Ascendas REIT scrambles to find tenants for Singapore properties

Its occupancy rate fell from 90.1% to 88.8%.

Ascendas REIT suffered some headaches as its Singapore portfolio occupancy dipped from 90.1% in Q2 to 88.8% in Q3, dragging its overall occupancy to 91.1%.

According to UOB Kay Hian, there were lower occupancies at 40 Penjuru Lane, Techpoint, and The Alpha.

Ascendas REIT said it's already in negotiations with prospective tenants for its vacant spaces.

A silver lining is that the rental reversion for its overall portfolio turned positive to 3.1%.

The Singapore portfolio had a 5.8% reversion for leases renewed in multi-tenant buildings.

Going forward, management expects rent reversion to be flat, or subdued, in view of the new supply of industrial properties coming on board as well as lower anticipated demand.

Meanwhile, the REIT's Australian portfolio occupancy also declined from 98.7% to 98.5%, mainly due to the termination of a licence space at 162 Australis Drive in Melbourne.

It saw negative rent reversions of 1%.