SINGAPORE - Rents of office space in Singapore's central region rose 1.6 per cent in the second quarter of this year over the prevous three months, property data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Friday (July 27) showed.

This is a smaller gain compared with the 2.6 per cent increase in the previous quarter but marks the fourth consecutive quarter-on-quarter rise in the index since it last bottomed in the second quarter of last year. The index is up 9.4 per cent from that trough.

Prices of office space in the central region rose 1.9 per cent in second quarter, compared with the 1.3 per cent increase in the previous quarter.

As at the end of the second quarter of 2018, there was a total supply of about 725,000 square metres gross floor area (GFA) of office space in the pipeline, compared with the 791,000 sq m GFA in the previous quarter.

The amount of occupied office space expanded 74,000 sq m net lettable area (NLA) in Q2 2018, compared with the increase of 14,000 sq m NLA in the previous quarter. The stock of office space rose 60,000 sq m 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 office space dropped to 12.2 per cent as at the end of the second quarter of this year, from 12.5 per cent at the end of the previous quarter.