Office rents rise, retail rents fall in Q1: URA

THE pace of rental increase in the office sector showed signs of weakness in the first quarter as office rents rose 0.6 per cent quarter on quarter, after a 1.7 per cent increase in the fourth quarter.

Prices of office space decreased by 0.1 per cent in the first quarter, compared with an increase of 2.4 per cent in the previous quarter, latest data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) shows.

URA Q1 release of real estate statistics also shows there was a total supply of about 880,000 sq m gross floor area (GFA) of office space in the pipeline as at the end of Q1.

The amount of occupied office space increased by a net 19,000 sq m, compared to a net 6,000 sq m decrease in the previous quarter. The stock of office space increased by a net 22,000 sq m in the first quarter, compared to the increase of a net 145,000 sq m in the previous quarter.

As a result, the island-wide vacancy rate of office space at the end of the first quarter remained unchanged at 10.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, retail rents decreased by 0.3 per cent in Q1, after a 0.5 per cent increase in Q4 last year. Prices of retail space remained unchanged in the first quarter, after an increase of 1.5 per cent in the previous quarter.

As at the end of Q1, there was a total retail space supply of 723,000 sq m in GFA from projects in the pipeline.