Singapore office rents fall 0.8% q-o-q in Q1 2020: URA

RENTALS of office space in the central region of Singapore fell 0.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2020 over the previous three months, a smaller decline compared with the 3.2 per cent drop in the fourth quarter of 2019.

Figures released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Friday also showed that prices of office space in the central region contracted by 4 per cent in Q1 2020, a much biggger drop than the 0.5 per cent decline in the previous quarter.

Islandwide, as at the end of the first quarter of 2020, there was a total supply of about 682,000 square metres (sq m) gross floor area of office space in the pipeline, lower than the 753,000 sq m at the end of the previous quarter.

The amount of occupied office space shrank by 7,000 sq m of net lettable area (NLA) in the first quarter of 2020, contrasting with an increase of 30,000 sq m in the previous quarter. On the other hand, the stock of office space expanded by 33,000 sq m of NLA in the first quarter, after increasing 29,000 sq m in the previous quarter.

As a result, the islandwide vacancy rate of office space rose to 11 per cent as at the end of Q1 2020, from 10.5 per cent as at the end of the previous quarter.