SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) – Rents of office space in the central region of Singapore fell 3.5 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2020 over the previous three months, a smaller rate of decline compared with the 4.5 per cent drop in the third quarter, figures released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) showed on Friday (Jan 22).
For the whole of 2020, the rental index slipped 8.5 per cent, after falling 3.1 per cent in 2019.
URA’s fourth-quarter data also showed that prices of office space in the central region decreased 3.1 per cent, contrasting with an increase of 0.2 per cent in the previous quarter.
For the whole of 2020, prices of office space shrank 10.7 per cent, compared with the decrease of 0.6 per cent in 2019.
Islandwide, as at the end of Q4 2020, there was a total supply of about 770,000 square metres (sq m) gross floor area of office space in the pipeline, compared with the 767,000 sq m in the previous quarter.
The amount of occupied office space increased by 2,000 sq m of net lettable area (NLA) in Q4 2020, compared with the decrease of 19,000 sq m in the previous quarter.
The stock of office space decreased by 13,000 sq m NLA in Q4 2020, compared with the decrease of 33,000 sq m in the previous quarter.
As a result, the islandwide vacancy rate of office space decreased to 11.8 per cent as at end-Q4 2020, from 12 per cent as at the end of the previous quarter.