Singapore industrial rents, prices continue to fall; vacancy rises

PRICES and rentals of industrial space in Singapore continue to fall in tandem with occupancy rates, while vacancy rates edge upward, a report has found.

Prices for overall industrial property market in the second quarter fell 6.5 per cent year on year and 2.3 per cent quarter on quarter, JTC Corporation's latest statistics released on Thursday show.

Industrial rents fell 6.1 per cent year on year and 1.7 per cent quarter on quarter.

Vacancy rates rose to 10.6 per cent, up 0.7 per cent from the last quarter.

"Prices and rentals of industrial space continued to soften following the increase in supply of industrial land and space in recent years," JTC said in its report.

In the second half of 2016, about 1.6 million square metres of industrial space - including 320,000 square metres of multiple-user factory space - is estimated to come on-stream.

An additional two million square metres of industrial space, including 490,000 square metres of multiple-user factory space, is expected to be completed in 2017.

This is higher than the average annual supply and demand of around 1.8 million square metres and 1.2 million square metres respectively in the past three years, JTC said.

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