Seven empty heritage shophouses on Jonker Walk are being put back on the market. The Melaka Islamic Religious Council (MAIM) said on 3 September 2026 that it will offer rental holidays of three to six months, plus discounts of up to three years, to tenants willing to restore the buildings under local-council conservation rules. Of 32 waqf premises on the street, 25 are already let. The remaining seven sat damaged and closed.
What has already been cleared
MAIM secretary Shaifulfazlee Mohamad told Bernama that five of the seven badly damaged units along Jalan Hang Kasturi and Jalan Kuli were cleaned from mid-August at a cost of RM42,000. That covered tree cutting, pest control and site clearing. Safety barriers went up on the risky ones. Damaged structure is marked so a prospective tenant can price the repair, not guess it from the pavement.
Base rents were set using Valuation and Property Services Department rates, from RM700 to RM2,600 a month. Three business proposals are already in, and MAIM is checking whether those bidders can actually finish a heritage restoration, not just occupy a shell. These are permanent waqf assets. They cannot be sold. Rent from the 25 occupied units already pays staff, programmes and upkeep at Masjid Kampung Hulu and Masjid Kampung Kling, the two mosques that sit inside the same Harmony Street stretch visitors walk between the Chinese temple and the Hindu temple.
Galleries, shops, offices, rooms. Syariah still applies.
There is no ban on galleries, offices, retail or concept lodging, Shaifulfazlee said, as long as the use complies with syariah. That is the constraint that will shape what you see if the seven units fill. A cocktail bar is a non-starter. A textile shop, a homestay, a studio, a small office for a heritage trade, those fit. Interested operators were told to call MAIM's Property Development Division rental unit, not to camp outside a boarded facade with a cash offer.
If you walk Jonker this month you will still hit the usual Friday-to-Sunday night market from about 6pm. The empty waqf lots are the dead teeth in that smile: hoardings, barriers, a gap in the shophouse run. Filling them will not change the satay smoke. It will change whether that stretch feels like a street or a film set with missing buildings.
How this sits in a September visit
Mid-Autumn Festival is Friday 25 September. Cheng Hoon Teng is the temple people walk to that night. The waqf block sits on the same tourist grid. If you are here for lanterns, you will pass the boarded units whether you mean to or not. Malaysia Day on 16 September is a Wednesday, so Jonker will not be in full night-market mode. Use that quieter weekday if you want to look at the facades without a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd.
Do not treat this as a shopping opening. Nothing in the seven units is trading yet. Three proposals is not seven leases. The useful visitor fact is simpler: Jonker still has holes, MAIM is trying to fill them with conservation-grade tenants, and the rent from the street's waqf stock already keeps two of the old town's mosques running.
Practical details
- Dates: Announced 3 September 2026; restoration and leasing ongoing
- Time: Jonker Walk night market Friday to Sunday, about 6pm to midnight
- Venue: Waqf premises on Jalan Hang Kasturi and Jalan Kuli, Jonker Walk, 75200 Melaka
- Nearest transit: Bandar Hilir; walk from Dutch Square across the river
- Price: Base rents RM700 to RM2,600 a month for incoming tenants; street and night market free to walk
- Website: BERNAMA on the MAIM Jonker Walk offer