floor space. At the stated compensation, Cheong Sim Lam paid the equivalent of S$4,586 per square foot for the freehold asset. The property, which opened in 2018, has benefitted from successive waves of revitalisation in the upscale residential area, with the neighbourhood having received a boost from One Holland Village, a S$1.2 billion mixed-use development led by Far East Organization which began opening in phases in December 2023.

Residential demand in the property’s catchment is also rising. A UOL-CapitaLand joint venture is developing Skye at Holland, a 666-unit luxury condominium on the Holland Drive site won in 2024 for S$805.4 million ($630 million), with two-bedroom units starting at S$1.51 million.

The area’s pipeline also includes the 342-unit Holland Vista public housing project and a Government Land Sales site at Holland Plain released last month, expected to yield a further 280 homes.

The seller, Eng Tiong Realty, had owned the site since the 1970s, when it was home first to the Eng Wah open-air cinema and later to Holland V Mall with its famous rooftop windmill.

Cheong Sim Lam, who comes from a well-known Singapore real estate family, serves as executive director and chief investment officer of Hong Kong-listed Associated International Hotels and as a director of HKEX-listed Tian Teck Land. He is a son of China-born Hong Fok founder Cheong Eak Chong.

Cheong’s existing Singapore holdings include Ascott Raffles Place, a 20-storey serviced residence complex acquired from CapitaLand Ascott Trust in 2019 for S$353.3 million ($277 million). In Hong Kong, the Cheong family’s Associated International Hotels owns iSquare, a 31-storey shopping complex on the former Hyatt Regency Hotel site in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Retail Deals Accelerate

The Holland Piazza sale is part of a broader wave of retail investment sweeping Singapore. Deal volume in the city-state’s retail sector rose 29 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025 — the strongest growth of any core property sector across Asia Pacific — according to MSCI Real Assets. For the full year, total real estate investment sales reached S$34.12 billion, a 27 percent increase from 2024 and the highest annual figure since 2017, according to Savills.

Several landmark retail transactions anchored the trend. The Clementi Mall, a fully occupied 196,000 square foot suburban mall, was acquired in December by mainland Chinese investor Elegant Group for S$809 million ($634 million). Lendlease Global Commercial REIT acquired a 70 percent stake in PLQ Mall in Paya Lebar for S$619.5 million ($485 million) in November, while US developer Hines agreed in January to buy Bukit Panjang Plaza from CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust for S$428 million ($335 million).

Rents at tier-one retail malls in Singapore are projected to continue rising in 2026, driven by low vacancy rates and steady tenant sales growth. Retailer occupancy costs, while higher than in recent years, remain below pre-pandemic levels — a dynamic that supports landlord pricing power and sustained demand for prime retail assets, according to Cushman & Wakefield.