Further downside seen for industrial occupancy, rents, prices

Singapore

THE supply of industrial space this year and the next is expected to exert further downward pressures on occupancy rates, JTC said on Thursday as it released data showing a continual slide in industrial prices and rents in the fourth quarter of last year.

While it stressed "the wide options available for industrialists planning to expand their operations", consultants reckoned that such business expansion may not be forthcoming in current economic conditions and hence, rents and prices of industrial space may dip further.

"The dark cloud over the industrial and manufacturing landscape is not likely to lift in the immediate term," said JLL head of research for South East Asia and Singapore Chua Yang Liang. "As global demand remains weak with little improvement expected…