Retail rents, prices down; vacancy up in Q1: URA

THE Urban Redevelopment Authority said on Friday morning that its retail property rental index slipped 2.9 per cent in the first quarter of this year over the fourth quarter of last year.

This is a bigger slide than the 1.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter drop in the index in Q4 2016.

URA's retail property price index retreated 4 per cent q-o-q in Q1 2017, after inching up 0.2 per cent in Q4 2016

The islandwide vacancy rate for retail space worsened to 7.7 per cent at end-Q1 2017 from 7.5 per cent at end-Q4 2016.