Experts Slightly More Upbeat On Singapore Office Market
SINGAPORE – Industry executives and experts have become slightly more optimistic over the current state of the city-state’s office sector, but they are now more downbeat over its outlook, according to the latest Real Estate Sentiment Index (RESI) published by the National University of Singapore (NUS) Real Estate (NUS+RE) last week.
In Q1 2023, the current net balance improved marginally to 16 percent from 13 percent during the preceding quarter. But over the same period, the future net balance deteriorated sharply from 0 percent to -24 percent.
Notably, the current net balance refers to the overall outlook of respondents on how Singapore’s office market fared from now and until the last six months. On the other hand, the future net balance pertains to their expectations for the next six months.
Meanwhile, the current net balance for business parks and hi-tech space dipped from 0 percent during the fourth quarter of 2022 to -3 percent, while it saw an uptick in its future net balance dropped from -9 percent to 3 percent.
In Q1 2023, the top potential risks for Singapore’s overall property market identified by the respondents were a slowdown in the global economy with 87.9 percent of the respondents saying so, followed by rising interest rates (75.8 percent).
In Q4 2022, rising interest rates was the number one risk identified (100 percent), followed by a slowdown in the global economy (90.6 percent).
Notably, RESI objectively gauges the confidence of senior executives and industry experts in Singapore’s real estate and development industry. The survey gauges respondents’ perceptions and expectations regarding current and future property market conditions. Respondents include developers, consultants, financial institutions, professional firms and service providers.
