Office vacancy rate surges to 10.4% at end-Q3: URA

URBAN Redevelopment Authority data released on Friday morning shows that its office rental index fell 1.1 per cent in the third quarter of this year over the second quarter.

This is a smaller drop than the 3.5 per cent per cent quarter-on-quarter decline in Q2.

URA's office price index fell 0.4 per cent q-o-q in Q3 2016 - also a smaller decline compared with the 1.5 per cent drop in Q2.

As at the end of Q3 2016, there was a total supply of about 879,000 square metres gross floor area of office space in the pipeline.

URA said that the amount of occupied office space fell by 5,000 sq m (net) in Q3 2016, against an increase of 30,000 sq m in the previous quarter. The stock of office space rose 101,000 sq m (net) in Q3 2016, compared with the increase of 27,000 sq m in the previous quarter. As a result, the islandwide office vacancy rate as at end-Q3 2016 surged to 10.4 per cent, from 9.1 per cent as at end-Q2 2016.