Singapore's retail rents slip 1.1% in Q2, vacancy rate eases to 7.3%: URA

THE Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) rental index of retail space in the central region slipped 1.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2018 over the previous three months.

This reversed a 0.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter gain in the previous quarter.

The URA's price index of retail space in the central region also fell 1.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter in Q2 2018, after inching up 0.1 per cent in Q1 2018.

The supply pipeline has tightened, with projects as at the end of Q2 2018 due to add 498,000 square metres of gross floor area (GFA) of retail space, down from the 530,000 sq m GFA in the previous quarter.

The amount of occupied net lettable retail space increased by 21,000 sq m in Q2 2018, after remaining unchanged in the previous quarter.

The stock of retail space expanded 10,000 sq m in net lettable area (NLA) in Q2 2018, compared with the increase of 11,000 sq m NLA in the previous quarter.

As a result, the islandwide vacancy rate of retail space fell to 7.3 per cent as at the end of Q2 2018, from 7.5 per cent as at the end of the previous quarter.