Office and retail rentals reverse direction, head south in Q1

Singapore

RENTALS of office and retail space reversed direction to dip in the first three months of 2019, owing to uncertainties in the business outlook and continued woes in the retail sector.

Going by official figures from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Friday, rentals in the central region of Singapore slipped by 0.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2019, in contrast with the increase of 0.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2018. This was the first quarterly drop since Q2 2017.

CBRE South-east Asia's head of research Desmond Sim said the correction in rentals could be due to the contrasting performances of good-quality office buildings in the core Central Business District (CBD) versus the older and less well-located offi…