Chart of the Day: Prime office rents in Raffles Place/Marina Bay down 4.1% in Q2

This is due to landlords lowering their expectations to maintain occupancy.

This chart from Knight Frank showed that prime grade office rents in the Raffles Place/Marina Bay precinct, which holds the priciest office rents, dropped 4.1% QoQ to $10.61 per square foot per month (psf pm).

This is due to landlords lowering their expectations to maintain occupancy and try to secure new tenants amidst clouded economic prospects for the rest of the year. However, the report noted that occupancy rates remained relatively stable as it dipped 0.2% QoQ in the precinct due to ongoing lease commitments.

Given the correlation between office space demand and GDP growth in the previous recessions, Knight Frank is expecting prime office rents to fall by 10% to 15% for the whole of 2020.