SINGAPORE - Part of the basement of the VivoCity shopping mall at Harbourfront is set to undergo a $5.5 million renovation later this year, its owner said on Friday.

Mapletree Commercial Trust (MCT) said in a statement that it plans to create about 15,000 square feet of new retail space at VivoCity's basement 1 level, which is directly linked to the Harbourfront MRT station.

It said this as it posted a 9.4 per cent jump in distribution per unit (DPU) to 1.97 cents for its second quarter from the previous year.

Besides VivoCity, the real estate investment trust also owns Bank of America Merrill Lynch HarbourFront, PSA Building and Mapletree Anson.

The trust's income available for distribution climbed 11 per cent to $41.4 million from the previous year.

Net property income for the three months to Sept 30 rose 8.8 per cent to $52.1 million on the back of a 6.3 per cent increase in gross revenue to $70 million from a year ago.

Chief executive Amy Ng said that "while the market conditions have presented challenges for retailers and F&B (food and beverage) operators in general over the past few quarters, VivoCity is still well-received by shoppers and well-supported by our tenants".

For the new retail space planned, the trust said it will convert car park and ancillary space and turn some "lower-yielding" space into prime retail area to capitalise on foot traffic from the MRT station.

The renovation work in the VivoCity basement is expected to start in the final three months of this year and be completed by the end of September next year.

MCT units rose a cent to $1.46 on Friday before the announcement.