Industrial property prices soar in Q3

Investors turn to industrial space, deterred by curbs for home market

Prices of industrial property shot up in the third quarter and are now nearly 30 per cent ahead of their level at the start of the year, said analysts on Monday.

Rents were also up slightly in the three months to Sept 30 - which saw the twelfth month of gains - adding further to the cost pressures on small and medium- sized enterprises. The gains in capital values were the most dramatic. Prices were up 8.8 per cent in the three months to Sept 30 compared with the previous quarter, said the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) yesterday.

That rise came on the heels of a 7.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter increase in the first three months of the year and an 8.4 per cent increase in the June quarter. The relentless increases drove the URA's overall industrial property price index to a record high.

In the third quarter, the index was 14.7 per cent above the previous peak in the first quarter of 1997, noted Ms Chia Siew Chuin, director of research and advisory at consultancy Colliers International.