Singapore Office Rents Down 3.5% In Q3

SINGAPORE – Office rents in the city-state dipped by 3.5 percent during the 3rd quarter of this year compared to the prior 3-month period, according to the latest data published by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Friday morning (22 October, SGT).

The figure is a reversal of the 1.3 percent quarter-on-quarter uptick seen in Q2 2021. On a yearly basis, office rents in Singapore have slid by 2.55 percent during the period under review.

URA’s 3rd Quarter 2021 Real Estate Statistics also show that office prices in Singapore marginally declined by 2.4 percent quarter-on-quarter in Q3 2021. This is worse than the 0.9 percent incremental quarterly gain in Q2 2021. Year-on-year, office prices have fallen by 7.08 percent during the third quarter.

At the end of the period under review, overall office supply in the pipeline reached about 755,000 sq m or 8.13 million sq ft in gross floor area (GFA), compared with the 697,000 sq m (7.5 million sq ft) in the previous quarter and 767,000 sq m (8.26 million sq ft) in Q3 2020.

“The amount of occupied office space decreased by 5,000 sq m or 53,820 sq ft (nett) in the 3rd quarter, compared with the decrease of 23,000 sq m or 247,570 sq ft in the previous quarter,” noted the government agency.

“The stock of office space increased by 26,000 sq m or 279,862 sq ft in the 3rd quarter, compared with the increase of 34,000 sq m or 365,973 sq ft in the previous quarter.”

Consequently, island-wide vacancy level of office space in Singapore increased to 12.9 percent in Q3 2021 from 12.6 percent in the prior quarter and 12.0 percent in Q3 2020, added the URA.