For office decentralisation to work, supply of non-CBD space must expand to improve rental draw

DECENTRALISATION was first mooted in Singapore in the 1991 Concept Plan. A hierarchy of commercial centres ranging from fringe, sub-regional and regional centres fanning out from the Central Area was proposed as a means to bring work closer to home and alleviate congestion in the city centre.

Fast forward 25 years and prime decentralised office stock, which has stagnated at two million sq ft since 2007, constituted just 10 per cent of total CBD prime office stock as of the end of 2016.

This can be attributed partly to the lower supply of land released for office development in the decentralised areas compared to that in the CBD in the last ten years.

In fact, the land supply released via public land sale initiatives, such as the Government Land Sales (GLS) programme for office development in the decentralised area since 2007, would hardly be sufficient to replace the older, obsolete stock, much of which has been de…