IMPACTS OF NON-COMMERCIAL SPACES ON THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF RETAIL MALLS

Abstract

With land use development getting denser and more high-rise, vertical or skyrise greenery has been emphasized and promoted by the Singapore authority, to uphold the image of a ‘Garden City’. Vertical or skyrise greenery has been incorporated in different types of properties, namely residential, commercial and industrial. Therefore, it is critical to analyze the impacts of such skyrise greenery on the performance of real estate developments. This research paper examines the impacts of rskyrise greenery, in this case non-commercial spaces, on retail malls. Surveys have been conducted at six retail malls to find out the impacts of non-commercial spaces on the overall attractiveness of the malls. Majority of the respondents indicate that the presence of non-commercial spaces enhances the attractiveness of the malls. Although not being the most critical factors in determining the attractiveness of retail malls, the presence of non-commercial spaces attracts shoppers and encourages longer stay in the malls. Descriptive analysis, One-Way ANOVA, Independent-samples T-Test and Pearson’s Chi-square tests are carried out to analyze the survey results. Test results indicate that there are differences among gender, age and marital status in terms of shoppers’ perception towards non-commercial spaces. Occupation, on the other hand, is found to have no impacts on shoppers’ perception.