http://www.straitstimes.com/business...ess-park-space

S'pore 'may run out of business park space'

Of the seven projects in the pipeline, only Mapletree Business City II (above) and Ascent offer "significant scale".

Jul 3, 2015, 5:50 am SGT

No new space available from end of next year despite clear appetite, says consultancy

Joyce Lim


Most of the business park space under development has already been leased, raising fears of a shortage in a year or two, said consultancy CBRE yesterday .

Its analysis indicates there is 2.93 million sq ft of space due to be completed over the next 18 months, with almost 60 per cent locked in by tenants. There is no new space available from the end of next year.

Mr Michael Tay, CBRE's executive director of office services, said in a statement: "Occupiers with requirements for quality business park space have very limited options at present. There is clear appetite for business park space, given the consistently high pre-commitment levels of business park projects. The approach by the Government to the sale of developable business-park-zoned land has been somewhat underwhelming.

"We believe this has contributed to the lack of speculatively built business park space. The market would benefit from an allocation of quality business park space to private developers for the development of more multi-user projects."

Pharmaceutical and technology firms continued to drive demand with 306,000 sq ft of space taken up in the second quarter, said CBRE. Rents have moved little, staying level in the city fringe at a monthly rate of $5.50 per sq ft and $3.85 psf in the rest of the island sub-markets.

There are seven projects in the pipeline but only Mapletree Business City II (MBC II) and Ascent at Singapore Science Park offer business park space of "significant scale and quality specifications", it said. Tech giant Google has secured 270,000 sq ft at MBC II while medical equipment supply company Covidien has leased 56,000 sq ft.