SINGAPORE - Rents of retail space in the central region of Singapore declined 1.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2019 over the previous three months, after dipping 0.2 per cent in the first quarter of this year, according to data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Friday (July 26).

URA's price index of retail space in the central region rose by 0.4 per cent in the second quarter of 2019 over the previous quarter, contrasting with the drop of 1.9 per cent in the first quarter .

As at the end of second quarter of 2019, there was a total supply of 320,000 square metres in gross floor area (GFA) of retail space from projects in the pipeline, compared with the 364,000 sq m of space as at the end of the previous quarter.

The amount of occupied retail space increased by 74,000 sq m in net lettable area (NLA) in the second quarter, compared with a decrease of 14,000 sq m in the previous quarter. The stock of retail space rose by 18,000 sq m NLA, compared with the decrease of 2,000 sq m in the previous quarter.

As a result, the islandwide vacancy rate of retail space decreased to 7.7 per cent at the end of Q2 2019, from 8.7 per cent at the end of the previous quarter.