URA office rent index for central region falls 3.5% q-o-q in Q3; vacancy rises to 12.9%

Oct 22, 2021

THE Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) rental index for office space in Singapore's central region fell 3.5 per cent in the third quarter of this year over the previous quarter. This contrasts with the 1.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter rise in Q2 2021.

URA's price index for office space in the central region slipped 2.4 per cent in the third quarter, against the increase of 0.9 per cent in the previous quarter.

Islandwide, as at the end of Q3 2021, there was a total supply of about 755,000 square metres gross floor area (GFA) of office space in the pipeline, higher than the 697,000 sq m at the end of the previous quarter.

Net demand, as measured by the amount of occupied office space, shrank by 5,000 sq m net lettable area (NLA) in Q3 2021, after contracting by 23,000 sq m in the previous quarter.

On the other hand, the stock of office space rose 26,000 sq m NLA in Q3 2021, after expanding by 34,000 sq m in the previous quarter.

As a result, the islandwide vacancy rate of office space climbed to 12.9 per cent as at end-Q3 2021, from 12.6 per cent as at end-Q2 2021.