COVER STORY
Purposed-Built Office and Retail
The specialized office space segment is one Research. Notably, an outlier currently in the a relatively healthy level,” says Alexel. He
that is picking up in Kota Kinabalu. As the office segment is Plaza Shell, developed by adds however, that there will be downward
city grows and develops bigger corporations Hap Seng Properties Development Sdn Bhd, pressure put on the segment as new
will look to anchor in the city, which will it is the first Grade A office in the city and may developments come onstream by 2H2017.
present an opportunity for developers to fetch higher rental rates at RM4.50 to RM6.00 Conventional shop lots are also meeting the
grow this segment. Broadly, office space in per sqft. demands for office space and, according to
Kota Kinabalu are mainly concentrated along
Alexel, is still the preferred option for local
Jalan Coastal, Jalan Kemajuan and Jalan 2Q2016 recorded no notable new supply of Tuaran within the city centre, with scattered purpose-built offices in the first half of 2017. plots along Jalan Istiadat and around However, there are several projects coming For the retail segment, Kota Kinabalu’s total
Yayasan Sabah. The average rental for office onstream in 2017 such as the Sabah State space currently stands around 5.56 million
space in the city centre hovers around the Administrative Complex, Pacific Enterprise, sqft according to Knight Frank Research.
RM1.80 to RM2.50 per sqft while prime office Sutera Avenue as well as Aeropod. This includes newly added space of 74,666
spaces in the city can fetch around RM2.50
to RM3.50 per sqft according to Knight Frank
businesses and SMEs.
sqft courtesy of the newly completed
“The office sub-sector is relatively stable
Jesselton Mall @ Jesselton Residences
with occupancy and rentals maintaining
The retail sector for Kota Kinabalu recorded improvements in terms of occupancy
rate from 78% in 2H2015 to 86% in 2H2016. However, recent data from NAPIC
shows that occupancy rates in 1Q2017 recorded a drop to 85.1% for the whole of
Sabah, while Kota Kinabalu clocked in at 83.4%.
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