SUBSCRIBERS

Q1 negative net office absorption sign of worse to come

Office rent correction, negative net demand in Q1 URA data are tip of the iceberg: analysts

Kalpana Rashiwala

Published Fri, Apr 24, 2020 · 09:50 PM

Singapore property

Singapore

HIT by the Covid-19 outbreak which added to the headwinds from the unresolved US-China trade tensions from last year, net office absorption in Singapore in the first quarter of this year shrank for the first time in 12 quarters.

This led to the third consecutive quarter-on-quarter correction in the Urban Redevelopment Authority's office rental index for the central region.

"We are of the view that the Q1 2020 contraction in net absorption and rent correction is only the tip of the iceberg," said JLL's head of research and consultancy for Singapore, Tay Huey Ying. "The depth of…