URA: S'pore retail, office rents dropped in Q1 amid pandemic

According to the data released by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Friday (24 April), both retail and office rents and prices in Singapore declined in Q1 of the year as businesses are battered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the central region, rents and prices of office space fell for a second consecutive quarter.
In the January to March period, office rents dropped by 0.8 per cent. However, this is less than the 3.2 per cent decline in the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, there was a decline in the prices of office space by 4 per cent, as compared to the previous quarter drop by 0.5 per cent.
A total supply of around 682,000 sq m gross floor area (GFA) of office space remained in the pipeline at the end of last month. Comparatively, there was 753,000 sq m in the last quarter.
In Q1, the amount of occupied office space fell by a net 7,000 sq m whereas there was a 30,000 sq m increase in the previous quarter.
As for the stock of office space, it rose by a net 33,000 sq m, compared with the rise in the last quarter by 29,000 sq m. Due to this, at the end of March, the nationwide vacancy rate of office space increased to 11 per cent from 10.5 per cent at the end of last year.
Compared to the 2.3 per cent rose in Q4 of last year, rents of mall space in the central region in January to March this year declined by 2.3 per cent.
In the central region, prices of retail space dropped 3.1 per cent compared to the 1.8 per cent increase in the last quarter.
The total supply of retail space from projects in the pipeline was 358,000 sq m GFA at the end of Q1 this year. This is more than the end of the previous quarter at 333,000 sq m.
The amount of occupied retail space of net lettable area (NLA) dropped by 43,000 sq m, compared to the increase in the last quarter by 26,000 sq m.
After increasing by 29,000 sq m in the last quarter, the stock of retail space declined by 15,000 sq m NLA.
Therefore, by the end of last month, the nationwide vacancy rate of retail space increased to 8 per cent, compared to 7.5 per cent at the end of last year.