Singapore office rents up 1.3% in second quarter; islandwide vacancy rises to 12.6%

URA's price index for office space in the central region rose 0.9 per cent in the second quarter over the previous quarter. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI

SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - The Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) rental index for office space in Singapore's central region rose 1.3 per cent in the second quarter of this year (2021) over the previous quarter.

This is a smaller increase compared with the 3.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter rise in the first quarter.

URA's price index for office space in the central region rose 0.9 per cent in the second quarter, contrasting with the 2.7 per cent drop in the previous quarter.

Islandwide, as at the end of the second quarter, there was a total supply of about 697,000 sq m gross floor area of office space in the pipeline, lower than the 761,000 sq m as at the end of the previous quarter.

The amount of occupied office space shrank by 23,000 sq m net lettable area (NLA) in the second quarter of this year, after contracting by 19,000 sq m in the previous quarter. On the other hand, the stock of office space grew by 34,000 sq m NLA in the second quarter, after shrinking by 9,000 sq m in the previous quarter.

As a result, the islandwide vacancy rate of office space climbed to 12.6 per cent as at the end of the second quarter, from 11.9 per cent as at the end of the first quarter.

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