VIABILITY OF NEW GENERATION NEIGHBOURHOOD CENTRES

Abstract

The new concept of neighbourhood shopping complexes by HDB has been implemented in public housing estates all over Singapore. Many empirical studies have been done on shops developed by HDB and private developers. Using Fajar Shopping Centre and Greenridge Shopping Centre as case studies, the aims of this study are to investigate if two similarly designed institutions are complements or substitutes and to suggest recommendations to help increase the performance of the new generation neighbourhood centres. Like most shopping centres, they play a certain degree of substitution to each other but in the midst of the opposing forces, there lies many complementarities. From the statistical analysis, it is found that the respondents have a higher level of satisfaction for Greenridge Shopping Centre and there is no choice preference between the neighbourhood centre they frequent and where they live. Overall, it is found that Greenridge Shopping Centre is a better-liked new generation neighbourhood centre than Fajar Shopping Centre. The respondents chose Greenridge Shopping Centre over Fajar Shopping Centre due to its convenience, elaborate external facade and the myriad provision of goods and services. The challenges for the new generation neighbourhood centres come from both macro and micro aspects. As an ending note, the author feels that the essential issue is to change the poor image of the new generation neighbourhood centres and cultivate shoppers' loyalty.