The Orchard Road shopping belt in Singapore has been ranked 27th the most expensive retail street in the world in a survey conducted by property consultancy firm Colliers International.
The country climbed up one notch from last year’s 28th spot in Colliers annual global ranking of rents for prime retail space.
The company said the average rent for prime retail space along Orchard Road is US$330.19 (S$468) psf per year, an increase of two percent over the last survey in 2009.
Tay Huey Ying, director of research and advisory at Colliers, said the increase in rental rates was largely attributed to the weakening of the US dollar against the Singapore currency. However, in local currency terms, rents for prime retail space in the Orchard Road area dropped 5.5 percent on-year in Q1.
Colliers said rents for street front space in almost every region worldwide dropped last year for two consecutive years.
"Despite an improved global economic landscape, retailers were still expressing caution in terms of expanding and committing to new stores. Evidence was mounting, however, to suggest the worst of the downturn was over and high-end retailers would be back pressing for more high profile stores," said Mr. Ross Moore, US chief economist at Colliers International.
The Colliers International survey is published yearly and tracks retail rents in the prime retail corridors across 127 major cities in Europe, North America, Latin America, Africa, Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.