Starhill Global Real Estate Investment Trust (SGReit) is rolling out rental rebates and marketing assistance for tenants at its two Singapore properties, Wisma Atria and Ngee Ann City in Orchard Road.

Its move follows similar steps by CapitaLand, Frasers Property and SPH Reit amid the virus crisis.

A one-time rental rebate - which will be "more than the property tax rebate" announced in Budget 2020 - will be disbursed to qualifying tenants, SGReit's manager said yesterday, without disclosing the amount.

The Government has urged landlords of private commercial property to pass this 15 per cent tax rebate to tenants by reducing rents.

Starhill will also offer rental rebates to the tenant at its China retail property in Chengdu, which is on a fixed rent lease arrangement.

The property contributed less than 1 per cent of the group's net property income for the financial year ended June 30, 2019.

The trust is also giving tenants the flexibility to operate shorter hours to help them reduce costs.

Wisma Atria will provide parking redemption and other promotions to attract shoppers to the mall.

"We recognise the difficulties that our tenants are facing during this trying time," said Mr Ho Sing, chief executive officer of the manager.

The manager said it is still too early to ascertain the virus outbreak's full financial impact on SGReit although it does not expect the support measures for tenants to have a material impact on the distribution per unit for the year ending June 30.

About 49.1 per cent of gross rent in SGReit's portfolio came from master and anchor retail leases as of Dec 31 last year. Most of the retail leases are based on fixed base rent with minimal turnover rent.

The office portfolio contributed 13.4 per cent of SGReit's gross revenue for the quarter to Dec 31 last year.

Its retail and office portfolio also includes one property in China, two in Malaysia, two in Japan and three in Australia.

THE BUSINESS TIMES