While improvements and expansion efforts of the TriNoma, Glorietta, Greenbelt, and Ayala Center Cebu are 40-60 percent complete, the property giant is seeing sales and lease rates pick up as its mall refresh continues.
“The renovations are on track and it’s creating a lot of excitement with tenants,” Mariana Zobel de Ayala, senior vice president and head of leasing and hospitality at Ayala Land, said during a media event on Thursday.
“With some of the [leasing area] that we’ve already replaced with new concepts, we’ve seen sales double for those, in some cases more,” she added.
Higher rents, foot traffic
Zobel said rent increases in those spaces were above the 15-20 percent previously announced, meaning tenants were willing to absorb higher costs given the increase in business activity.
This was supported by an increase in mall foot traffic, which grew 10 percent last year.
“This year, we’ve also identified about 30,000 square meters that we’re going to be refreshing in terms of concept. So beyond just the physical experience, also we’re focusing on the programming within the mall,” she explained.
New shopping malls on the way
Ayala Land continues to invest in new malls as retail commercial spaces provide steady revenue while other real estate segments experience volatile swings.
For 2025, Ayala Land will unveil 78,000 sqm of new retail space—an increase over its mall leasable area of about 2.1 million sqm.
But the scale of the expansion grows larger when considering its ongoing and planned projects.
This expansion figure grows even larger when considering ongoing and planned renovations.
“Including the renovations, we have about 700,000 square meters of mall space that’s currently either under planning or construction. So we have a lot of conviction in the market,” Zobel said.
Miguel R. Camus has been a reporter covering various domestic business topics since 2009.