Office Rents In South Beach & DUO Similar To Raffles Place, Marina Bay
SINGAPORE – Real estate consultancy Knight Frank revealed that even though DUO and South Beach are situated outside of the core central business district (CBD), office space in these two mixed-use developments are now on par with those in Raffles Place and Marina Bay, reported The Edge on Friday morning (19 August, SGT).
Alice Tan, Head of consultancy in Singapore at Knight Frank, noted that monthly office rents in DUO and South Beach now surpass S$10 psf, while that in Raffles Place and Marina Bay range from about S$9 psf to S$12 psf.
Factors for the robust performance is the premium quality of the buildings. Apart from having unique design and architecture, they also have Green Mark Platinum certification. Another huge factor is connectivity – South Beach is located adjacent to the Esplanade MRT Station, while DUO is linked to the Bugis MRT Interchange Station.
Notably, the South Beach integrated project was completed in 2016 by a consortium led by City Developments (CDL). It features 190 high-end homes, a 654-key hotel, and 510,000 sq ft of office space.
As for Duo, it was built by M+S, a joint venture (JV) between Singapore’s Temasek and Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional. It contains a 342-key hotel, 660 residences, 56,000 sq ft of retail space, and 570,000 sq ft of office space.
Combined, Duo and the South Beach integrated project have almost 1.1 million sq ft of Grade A office space. Notable tenants include French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi, which leased about 53,000 sq ft at South Beach, while Mastercard and American medical devices company Abbot Labs respectively occupied 74,000 sq ft and 100,000 sq ft at DUO.
Tan shared that two mixed-use developments support an overall rising trend in office rents for the Beach Road-Bugis areas, which has resumed increased after falling during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the 2nd quarter, Grade A office rents in the Middle Road and Beach Road area edged up by 1.1 percent on a quarterly basis. The figure is similar to the pace of growth for prime grade office rents in Marina Bay and Raffles Place, indicating solid and sustained demand from office tenants.
The robust demand for office in the Beach Road/Bugis area bodes well for the next major project in the vicinity, namely Guoco Midtown. The S$2.4 billion mixed-use project at Beach Road will feature 770,000 sq ft of Grade A office space and is expected to be completed in stages starting from the last quarter of this year.
