Chart of the Day: Office space values in Raffles Place plateau at $2,640 psf

Office sales is off to a good start.

According to Colliers Internatinal, propped up by firm demand in the sales market, the average capital value of Premium and Grade A office space in the Raffles Place/New Downtown micro-market continued to hold firm at $2,640 and $2,390 per sq ft, respectively, in 1Q 2013. 

Meanwhile, the office sales market started the year on a positive note, supported by the continued low interest rate environment and investors’ search for alternative investment options after property cooling measures were implemented in the residential and industrial sectors. 

Besides investors, end-users are also buying for owner occupation.

Here's more from Colliers:

According to the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Real Estate Information System (REALIS), about 138 caveats were lodged for strata-titled office units in the first ten weeks of 2013.

This excludes caveats from SBF Centre, which have not been lodged.

SBF Centre, a new 99-year leasehold mixed-used commercial development along Robinson Road offers for sale 196 office units with sizes ranging from 592 sq ft to 1,475 sq ft, three full-floor offices of 10,850 sq ft each and 48 medical suites ranging from 678 sq ft to 1,302 sq ft.

It was reported that an impressive 113 (or about 82%) of the 138 office units launched for sale at SBF Centre were sold during its soft launch in February 2013 at prices starting from $3,200 per sq ft.

According to its developer, Far East Organization, about 65% of the buyers at SBF Center were companies in the trading, legal, consulting and secretarial services as well as financial advisory industries.

If the sale of units at SBF Centre, as well as other transactions in March 2013, were taken into account, the total number of strata-titled office caveats lodged for the entire 1Q 2013 could exceed the 206 transactions completed in 4Q 2012.