(July 10): Wharf Real Estate Investment Co has been exploring an exit of its Singapore property portfolio located in the premier Orchard Road shopping district, according to people familiar with the deliberations.
The Hong Kong-based firm majority-owned by billionaire Peter Woo has been looking to sell its Wheelock Place and Scotts Square malls, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.
The properties were valued collectively at HK$7.7 billion at the end of 2025, according to the company’s latest annual report. But the people said Wharf, which owns the assets via a Singapore subsidiary, is seeking to sell them at a higher price.
Wharf plans to divest Scotts Square before Wheelock Place, the latter for which it will want more than $1.1 billion, according to the people. That’s in part because Scotts Square has faced challenges despite its prime location, including a higher tenant turnover and weaker footfall relative to other malls in the retail strip, the people said.
Scotts Square contains roughly 130,900 square feet of retail space. The freehold asset was marketed at a guide price of $450 million by property consultancy Savills Plc in early 2024, and no sale ensued. CBRE Group Inc has been marketing the property this year at around $400 million, the people said.
A Wharf representative declined to comment, while CBRE didn’t respond to queries from Bloomberg.
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Wheelock Place, with an iconic cone-shaped atrium, was built more than three decades ago and has a lease expiring in 2089. It has about 465,800 square feet of retail and office space.
Despite a few major deals in recent years in the retail strip, the buyer base has proved relatively narrow for the assets there. Most recently, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, Singapore’s largest real estate investment trust, bought luxury mall Paragon for $3.9 billion from units of Temasek Holdings, the state investor that backs the REIT.
Uploaded by Evelyn Chan
