INVADE wants to matchmake landlords and retailers in Singapore

INVADE, Singapore’s first real-time retail space booking system, has gone live. The platform allows online matching and booking of retail space requirements in real-time. More than 35,000 retail businesses, startups and entrepreneurs are already INVADE members.

INVADE is the brainchild of two Singaporeans – Koh Cheng Guan and Kent Teo, who have worked with major landlords, marketed pop-up and retail spaces as well as organised flea market events in the past. The two discovered that entrepreneurs spend a lot of time looking for appropriate retail spaces, while landlords want to fill underutilised space, driving the need for a match-making service.

INVADE aims to bridge the gap by simplifying the process of publicising an available space and of paying for it. Spaces can range from shelves and tables to booth space at a flea market to traditional shop spaces. Entrepreneurs go through a four-step process: browse, compare, pay, start to start selling products, while landlords have the three-step process of list, consider tenants, receive payment. 

Transactions can be completed within minutes, the company said. The founders also found that there are far fewer locally-made products and brands in Singapore compared to home-grown equivalents in other countries, and believe that INVADE will help local brands get more exposure.

INVADE’s Co-Founder and Strategic Marketing Manager Koh Cheng Guan said, “INVADE provides an efficient, secure and transparent way for businesses to search and list spaces. It also allows our local entrepreneurs and home-grown products an opportunity to compete with top retail brands in prominent spaces.”

“Retailers are able to book spaces based on their business model and needs, all under one site,” added Kent Teo, INVADE’s Co-Founder and Business Development Manager. 

Interested?

List space. A 10% booking fee applies

Organise an event, rent or buy space. A description of the business and visuals of the merchandise to be sold may be required.

Muted outlook for the Singapore commercial market

Rents and prices of office spaces in Singapore are expected to stay relatively flat in H2 2015 amid softening demand for office space and growing concerns over the rise in office space supply over the next two years, says the PropertyGuru Group in its property outlook report for the second half of 2015.

The Asian online property portal group predicted that transactional activity in H2 2015 is expected to pick up slightly due to supply-led demand from the launches of new strata-titled office units such as the 28-floor GSH Plaza, a remodelled building in the central business district with a total of 259 strata office units. The expected date of vacant possession: 31 August 2017 and the expected date of legal completion for the building is 31 August 2020 however.

Savills says Singapore office rents will continue upward for 2014

Savills World Research has released its Q3 report for the Singapore office sector, dated October. The research arm for the real estate firm says an imbalance in demand and supply means that landlords can have more of a say on rents, which have gone up more than in Q2.

Demand is driven by startups and growing businesses, mainly from the IT and telecommunications industry and in the legal space, a delay in the completion of a major office building in the city and unexpected refurbishment works at other office complex.

Savills expects that rents for "Grade A" offices, those in the central business district, are likely to rise further this year, but will stabilise in 2015. 

Read the full report here.