SUBSCRIBERS

Property investment sales surge to 3-year high

S$22.5b tally in 2016 is up 31% from last year; office outshines residential but trend may reverse in 2017, say consultants

Kalpana Rashiwala

Published Thu, Dec 29, 2016 · 09:50 PM

Singapore property

Singapore

IT'S been a banner year for big-ticket property transactions of at least S$10 million each. As at Dec 23, the tally stood at S$22.5 billion - up 31 per cent from 2015's S$17.2 billion, going by Savills Singapore's figures. CBRE and Cushman & Wakefield have similar numbers.

This year's tally of property investment sales, as these transactions are also known, is the highest in three years and has been supported by two mega deals - BlackRock's S$3.38 billion sale of Asia Square Tower 1 to Qatar Investment Authority and the government's S$2.57 billion sale of a white site slated for mostly office use along Central Boulevard to a unit of IOI Properties Group.

CBRE's data points to S$10.1 billion of office investment sales deals this year (up to Dec 20). This gave the sector the lion's share or 44 per cen…