Industrial prices, rents continue decline in Q4, but occupancies inch up: JTC

PRICES of industrial space in Singapore fell a further 3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2016, while rentals dipped 0.5 per cent, according to official JTC statistics released on Thursday morning. For the full year, industrial prices and rentals have retreated 9.1 per cent and 6.8 per cent respectively.

Occupancy levels bucked a falling trend to increase 0.4 percentage points to 89.5 per cent in the fourth quarter, but compared to a year ago, they are still down 1.1 per cent.

JTC has been aggressively ramping up supply to arrest prices and rentals in recent years.

In 2016, it increased the total stock of industrial space by 1.8 million square metres.

In 2017, about 2.4 million sq m of industrial space, which includes 548,000 sq m of multiple-user factory space, is estimated to come onstream.

The state industrial landlord said this is higher than the average annual supply and demand of around 1.8 million sq m and 1.3 million sq m respectively in the past three years.

"This is likely to exert further downward pressure on occupancy rates, prices and rentals, translating to reduced business cost for industrialists," it said.